At MathFest 2013 in Hartford, I got to participate in the Project NExT activities as a presenter and facilitator. This is a professional development program for new faculty in mathematics run through the Mathematical Association of America. I was a Project NExT fellow way back in 2007. That makes me a “Sun Dot,” because fellows all wear an extra colored dot on their badges at the annual meetings. It was fun to meet so many of the “brown 13 dots.”
My first responsibility was to run a quick discussion on using technology in college mathematics courses for a small group of fellows. This is something I have actually been thinking about a little bit lately! Regular readers (Hi, Mom!) know that I have participated in a project called UTMOST, and through that I have tried to incorporate Sage into my linear algebra course.
The first step in our conversation was to take a few minutes to write down some questions about teaching with technology to share with the group. I didn’t get the chance to share mine, but I was proud of them. I just found the note card I wrote them on, and I really should recycle it. Fortunately, I have a blog! Regular readers (Hi, Bret!) know that I just write whatever I damn well choose and I don’t care if they read it or not. (Please, keep reading.) So, here is my chance to shout into the aether and be proud of myself.
- How do we use technology to liberate class time for “meaningful work” with depth?
- How does technology enable or require new questions and activities?
I think it is important to teach the use of computing technology in a discipline-appropriate way. Otherwise, we are presenting a limited view of mathematical work to our students. But introducing the computer (whatever shape it takes) into a classroom has implications for the kind of work we ask our students to do. What are those implications?
Circles and Tangents 