News June 2001

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Revised 6.26.01

Revised 6.26.01 - Work in Progress
The Council For Technology In Mathematics Education
presents

Volume 10 Issue 1 June, 2001

Welcome to the first issue of the 2001-2002 edition of CLIME Connections Newsletter.
----------------------
Contents below:
Who is CLIME (and why isn't it CTIME)?
A tale of two websites
What's up CLIMEwise at the NCTM meeting in Las Vegas next year?

Who is CLIME (& why isn't it CTIME)?
CLIME is an affiliate group of NCTM and has been since 1988. It's mission is to support the effective use of technology in the teaching of mathematics. CLIME:

encourages and lobbies NCTM to keep technology on their "front burner" in mathematics education.
holds special event sessions and makes presentations at NCTM's annual meetings on technology & math related themes.
creates a technology-focus website for the sessions at annual NCTM meetings.
is not CTIME because we started out in 1987 as the Council for LOGO in Mathematics Education and our founding and affiliation with NCTM (in 1988) was inspired by the work of Seymour Papert whose ideas continue to resonate for so many of us. As a result, we keep the original acronym as an acknowledgement of his guiding spirit. (For more on Papert see Gary Stager's webpage: http://www.stager.org/articles/LXeditorials/perspectivesonpapert.html)

A Tale of Two Websites
A few years ago when CLIME was looking for a place on the web, the folks at the Math Forum were kind enough to let us use a piece of their virtual real estate to set up our tent at http://clime.org. As we looked out over the Math Forum landscape we noticed that there were several subsites that had a technology theme. It seemed to us that it might be a good idea to help Math Forum visitors who had a particular interest in teaching locate technology-related resources that were of interest to them. Gene Klotz (founder and senior advisor of the Forum) thought it was a good idea too and encouraged CLIME to see if they would be willing to take on this challenge. So I grabbed the baton from Gene and have been running (and stumbling) with it since. The project is in its beginning stages and will hopefully be a useful gateway to the technology in mathematics education resources which reside on the Math Forum and elsewhere. The site is affectionately called "CLIME @ the Math Forum" and is at http://mathforum.com/tech_portal.html. CLIME will have official opening ceremonies in September. But you can visit now to see what we have so far. Hopefully you and other friends of CLIME will be nice enough to provide us with feedback as we go along. Who knows, you may want to grab the baton for a while yourself and take us into new and interesting areas of discussion and learning.

In my work with teachers and technology (and in an article I wrote for School Science and Mathematics - http://clime.org/ssm.html), I reflect on six attributes (or knowledge domains) of teachers that are a kind of barometer for me in evaluating how effectively they are teaching. These domains are:

1. Knowing and using technological resources
2. Creating technology-oriented learning environments
3. Mathematical background and attitude toward learning mathematics
4. Ability to integrate technology into the curriculum
5. Using effective teaching strategies
6. Using effective assessment strategies

The more of these domains the teacher can employ in their teaching, the more effective the experience appears to be. This requires careful planning and practice which is not easy to do. For example, a teacher may have prepared a good activity for integrating technology into the curriculum, but the lesson fails because the teaching strategy wasn't very effective. Or a techno-savvy teacher tries to do an activity in a lab setting that would have worked much better in a one computer station classroom. Building on their skills and learning from mistakes requires reflection. Within this context we will look at scenes from classrooms and reflect on how the dynamics of each of the six areas can work together to create what I call a Dynamic Classroom.

Our first example of the spirit of the dynamic classroom is "Traffic Jam" taught by Suzanne Alejandre which you can read at the CLIME's math portal. I invite you to comment on the lesson and anything else that might come to mind at the Discussion forum. See my post at http://mathforum.com/epigone/math.teaching.technology In September we will be looking at Decisions at the Ptomaine Fish Co. by Robert Berkman. (More on that in the next newsletter.)

CLIME in Las Vegas, April 2002
Carol Edwards and the program committee have invited CLIME to arrange a session at the NCTM annual meeting in Las Vegas next April. I thought that a good topic for our session would be to look at how hand-helds, networks and the Internet are offering more variety and access for teachers and students in the classroom. For example, software programs are now available on hand-helds and will be soon available on networked TI-83s (TI navigator).

The description I submitted for the session is:

Title: Web Portals, Microworlds, and Hand-helds: A look at effective ways of using technology
Description: The Internet is changing the landscape of teaching and learning in math classrooms. Members of the CLIME community (clime.org) will share examples (live and on-line) of how this revolution is enhancing math learning in classrooms.

I think it's general enough so we can worry about the specifics as we get closer to the meeting. As is customary with CLIME sessions we look to you the friends of CLIME to help us make the session special. If you have an idea for something you would like to share at the session, please let me know.

How to continue to get this email newsletter?
Don't do anything! If I don't hear from you, I'll assume you want to stay on our mailing list and be a friend of CLIME. If you do not wish to continue receiving this newsletter please let me know at (ihor@clime.org)

Our next newsletter will be out in early September.
Have a good summer!

Regards - Ihor

If you do not wish to get further CLIME Connections, please let me know. If you wish to be a member of CLIME (membership is free, but requires your active participation. Well, OK, at least your active lurking.) Please let me know a little about yourself and your interests. Members names and email addresses be will be posted on the Friends of CLIME page.

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