Finding Unity in the Math Wars

I usually avoid current events, but recentskirmishesin the math world prompted me to chime in. To recap, there’ve been heated discussions about math education and the role of online resources like Khan Academy.

As fun as a good math showdown may appear, there’s a bigger threat: Apathy. And Justin Bieber.

Educators, online or not, don’t compete with each other. They struggle to be noticed in our math-phobic society, where we casuallywonder“Should algebra be taught at all?” not “Can algebra be taught better?”.

Entertainment is great; I love Starcraft. But it’s alarming when a prominent learning initiative gets less attention than a throwaway pop song (Super Bass: 268M views in a year; Khan Academy: 175M views in 5 years). Online learning is a rounding error next to Justin Bieber — “Baby” has 700M views alone.

What do we need? The Math Avengers. Different heroes, different tactics, and not without differences… but everyone fighting on the same side. Against Bieber.

I could be walking into a knife fight with an ice cream cone, but I’d like to approach each side with empathy and offer specific suggestions to bridge the gap.

The Big Misunderstanding

Superheroes need a misunderstanding before working together. It’s inevitable, and here’s ours (as a math relationship, of course):

Bad Teacher < Online Learning < Good teacher

The problem is in considering each part separately.

Is Khan Academy (free, friendly, always available) better than a mean, uninformed, or absent teacher? Yes!
有吸引力的人类体验比从电脑上学习更好吗?是的!

But, really, the ultimate solution is Online learning + Good Teachers.

Tactics differ, but we can agree on the mission: give students great online resources, and give teachers tools to augment their classroom.

我为什么在乎?

我爱学习。以下是我的简要背景，你可以找出我的偏见。

我是一个好学生。我在数学小组，哼唱着“生活是一个正弦波，我想整晚都把它推导出来……”我画了关于打击犯罪二人组sin和cos的漫画。你可以说我喜欢数学。

I entered college and was slapped in the face by my freshman year math class.

Professors at big universities must know everything, right? If I didn’t get a concept, something must be wrong with me, right?

我经历过二战时期，在课堂上只做了半张证明，老师总是爱发牢骚。我期中考试考砸了，很苦恼。我爱数学!我不介意物理或西班牙语上的困难。但是数学呢?我以前唱什么歌，画什么漫画?

决赛来了。在死记硬背的同时，我在网上找到了笔记，比我的书本和老师有用得多。我给全班同学发了一封电子邮件，欧几里得小心翼翼地建议你们需要阅读这些网站它们比教授讲得好多了。那天晚上，这些网站出现在计算机实验室的一张索引卡上。我们中有多少人在挣扎?

I was studying, staring at a blue book when an aha! moment struck. I could see the Matrix: equations were a description of twists, turns and rotations. Their meaning became “obvious” in the way a circle must be round. What else could it be?

我又兴奋又愤怒:“为什么他们第一次不这样解释?!”

Paranoid I’d forget, I put my notes online and they evolved into this site: insights thatactuallyworked for me. Articles one,imaginary numbers, andcalculusbecame popular — I think we all crave deep understanding. Bad teaching was a burst of gamma rays: I’m normally mild mannered, but enter Hulk Mode when recalling how my passion nearly died.

My core beliefs:

一次糟糕的经历可以毁掉多年的美好经历。学生需要资源来避开糟糕的教学。
Hard-won insights, sometimes found after years of teaching, need to be shared
Learning “success” means having basic skills and the passion to learn more. A year, 5 years from now, do people seek out math? Or at least not hate it? (Compare #ihatemath to #ihategeography)

(Oh, I had great teachers too, likeProf. Kulkarni. The bad one just unlocked the Hulk.)

An Open letter to Khan Academy and Teachers

I recently heard a quote about constructive dialog: “Don’t argue the exact point a person made. Consider their position and respond to the best point theycouldhave made.”

Here’s the concerns I see:

Packaging and presentation matters

Yes, other resources and tutorials exist, but there’s power in a giant, organized collection. We visit Wikipedia because we know what to expect, and it’s consistent.

