I am interested in math curriculum for the XO. I asked a year or so
ago, and got no response, but it seems that things are picking up.
I'm writing a textbook for elementary _teachers_ (hoping to publish
this commercially). Along the way, I learned a lot about cognition and
curriculum for children.
So far the math tools and lessons for the XO seem to be some isolated
cool activities. I'm not entirely surprised that education ministers
in the targeted countries were hesitant to join the project---there is
no curriculum that can be handed to teachers and students. I learned
from my experience writing isolated fun lessons in the 1990s that most
teachers need training and structure to learn something as new as
teaching with technology.
Someone asked about MATLAB for the XO. This seems to be way too
advanced. The XO needs a better calculator, a spreadsheet program
(apparently one is in the works), maybe a baby computer algebra system
with a very friendly front end. There is some older, but very well
thought-out, software called Function Probe designed by the math
education researcher in the 1990s. It does algebra, tables, and graphs
in a unified way. She told me that she was going to put it out free,
in java. Maybe someone could do an XO version.
Please feel free to contact me publicly or privately if you're
interested in developing some math curriculum.
Susan Addington
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Math Department, California State University, San Bernardino
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