From: "A Watkins" Organization: University of Plymouth Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 11:14:03 GMT Subject: ICTCM-11, New Orleans, November 1998 A "CAME" LETTER Dear All, This year's ICTCM was held in New Orleans from Friday to Sunday, 20 to 22 November, with a Pre-Session Day on Thursday 19 November. Over 1200 delegates attended and there were some 218 presentations, 30 computer minicourses, 45 calculator workshops and 49 contributed papers. Herewith is a digest of the Conference. It is my personal view reflecting the sessions I attended. If anyone wants more detail please let me know and I will do my best to provide it. Alternatively you might like to browse the Web sites: http://hepg.awl.com/ictcm/ http://www.loyno.edu/~tlopez I found the Conference very stimulating and the host city of New Orleans totally captivating. The sub-title of the Conference, "People, Technology and all that Jazz" very aptly summed up the work and play aspects of these very exciting four days. Very many thanks to Tony Lopez and Maria Calzada who, with the Steering Committee, organised it all. Next November, ICTCM-12 will be in San Francisco. I hope to see as many of you there as possible. As Co-Chair of the International Speakers Committee you may expect to hear from me personally about giving a presentation. Anyone who already knows that they would like to contribute a paper for next year should contact me now. In the meantime, may I wish you all a Very Happy Christmas, Holiday Season and New Year. Tony Watkins %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% PRE-SESSION DAY This was dedicated to Web-based Pedagogical Methods in Mathematics. It was run by Robby Robson from Oregon State University, Susan Holmes from Stanford, Charlie Patton from Mathtech Services and Frank Wattenberg from Montata State University. There were three plenary sessions and three breakout sessions: Plenary 1: Overview of Web-based Pedagogy; Plenary 2: The Future of Web-based Pedagogy; Plenary 3: Questions and Answers. Breakout 1: Tools in Combination - an on-line tour of sites which use Java applets, Computer Algebra Systems, and CBL individually and in combination; Breakout 2: Instructional Management Systems and On-line Assessment - experience of taking a "containerzised" Web course, taking and authoring on-line quizzes, exploring general tools for teaching and assessing students' work on the Web; Breakout 3: A Web of Data - exploring how to find, select and use data from the wealth of information which is on the Web. Some notes: 1) Plato didn't trust writing because he thought it would damage memory and the oral tradition. Filipo di Strata didn't trust printing because he thought the skill of writing would be lost. The advent of Television drew critical comments like, "TV has raised writing to a new low". Electronic technology today attracts many criticisms about "diddling" with computers. 2) The Web began to impact on us about five years ago. There are now around 40 million users and the doubling time is approximately one year. 3) There is too much on the Web for regular browsing. As educators we need to have an "intra-internet" to help guide our students to specific sites which will be useful to them. 4) There is now a Mathematics Mark-up Language, MathML, which writes mathematics to the Web. 5) Where are the electronic publishers? How will they make money?! How do we establish the "electronic book" as a recognised "token of exchange"? The question of intellectual property - can academic knowledge be "owned"? Some Web sites to browse: http://transend.cs.berkley.edu http://www.eb.com http://www.netschools.com/ http://www.lightspan.com/ http://www-stat.stanford.edu/~susan/surprise/ http://www-stat.stanford.edu/~susan/web/data/refs/ http://umastr1.math.umass.edu/~frankw/ccp/home.htm http://math-classes.orst.edu/ictcm98 SOME SESSIONS "Linking Calculators to the Internet: a Vision of the Future" Bert Waites, Ohio State University. The distinction between a calculator and a computer is fast becoming moot. The implications of this fact were discussed from a future-view perspective. Today's TI-89 has the same processor as the first Mac, has more memory and is faster! "Flash Technology" enables your calculator to behave like the hard disc on your computer. Applications can be downloaded from the Web and stored on your calculator. In this way your calculator becomes a box that can be upgraded. No longer need calculator hardware become obsolete. "The Technology Private Tutor" Keith Devlin, Saint Mary's College. Despite gremlins in the technology available in the room (!), this talk discussed the benefits and the drawbacks of interactive software designed to provide students with a home tutor service to support a standard course. It was illustrated using "The Electronic Companion to Calculus", a home tutor for college calculus. Such