On 7/7/07, Ivan Krstić <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ... > Bottom line: terminology matters. I think it's impossible to teach CS > to kids who are afraid of math. Teaching *programming* is something > else entirely. I'd submit that what Andy can expect from his students > depends largely on which of the two he's trying to teach. > > Cheers, > > -- > Ivan Krstić <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | GPG: 0x147C722D
You're correct that math has a terrible reputation in many corners. As mathematician Keith Devlin puts it, math is about making the invisible visible -- a meme he invented to try countering the negative perceptions people have about math. http://www.maa.org/features/invisible.html On the other hand, if you're sitting in front of a computer, connected to the Internet especially, there's a sense of possibility, as well as of community. Technology has "sex appeal" including the allure of a more positive future (a meaning captured by the South African word 'kusasa'). Bridging the digital divide is another way of saying we're working to spread analytical skills to those who could use them. So a question confronting a lot of us is how to "rescue" mathematics by means of technology, which in part means restoring a sense of fun (Papert: "hard fun") and play. In the 1980s, it seemed K-12 math curricula were on the verge of incorporating more technology in the form of BASIC and Logo, but here we are in 2007 and most high school math classes are stuck in the calculator era. What happened? I think what a lot of kids find accessible and meaningful is a "how things work" approach (which connects to Keith Devlin's meme). We want to explain real stuff in the real world, and that takes mathematical concepts, analytical thinking and the like. Little things like indexing, data structures like trees (document object model, xml) make a huge difference. Databases are behind the scenes in so many walks of life. In the traditional curriculum, that means branching off from Venn Diagrams, plus talking about data in tabular formats. When we talk about Venn Diagrams would be a good place to put some intro to SQL. A problem in the mathematics culture is there's a lot of pride at having made it through certain "filters" and a wish to impose those filters on newcomers, to see who "makes it" through these difficult obstacle courses. Whereas I recognize every profession has standards, and not everyone is cut out to be just anything, I think math's poor reputation is in many ways a result of too much pride among the math savvy. There's a lot of protectionism, not to mention overspecialization that goes on. I see the infusion of computer savvy as helping to break up some of the old patterns of specialization. Restoring the reputation of mathematics does not have to mean returning to some past status quo. Kirby _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
