Old Newsletter Archive

THE MATHWRIGHT LIBRARY NEWSLETTER, Feb 2000, VOL 2, #2

A publication of Bluejay Lispware
James E. White, Editor
The monthly publication of the Mathwright Library: http://www.mathwright.com

IN THIS ISSUE:
1] Teaching Solutions Online: Our new Online Bookstore
2] Who's reading what?

1] Teaching Solutions Online: Our new Online Bookstore

The first is simple and straightforward.

    In spite of the desperate efforts of the publishers to spread the new technology on the Procrustean bed of their tired paradigms, interactive Mathematics books have a dynamic dimension that simply eludes the printed page.  In the hands of experienced teachers, WorkBooks like those at the Library are living, growing things.  The interactions in these books can be re-purposed and re-focused by teachers to the needs and the abilities of their students.  It is not only a matter of editing text, but of varying the range and nature of questions that students may ask in order to accommodate their levels of understanding.  At Teaching Solutions Online we provide the tools for that.

    It may not be generally known that the Library was initially designed for private use by students on their personal computers.  This is the reason for the complex protocol that Webapp uses to install each WorkBook on the hard drive and to place an icon for it on the Start Menu.  In this way, students may open and read the WorkBooks at their leisure.  Webapp does all the work.

    However, with the increased interest in making the Library available to students in laboratory classrooms and over campus intranets, it has become clear that we need a more flexible installation protocol.  Our solution is a new CD called Mathwright: My Way.  This CD is a kit that installs the Library Player on any appropriate network drive (not only the c: drive) and places all 150 Library WorkBooks in expanded form on that drive, so that there is no need for Webapp or Internet intervention.

    Further, these WorkBooks (in their expanded form) are what we call "Clipmath".  The Library WorkBooks are built in an object-oriented way, and so they may be used as the basis for new WorkBooks.  A teacher may choose whole pages, screen objects, programs that solve differential equations, scripts for sprite animations, and so on, and place them in her own book.  These scripts, being modular Logo-like programs, are generally fairly simple.  And teachers may easily modify or extend them as needs be.  So the Mathwright: My Way CD provides the tool that teachers may use to modify or extend Library WorkBooks for their own campus Intranet.  This is the Mathwright Author 2000 program that comes with a 415-page printable manual on CD, full online Help, and an extensive 175-page tutorial that steps you through the construction of seven WorkBooks.

    In the spirit of the dynamic quality of interactive WorkBooks developed with the new technology,  all of the WorkBooks submitted to the Library are freely modifiable.   Of course, courtesy dictates that authors credit their sources.

    The second answer to the question: "Why a Bookstore at a free Library?" is that we want to keep the Library free, and we want it to grow.   Sales at the bookstore may help defray our operating costs, but what is more important, they may also be the source of new WorkBooks for the Library itself.  We have barely begun to explore with our books the range of topics that need to be addressed if we will reach the wider population of students who can benefit from a learning environment that places them in the driver's seat.

    The publishers of traditional textbooks exert an enormous (and unjustified) influence over the Mathematics curricula at all levels, from Junior High School through College.  This leads to a dreary uniformity in the classroom that makes it extremely difficult for teachers with imagination to practice their art.

    And there is a danger with the emergence of the electronic, so-called "interactive" clones of their textbooks that the new media will be co-opted   to these same imperialistic strategies.   It is possible now for a community college student to suffer an "electronic" college algebra "course" that offers no opportunity at all for her to ask and get prompt answers to her questions.  Such courses, developed in the bankrupt spirit of the Computer Aided Instruction of the '60s are attractive, because they are easy to administer, and can be purchased (like the textbooks) "right off the shelf."   But, precisely because of this convenience, they move the teacher farther and farther into the background.  And while that strategy may be appropriate for certain forms of "computer-based training" for experienced learners, it is a dangerous paradigm to adopt in Mathematics education.  Such a strategy is aimed at eliciting and evaluating answers from the students.  A single question from a student is worth a hundred answers.

    Our aim at the Library is to place the new technology in the hands of the teachers so that they may use it to create learning experiences for her students that will help them visualize and form clear ideas about key mathematical constructions, definitions, and strategies.  And we encourage our teacher-authors to do this in a way that empowers their students to explore, experiment, and to ask questions.  We hope that the 150 WorkBooks in the Library so far, all written by teachers for their students, will show that this goal is not entirely unrealistic.

                                                                                                                                                                  James E. White,
                                                                                                                                                                                 Editor

2] Who's reading what?

    At the the six-month anniversary of the New Mathwright Library, last June, we published the list of the 30 most downloaded WorkBooks at the Library.  This was received with some interest, so at this, our one-year anniversary, we'll do it again. The numbers have grown,  but   a library is is still a garden and it still needs to be nurtured.  Our garden will grow only if you will tell us how you would like it to grow.

    You can help us tailor this Library more to your needs and interests, or to the needs and interests of your students (whether they be elementary school students, home-schooled students, high school or college students) by offering your suggestions and your advice. If you have an idea for an interaction that you would like to see in the Library, please pass it along to us. Or simply tell us who you are, and how you use the Library. The place to do that is on the “Write to us” page: http://www.mathwright.com/Writetous.htm

    Now it is time for us to give you some feedback on who’s reading what at the Library. Actually, we cannot tell you who, but we can report on some of the most popular WorkBooks in the month of January 2000.

    In April, 1999 there were 135 new registrations in the Library. In May 1999, there were 221 new registrations, and in January 2000, there were 327 new registrations in the Library.   Also in the month of April 1999, 1648 WorkBooks were downloaded, while in May, the number of downloaded WorkBooks climbed to 1827. Last month, in January, there were 3108 downloaded WorkBooks.  161 Mathwright Library Player programs were downloaded in April, in May, there were 359 Player Program downloads.  548 Mathwright Library Player programs were downloaded in January.

    The 30 most commonly downloaded WorkBooks in January 2000 were:
 

James E. White, Editor

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