User:Saddingt

Math on the XO

I think the XO is a brilliant piece of hardware. As pointed out in Wired Magazine March, 2009 ("Welcome to the Netbook Age"), the XO has prompted a flood of affordable, tiny laptops that are designed for utility, not bloatware.

But nobody seems to have any clue about teaching math with the XOs. I attended the International Congress of Math Education in July 2008, and the consensus of the math education with technology group was that XOs didn't do anything useful for math learning.

A piece on National Public Radio in the U.S. recently featured a school in Peru (?). Teachers were attempting to teach arithmetic in the word processing software, and it wasn't going well; it was difficult to line up the digits.

Having, for instance, a fractal generator might be inspirational or entertaining, but how will anyone understand fractals without basic arithmetic, geometry, and algebra? (not to mention calculus, dynamical systems, complex analysis, etc.)

Spreadsheets

Here's an idea that can be implemented immediately: use spreadsheets. I have tried the SocialCalc spreadsheet (which is buried somewhere in activities not ready for prime time) and it seems to work fine (though sluggishly.) Here's why we should push spreadsheets:

• Spreadsheets are a standardized tool for working with numbers. Any child who learns how to use a spreadsheet will have a valuable job skill.

• Spreadsheets are better than calculators because they tend to have most standard mathematical functions built in. Spreadsheets preserve a record of your work. The row and column structure also encourages organizing your work in a logical way.

• Spreadsheets can be leveraged to make the transition from arithmetic to algebra. It's a long story how this works. One part of the idea is that a column can be thought of as a variable. If column A is kg of rice, and a formula is used to compute the price of that weight of rice in column B, then you have B as a function of A. Any individual cell contains a number (blank cells are waiting for you to type in a number); the collection of all possible values in column A is the variable A.

• It's easy to construct self-checking drill worksheets in a spreadsheet. For example: two cells (A1 and A2) with numbers, and the third cell (A3) for the student to enter the sum of the numbers; another cell checks whether A3=A1+A2. People tend to want to write packages for arithmetic practice that have dancing frogs (elements that are for decoration, or that the writers think will motivate children to want to do arithmetic practice, but which have no mathematical or educational value.) This isn't necessary! Just use a spreadsheet!

My credentials

I'm Susan Addington, Professor of Mathematics at California State University, San Bernardino (USA.) I have a PhD in arithmetic algebraic geometry, but have been working in math education since 1989, mostly elementary teacher education. I have developed a course in technology for future secondary math teachers, which uses dynamic geometry (currently GeoGebra, written in Java, and which apparently won't run on the XOs), spreadsheets, and a Computer Algebra System. I am also writing a math textbook for future elementary teachers.