Week+2

= Week 2: Meaning and significance of mathematics for non-mathematicians =

Mathematicians find pure mathematics intrinsically valuable. What other meanings can be there? How can you address them in curriculum design?

Objectives

 * Flesh out more details in design principles
 * Continue using past technology; add Diigo
 * Do not join math wars

Introduction
... These are examples of what people not on STEM track for their career at the moment find meaningful. Is it worth designing the whole curriculum around such directions, accessible to everybody? Or should math curriculum prepare everybody in case they choose the math track?
 * Fun and games: puzzles, jokes, comics, mini-games
 * “Pop math”: mathematics in pop culture
 * The arts: digital arts, sculpture, design, origami, museums, art books
 * Crafts: quilting, crocheting
 * Programming and modeling
 * Daily applications: personal and business economics, health, government
 * Rhetoric and argumentation: data visualization, logic
 * Storytelling
 * Math in the history of other human endeavors

Task grids
There are 6 tasks this week. As people work on tasks, Diigo widgets on this page will fill with links to their results. Meanwhile, they only show the placeholder link to this week's Musical Interlude. Send questions about coursework that you believe are interesting to several people to ed534arcadia@googlegroups.com

Task 1
Join the course Diigo group [] Drag [|the Diigolet] (a bookmarklet) to your browser's bookmark panel.

Task 2
Comment on two class member blog posts about their dreams and plans of mathematics education (Week 1, Task 3). In your comments, develop the dreams and plans to address diverse student interests and the approaches they find meaningful. Use particular task example(s) to illustrate the points you make. As always, duplicate comments at your own blog for safekeeping.

Add links to the posts you commented to [|the course Diigo group], using the tag **dreamscomments**. Make sure you choose Share to a Group option and select ED534Arcadia group.

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**//Bonus task: reply to comments of other course members on your blog or other course blogs//**

Task 3
Find and review, on your blog, a scholarly article or a presentation. Choose the math content area and the level that are of interest to you, and any of these topics:
 * Recreational mathematics
 * Use of pop culture to teach math
 * Math and the arts
 * Ethnomathematics
 * Math and storytelling/literature
 * Mathematical origami
 * Math and programming
 * Math and 

Include the reference to your media piece (or the whole piece, if it's embeddable) in the blog post. Add the link to your post to [|the course Diigo group], using the tag **othermeanings**. Make sure you choose Share to a Group option and select ED534Arcadia group.

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Task 4
Find a recent online discussion related to "math wars." Comment from the position of meaning and significance of mathematics for students. As always, duplicate the comment at your own blog for safekeeping. Add the link to your comment to [|the course Diigo group], using the tag **mathpeace**. Make sure you choose Share to a Group option and select ED534Arcadia group.

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Task 5

 * Live task**

Attend the weekly class meeting on Wednesday at 7:30pm Eastern US time. [|World Clock for other time zones.]

To join the meeting:
 * Follow this link: []
 * Click "OK" and "Accept" several times as your browser installs the software. When you see Elluminate Session Log-In, enter your name and click the "Login" button
 * You will find yourself in a virtual room. There is text chat, voice chat, and other tools. You need a headset to participate.
 * Recording will appear here after the meeting

If you can't make a meeting, review its recording on your blog, adding suggestions, questions and comments.

[|Here is the full recording of the weekly class meeting.]
Add the link to your blog post to this table:
 * //Name// || - || //Your meeting review url// ||

Task 6

 * Live task**

Attend a live event at one of online mathematics education communities. Here are some of the places where you can search for events:
 * Math Future Wednesdays 9:30pm ET or Saturdays 2pm ET (weeks alternate - see the list). Elluminate
 * #mathchat Mondays 3:30pm ET and Thursdays 7pm ET (every week). Twitter
 * [|Scratch] Fourth Monday of each month at 7pm ET. AdobeConnect
 * [|Wolfram Education] (multiple events each week). OnDemand
 * [|TappedIn] (times vary). TappedIn chat rooms

Briefly review the event you attended on your blog. Include the link to the recording of the event in your post. Add the link to your post to [|the course Diigo group], using the tag **week2event**. Make sure you choose Share to a Group option and select ED534Arcadia group.

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