packages are not designed to teach, they are cheap (approx USD30), they are not systems for doing mathematics on a computer, they are not systems for exploratory learning. They are utilities for use by students on their own to aid symbolic conceptual understanding and reinforce learning. They are compatible with any textbook, CAS and calculator. For more information browse the Web site http://www.cogitomedia.com "Teaching Mathematics Teachers about Technology" (a Panel Discussion) John Harvey, University of Wisconsin-Madison. John Kenelly, Clemson University. Frank Demana, Ohio State University. M Kathleen Heid, Pennsylvania State University. The panel presented models for pre-service and in-service professional development of teachers of middle and high school mathematics in the USA. Each member of the panel had also used the models to help university faculty adapt to using technology effectively for teaching. Some notes: 1) Staff development is vital, especially establishing teaching partners who work together. 2) With remedial students, forget about only teaching them arithmetic, "let's go on". 3) Provide a Computer Intensive Mathematical Environment (CIME). 3) Do algebra with paper and pencil, support it with technology. 4) Do graphing with paper and pencil, confirm hypotheses with technology. 5) There are moves towards justification and proof in a CIME. 6) Mathematics was: guessing before Euclid, arithmetic and equations until Newton, algebra for calculus until computers. Now it is design and application. 7) When machines do mathematics, what will mathematicians do? They will do things which significantly influence peoples lives by applying their mathematics. Some Web sites: http://math.ohio-state.edu/shortcourse http;//ti.com/t3 "Video Conferencing in Mathematics Teaching" Neil Pitcher, University of Paisley, Glasgow, Scotland. A keynote lecture was delivered to two sites demonstrating the Mathwise computer based learning system and then student feedback was obtained by questionnaire and discussion. Details about Mathwise may be found at the Web site: http://bham.ac.uk/mathwise/ The Scottish project of which this presentation forms a part is SUMSMAN and may be found at: http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~ama/umi Neil's email is pitc-ms0@paisley.ac.uk "Research on Mathematics Learning in CAS Environments" M Kathleen Heid, Glen Blume, Walter Deckert, Karen Flanagan, Linda Iseri and Cynthia Piez, Pennsylvania State University. Computer Algebra Systems and Symbolic Manipulation Programs have been conveniently available for mathematics instruction in schools and universities for more than 15 years. This presentation was a survey of the mathematics education research literature on CAS-based curricula in the USA. Some notes: 1) CAS students are able to move more easily between representations of a problem and make connections between representations than non-CAS students. 2) Data was presented which compared the performance of students in testing situations which allowed CAS, did not allow CAS, and in which the situation was not clear. CAS students either out-performed non-CAS students or there was no significant difference even in tests for which CAS was not allowed. 3) Where a CAS was integral to the curriculum, the conceptual understanding of CAS students was greater than that of non-CAS students. 4) The research tended to suggest that we are now ready to move beyond the initial studies which aimed to show that there was "no harm done" to students if they used a CAS. The claim that "a CAS will harm the kids" seems not to be true. "Technology in Engineering Mathematics - a Balkan Experience" Elena Varbanova and Ivan Pankov, Technical University of Sofia (Bulgaria) and Anthony Watkins, University of Plymouth (United Kingdom). This was the presentation I gave on behalf of Elena and Ivan who were unable to be with us. I described how TU Sofia became involved with a European Tempus project which led to them cautiously experimenting with Derive for two semesters in the teaching of mathematics to mechanical engineers. The experiment was extremely successful, the first of its kind on the Balkan Peninsula as far as we can tell. The high reputation of traditional Bulgarian mathematics was maintained and the "Innovators congratulate Tradition". Work continues and will spread to other Technical Universities in Bulgaria. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Anthony J P Watkins School of Mathematics and Statistics University of Plymouth Plymouth PL4 8AA United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1752 232731 Fax: +44 (0)1752 232780 personal home page: http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/maths/CTMHOME/people.html#tw Chair of International Council for Computer Algebra in Mathematics Education (IC-CAME) CAME home page: http://metric.ma.ic.ac.uk/came/