Project Number 10 – 1993

[Mathematics Learning Forums Project]

Project Number 10 – 1993

Abstract

The Mathematics Learning Forums Project, funded by the Annenberg/CPB Math and Science Project, is a collaborative partnership between the Center for Children and Technology, Bank Street College’s Mathematics Leadership Program, and PBS LEARNING LINK. Employing a combination of computer-based communication, print, and video tape, the Bank Street’s graduate school will offer 24 different on-line seminars. Elementary and middle school math teachers around the country can take these forums for graduate credit, inservice credit, or personal enrichment. Each forum will last six to eight weeks.

In these on-line conversations, faculty will guide their teacher- students as they try new activities and techniques in their classes and help one another reflect on the meaning of those experiences. Teachers will also be provided with print materials and an extensive on-line database of relevant video, print and software. The database will also contain reflective papers by teachers who have taken forums. As the years go by, each forum will become a repository of information about the experiences and thoughts of teachers.

Each forum begins with the introduction of new ideas, described and illustrated with print and video, and then plunges quickly into activities that the teachers try in their own classes. These experiences in turn spark discussion and reflective writing. Each forum will have its own set of text materials: original sources, references, students assignments, and, after the forum has been run once, a growing store of student essays on their experiences trying out and adapting basic forum ideas and materials to their own classes.

In addition, each forum will be anchored with a video tape. The tape will include one or more clips from existing video materials. Among the sources that are committed to providing no-cost use of their video: Marilyn Burns (innovative approaches to teaching mathematics); Bob Davis and Carolyn Maher (tapes shot in classrooms that illustrate long term development of math abilities in selected children); Herbert Ginsburg (clinical interviews demonstrating development of children’s math ability); Constance Kamii (tapes illustrating effective teaching strategies, children’s thought processes, and the importance of social interaction); Kathy Richardson (assessment techniques and other topics); and Square One Television video. In addition to material chosen specifically for each forum, each tape will include a segment orienting students to the forum’s style of study and to the use of Learning Link. The service will grow from 16 forums serving up to 256 teachers in year 2, its first full year of operation, to 24 forums serving up to 768 teachers per year in year 5. After year 3, the final year of funding, the service is planned to be self-sustaining.

The first nationwide implementation of the Learning Forums will begin in September, 1994.

Audio-visual requirements

VCR, MacIntosh (LC II or better) modem (9600)