[math4] FourthGradeMath Digest, Vol 2, Issue 19

[Greg Dekoenigsberg]

On Mon, 16 Mar 2009, Caroline Meeks wrote:

> Hi Greg,
> 
> Love this idea. What do we have right now? 20 developers and 1 teacher?

More than that, probably.  :)

> One suggestion based on the group work I've been doing and studying this 
> semester and my experience is that groups of 6 might work better on 
> average then groups of 2.
> 
> Maybe 4 developers and 2 teachers working on 4 activities. 

Sure.  These numbers are flexible.  The problem is clear, though: we need 
more teachers of 4th grade math, and we need them badly -- and it's not 
going to be the geeks who recruit them.  :)

> And although the activities should not be perfect, they should be very 
> thoughtful. That is full of thought about why what you are trying might 
> work for learning.  Team members should be thinking together about 
> learning and it would be great if we could transfer some of those 
> thoughts to the next person who picks up the activity and improves it.  
> Maybe the next person will also improve or have a different view of the 
> pedagy of the activity too.

This is all true, of course.

> I'm not frustrated. I'm excited!!!  I just know from research how many 
> learning technologies are totally ineffective and sometimes even reduce 
> learning.  So I want to encourage thinking about pedagogy and learning 
> during the design stage.

The brilliant thing about open source is that "failures" always contain in 
them the seeds of future success.  So while I agree that we don't want to 
be precipitous, I also think that open source is most effective when 
there's a bias towards action.

> I also want to encourage reflective practice in general.

I want to encourage rapid failure in general.  Very yin and yang between 
us.  :)

> I do this for two reasons. First, I think it will make your work better 
> and second, its the change we need to accomplish in the schools and with 
> the students, it just makes sense for us to try to practice it 
> ourselves.
> 
> I'm excited because having kids using instructional materials that 
> really promote thinking and result in learning is the whole point.  What 
> you are starting is important.  Thinking about it is important too.

My learning style is a rapid loop of doing and thinking.  Reflection and 
action together.  A structure that allows exploration and celebrates 
failure.

Of course, until we find a whole bunch of teachers to set us right, we're 
just talking to ourselves.  :)  How can we recruit teachers to our cause?

--g

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