可汗学院提供一致的、非评判性的教程。每个主题都有练习和讨论。你不需要浏览YouTube，消化长达数小时的微积分讲座，或者打开PDF格式的工作表来练习。

So, let’s use the magic of friendly, exploratory, bite-sized learning of topics.

Community matters

Teachers and online tools don’t “compete” any more than Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street did. They’re both ways to help.

我认为“可汗学院”这个名字是对社区建设的一个挑战。你是愿意为维基百科写作还是为吉米·威尔士百科全书写作?

维基百科真的感觉像是一个社区的努力，虽然有其他选择，但总的来说它是一个受欢迎的资源。

我认为老师们在使用可汗学院时可能会犹豫，不是出于嫉妒，而是担心单一的教学方法可能压倒其他所有方法。让我们建立一个在线资源，从数学社区获取信息。

Human interaction matters

我们很容易误解可汗学院的目标。I’ve seen many of their blog posts and videos, and believe Khan Academy wants to workwith促进教师深入理解。

But, some news coverage shows students working silently in front of computersin class, not watching at home to free up class time for personal discussions.

老师似乎没有参与或互动，滥用学习工具是一个噩梦的老师谁想要一个个人联系。让我们有一个在线资源，直接有助于线下互动。

Experience matters

我看到过在学习一门学科数小时(或数年)后，洞察力就会出现。例如，我们从四年级开始就“知道”一百万和十亿是什么:1,000,000和1,000,000,000。

But do we feel it? How long is a million seconds, roughly? C’mon, guess. Ready? It’s 12 days.

Ok, now how long is a billion seconds? It’s… wait for it… 31 years. 31 years!

这就是知道和感受一个想法之间的区别。激情来自感觉。

Teachers draw on years of experience to get ideas to click — let’s feed this back into the online lessons.

Students matter

We teach for the same reason: to help students. Here’s a few specific situations to consider.

Finding Unity in the Math Wars

For many, Khan Academy is their only positive math experience: not teachers, or peers, or parents, but a video. Sure, it’s not the same as an in-person teacher, but it’s miles beyond an absent or hostile one. If an education experience gets someone excited to learn, and coming back to math, we should celebrate.

Remember, despite years of positive experiences and acing tests, a sufficiently bad class nearly drove me away from math. Resources like Khan Academy offer a lifeline: “Even with a bad teacher, I can still learn”.

Finding Unity in the Math Wars

当有人感兴趣时，我们需要满足他们的好奇心。我从可汗学院的评论中获得了很多流量——我们怎样才能帮助学生们深入学习，而不让他们在互联网上随意地跋涉呢?

Lastly, we all learn differently. I generally prefer text to videos (faster to read, and I can “pause” with my eyes and think). Some like the homemade feel of Khan’s videos. Others might like the polished overviews inMinutePhysics. You might prefer3-act math storiesormodeling instruction.

Let’s offer several types of resources for students to enjoy.

Calling the Math Avengers

Still here? Fantastic. To all teachers, online and non:

我们可以采取哪些具体步骤来协调我们的努力?

一个想法:制作一个策划的、协作的、易于探索的教学资源。

Khan Academy is well-organized: each topic has a video and sample problems. How about sections for complementary teaching styles, projects, and misconceptions?

Imagine a student could select their “Math hero” as Khan Academy or PatrickJMT or James Tanton and see lessons in the style they prefer (like Wikipedia, curate the list to “notable” resources).

想象一下，教师可以探索最好的课堂活动(“什么项目适合负数?”)。

Whatever the style, make it easy for other educators to contribute. Want project-based videos? Sure. Need step-by-step tutorials? Great. Prefer a conceptual overview? No problem.

每个老师都保持自己的家庭风格。让浩克来打，让美国队长来处理人质谈判。用适合你的英雄。

$Finding Unity in the Math Wars$

(It’s apublic google docyou can copy and edit)

Perfect? Nope. But it’s a starting point to think about how we can work together.

Let’s focus on the overlap and align our efforts: different heroes, different tactics, and on the same side.

The Big Misunderstanding

我为什么在乎?

An Open letter to Khan Academy and Teachers

Calling the Math Avengers

Other Posts In This Series

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