[IAEP] Join online tonight at 9:30 ET! Making mathematics real: A TED-ED series proposal

[Maria Droujkova]

 Join David Wees and Maria Droujkova for brainstorming a mathematics
education video series for TED-ED new archive <http://education.ted.com/>.

*How to join*

   - Follow this link at the time of the event: *
   http://tinyurl.com/math20event<https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.FCAF787B38E30D58F943EB7232EE27>
   *
   - Thursday, May 12th 2011 we will meet in the LearnCentral online room at
   6:30pm Pacific, 9:30pm Eastern time. WorldClock for your time
zone.<http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=5&day=12&year=2011&hour=21&min=30&sec=0&p1=207>
   - Click "OK" and "Accept" several times as your browser installs the
   software. When you see Elluminate Session Log-In, enter your name and click
   the "Login" button
   - If this is your first time, come a few minutes earlier to check out the
   technology. The room opens half an hour before the event.


All events in the Math 2.0 weekly series:
http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/events

About the proposal The TED-Ed Brain Trust is a private online forum created
to shape and accelerate TED's push into the realm of Education. It aims to
assemble a new archive of remarkable educational videos designed to catalyze
learning around the globe. TED is seeking the expertise of visionary
educators, organizations and creative professionals to help guide, galvanize
and ultimately lead this exciting new initiative.

[image: TED-EDbanner.jpg]

During the event, David Wees will introduce the idea of video series
centered on real mathematics. Here are quotes from the TED forum
discussion<http://education.ted.com/showthread.php?381-Mathematics-education>
.


*David Wees:* I'd like to see a video describing the need to move from a
computation based system, to one focused on mathematics for the real world
(for most people).

If you look at a typical cross-section of our society, I think you'd find
that most people lack functional numeracy. They find doing their taxes
difficult, they don't really understand either probability or statistics,
they are easily misled by data, and actually using mathematics to solve
problems in their lives is something they almost never do.

The reason I think this happens is because so little of the mathematics
curriculum which is taught is situated in a real world context. We focus on
how you solve computations, rather than how do you use computations. We
should shift the focus from curriculum maps based on the notation that the
pinnacle of mathematical achievement is the ability to do calculus, to an
over-riding principle that virtually all of the mathematics we do should be
implemented based on its relevance to the real world of ordinary people.

It takes a single year to learn most of the computational mathematics you
need to know to do well at Calculus, and those people who choose to go down
that path should also be supported, but our mathematics curriculum has
totally the wrong focus. To borrow an analogy from the English class, our
mathematics curriculum is constructed so that we only teach the grammar and
spelling, and never do any actual writing.

I'd like to see a move away from how can we match real life stuff to the
curriculum already taught at each grade to what are some real problems kids
want to be able to solve, or need to be able to solve when they are no
longer kids, and THEN what mathematics is useful to solve these problems.

**
*Maria Droujkova:* I propose the following twist: include not only problems,
but reviews of communities where these problems arise, or are relevant, or
can be celebrated. I think in terms of communities because of the Math
Future project. The goal is for people to have immediate, and explicit,
invitation to join groups and communities who use mathematics in these
particular ways. TED videos can include bridges - ways people can join
communities. This relates to the point Dave Meslin made in his recent TED
video <http://www.ted.com/talks/dave_meslin_the_antidote_to_apathy.html>,
about the need to explicitly and clearly tell people where and how to
participate. Gamer communities have problems that have to do with
statistics, reverse-engineering, and optimization (World of Warcraft
example<http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t101212-wotlk_4_0_cats/p12/#post1767952>).
Game developer communities do a lot of 3d modeling and vectors. Maker
communities (Wired, Maker Faire) have a lot of applied math and topics such
as logic circuits. Artists work with perspective, projections, and
increasingly modeling for computer art (so, triangulation for example).
Ratio and proportion are obvious topics. There are several active health
tracking communities, who use a lot of interesting mathematics, for example,
The Quantified Self <http://quantifiedself.com/>.
**
Event Hosts [image: DavidWees.jpeg]
*David Wees* writes: My life since I graduated from teacher training in 2002
has been an never ending adventure. I have lived in 4 different countries
since then and have met the love of my life and we started our family. I
wouldn't trade a moment of it, despite some of the difficulties I have
faced. At my website <http://davidwees.com/>, I showcase projects I have
been involved in. I also write articles about incorporating technology into
teaching which is a major passion of mine.
[image: MariaD2_2009-100by100.jpg]
*Maria Droujkova* is the founder and director of Natural
Math<http://www.naturalmath.com/>,
and the founder of Math Future <http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/> network.
Her research interests include Early Algebra, Multiplicative Reasoning, and
social media. Maria organizes Math Clubs and other local math groups and
events, and online communities and events.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/attachments/20110512/fc8117d4/attachment.html>