The Math Forum
15 August 1996
Grant Proposal
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IV. What is Needed
Expanding and Disseminating Interactive Projects. Ask Dr. Math, MathMagic, and the various POWs all involve students in some form of mentoring or interaction with others. This activity is labor-intensive, and scaling up and expanding the range of the Forum's successful interactive projects will be a major challenge over the next several years.
Enhancing the Forum's Resource Collection. So many resources are available that although the Forum carefully selects those it chooses to include, identifying resources that can meet specific needs is a far from trivial task. There are few if any coherent paths through Internet materials, and it is not sufficiently easy to distinguish the better materials and projects and determine their purpose. Users ask for connections to existing courses and curricula. We wish to make it possible for busy students and professionals to tell us about their interests, in order to create for them an active environment that can organize and notify them about Internet items that match their needs.
Providing Effective Public Forums. Public discussions are still a relatively undeveloped Internet resource, although there is a rapidly rising demand for the quick creation of new forums that can support specific events, local projects, and the development of new materials. There is still much to be learned about how to cultivate the critical mass needed for a viable forum while maintaining a focused and productive conversation. Some groups (e.g. researchers in mathematics and math education) are not easy to entice into discussions, and although we have a few world-class participants, we have yet to incorporate a broad base of research mathematicians. Additionally, even with the advent of the Web, public forums generally remain limited to text-based exchanges.(10)
Online Professional Development. One of the greatest potential benefits of the Internet may be its role as an alternate vehicle for professional development, one that will avoid some of the limitations of currently underfunded, generic, and poorly conceived inservice and conference programs. It is, however, a major challenge to try to educate a large pool of Forum users to use the technologies of the Internet and to take advantage of its potential for mathematics education. The Internet is well-suited to provide a scalable source of ongoing education, but structures for this are not yet in place. Online mentoring, distance education courses, and other facilitated learning environments need to be explored and integrated into such existing efforts as the Forum's online workshop program.
Bridging isolated communities. Development of curricula and discussions of reform efforts currently take place in relatively isolated communities where mathematicians, teachers, education researchers, parents, and students share many concerns but do not often work effectively together. On the other hand, there are times when the Internet math community can be very powerful. As part of her work as a Forum Teacher Associate, Suzanne Alejandre of Frisbie Middle School in Rialto, California, constructed a Web unit on Magic Squares.(11) A mathematician who is an expert in the subject saw the announcement on a newsgroup and asked whether contributions would be welcome. His inquiry resulted in a collaboration that has produced new Web pages and deepened the mathematics of the unit.
Supporting teacher generation of materials. People want interesting activities and projects, but at the present time there are not enough of them. Much good material is in the hands of teachers and students, but little of it is on the Web. Our best successes so far have come from participants in our summer workshops. Although good examples of Web pages that take full advantage of the capabilities of the Web are rare, a few teachers have been eager to author Web page lessons and projects. We currently host examples of very creative work,(12) but it has so far been difficult to get large numbers of teachers involved in this effort, even if all that is required is a simple transfer of existing material to Web pages. The primary obstacle, of course, still remains getting teachers connected to the Internet, and we find that a home connection is critical; nonetheless, we are beginning to receive requests from increasing numbers of teachers who have found us on the Web and want to produce resources. We need to construct mechanisms to cultivate and sustain their involvement, as well as better technologies to facilitate their contributions.
Deepening the involvement of organizations and publishers. Professional Organizations, publishers, education consultants, regional programs and reform efforts, and curriculum development projects are also potential sources of valuable Internet resources, but their Web presence is often undeveloped or nonexistent. The Forum faces the dual challenge of encouraging and supporting their entry into the field while coordinating the resulting efforts with those of other Internet providers so that unnecessary duplication will be avoided, and users will have easy access to all available resources. Private discussions with several NSF curriculum development projects indicate that some recognize the need to exploit Internet communications to follow up on workshops, and to deliver revisions and software. Some developers of software and other materials have expressed a desire to use the Internet to deliver revisions, receive feedback, and give help and advice.
Engaging students as Web developers. Some students take naturally to Web page construction and Internet activity, frequently outstripping their elders, and the Forum has benefited greatly from the work of students at all levels. In an age when educational reform is emphasizing 'constructivist' approaches, the Internet presents rich opportunities for learning by doing, thereby serving both instructional purposes and the need for help in the production of resources.
Sustainability. As the Forum grows, a clear need to find ways to sustain its growth beyond foundation support is emerging. The Forum has begun to receive requests to offer services for hire in developing Web resources for publishers and others. The federal government and commercial organizations such as Motorola have used Forum public discussion software. The Office of Science and Technology recently inquired about the possibility of using the systems involved in running Ask Dr. Math for its own Ask An Expert service. As the Forum works with increasing numbers of key players in the field of math education, the need for some sort of ongoing Internet research and development entity becomes visible. All such opportunities need to be investigated in a concerted manner, and where possible converted into income-generating relationships.(13)
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