Re: Introduction to the Collaboration List

Gene Klotz (klotz@forum.swarthmore.edu)
Sat, 29 Mar 1997 16:32:56 -0500 

<fontfamily><param>Palatino</param><bigger>Introduction=20


The Math Forum is endeavoring to be a virtual center for math education
on the Internet. We are trying to provide a site which meets the needs
of school students, teachers at all levels (school, two- and four-year
college, university), those in math education, developers of curricula
and software, parents, and administrators. We're trying to form a
community in which all these groups have good opportunities to interact
both internally and across groups. We have interactive volunteer-driven
programs for students (Ask Dr. Math, Geometry Problem of the Week,
Elementary Problem of the Week) and work with teachers to build
resources they want (Web units for courses, search tools which bring in
commented lists of Web resources, information and discussion
possibilities for education reform and the Standards, intense workshops
which combine content and
pedagogy).</bigger></fontfamily><bigger><fontfamily><param>Times</param>


</fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Palatino</param>We've just finished our
first year proof-of-concept grant, but we've made some good strides as
we embark on a three-year funded project. Check us out:
<<http://forum.swarthmore.edu>.</fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Times</param>


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Collaboration experiences


It's obvious that we can't possibly do all of the above all by
ourselves and we rely heavily on collaborators, for example to provide
us with groups of Internet-ready teachers with whom to work. Two of our
best collaborations have been with the BBN NSN Testbed (Melanie Goldman
is on this list) and the Center for Children and Technology, working
with Union City (Margaret Honey is also a list member). We've also
worked with Jim Kaput's SimCalc project and have plans for further=20
interactions in the
future.</fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Times</param>


</fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Palatino</param>Another type of
collaboration which we cultivate is with other providers of Internet
math resources. For example, the NSF-funded Math Archives is seriously
involved in reviewing software, so we just link to their work and avoid
this activity ourselves. We also are close to the Eisenhower National
Clearinghouse, home of the NCTM Standards and lots of other useful
material. (Our searcher <<http://forum.swarthmore.edu/grepform.html>
has links to these Web pages.) We maintain ties with math
organizations, such as NCTM, MAA, and AMS, and can sometimes perform
functions for them that their own Web page organizations could not
undertake without weighty and lengthy committee discussion. For
example, NCTM has asked us to provide a resource which allows teachers
to post their Web pages and we've come up with an easy way for this to
be done
<<http://forum.swarthmore.edu/web.comments/web.comments.form.html>.
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Our most successful collaborations have been, in fact, with NIE
projects. Attempts to work with other groups have not always fared as
well, even when we've had funds to subcontract with the other groups.
It takes a fair amount of time to set up even a failed collaboration
and I'd like to know your thoughts as to what makes for a successful
collaboration and what keeps collaborations from working out.


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Collaboration problems and questions


We've had cases where our contacts in organizations shared some of our
vision about what the Internet could mean for continuing and building
on teacher communities formed in summer workshops, but for which the
machinery was not in places for them to contribute during the academic
year, or perhaps our vision was  not really shared by the actual
leadership of the organization, or perhaps they were simply poorly
organized.</fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Times</param>


</fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Palatino</param>It would appear that
sometimes organization leadership can actually change its spots. I've
been preaching (possibly part of the problem) to a number of the
NSF-sponsored curriculum development projects about how the Web could
help them with teacher professional development as the teachers
confront the sometimes radically new curricula. Some of these
curriculum development groups have a vision of technology which does
not extend beyond the TI-92, but some are beginning to catch on to the
potential value of the Internet after they sign up with publishers not
prepared to help with teacher education or even mailing out
software.</fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Times</param>


</fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Palatino</param>There are some groups
I've talked to who can only see that 30% of their teachers lack
Internet access, rather than grasping that 70% have it. Some don't
understand that there's a communications revolution out there and it's
growing exponentially. As an attempt to inform folks what's going on
I've penned a paper (ok, it's a hypertext document) "Mathematics and
the World Wide Web"
<<http://forum.swarthmore.edu/articles/epadel/index.html>. The
converted like it a lot. I'm waiting hopefully for a response "until I
went through your document I didn't understand what a powerful and
far-reaching revolution is taking
place".</fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Times</param>


</fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Palatino</param>It may be that at this
time  one should be content with Internet-ready collaborators and let
the revolution roll over and soften up the others a bit. I don't know
of techniques that light fires under all teachers, either. However, we
will attain the stage when all the ripe fruit are quickly plucked in
both cases and we need to share ideas about how to get through to
Internet-recalcitrant organizations and teachers. Tell me
how!</fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Times</param>


Gene Klotz


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Professor of Mathematics, Swarthmore College

Director, The Math Forum

http://forum.swarthmore.edu

klotz@forum.swarthmore.edu

=46ax: (610) 328 7824

(610) 328 8243