Partnerships with Other Educational and Home Schooling Communities
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Alex Rollin
Aug 2, 2010, 1:59:22 AM8/2/10
to NaturalMath, Chris Smith
Hello,
I follow your conversation on this list from the periphery. I'm a
soon to be father and a tremendous advocate for do-it-yourself systems
that are, at the heart, people talking to people. I'm doing my best
to help groups refashion whatever they are doing into systems that can
be copied freely and allow others to experience the feeling of freedom
to committ and collaborate, something I notice emerging more often
when people know they can walk away with what they've created and
learned without penalty.
That said, I follow a number of different news feeds, and I pay some
attention to groups doing new things in areas like home schooling, an
area I find particularly interesting, especially when it comes to
applied sciences in practical fields.
I was wondering today if the group might entertain make a few comments
about how Natural Math works with other groups, and how this is
happening in such a way that allows other groups to make use of what
they do within the "Natural Math" context back in their home
"context." Perhaps this means they work on an exercise or two, then
copy that curricula back to their own website.
Are there common experiences in this area? Things that happen more
often than not?
Are these sorts of collaborations welcomed, and made easier, or seen
as something else?
What sorts of ways could this be done better, and what efforts are
being made to improve this type of activity?
Systems, and educational systems especially, can be a minefield.
Every system has the potential to reinforce bad behavior when
misapplied, and as humans learn better how to be a part of the
solution that engages systems and helps us be compassionate and follow
a general outline together it seems we are growing in our ability to
meet the needs of the young and the demands of those who find
themselves needing to apply their learning for their betterment later
in life.
This email isn't meant as criticism in any way. I simply saw another
math community the other day and I said to myself "hey, I wonder why
these two aren't together, and the same thing? I'm sure there's
plenty of reasons, but I'd feel better if they knew about each other.
Hmm..." I decided I would write and let you know about an approach I
take to this sort of thing, outlined (in shadow) in the approach
above. A sort of looking and listening approach to how we work
together and respect that groups have, sometimes, very specific
context, and yet there can be, if we focus on making it, room for
collaboration.
Alex Rollin
http://p2pfoundation.net/User:GoodRollin
I follow your conversation on this list from the periphery. I'm a
soon to be father and a tremendous advocate for do-it-yourself systems
that are, at the heart, people talking to people. I'm doing my best
to help groups refashion whatever they are doing into systems that can
be copied freely and allow others to experience the feeling of freedom
to committ and collaborate, something I notice emerging more often
when people know they can walk away with what they've created and
learned without penalty.
That said, I follow a number of different news feeds, and I pay some
attention to groups doing new things in areas like home schooling, an
area I find particularly interesting, especially when it comes to
applied sciences in practical fields.
I was wondering today if the group might entertain make a few comments
about how Natural Math works with other groups, and how this is
happening in such a way that allows other groups to make use of what
they do within the "Natural Math" context back in their home
"context." Perhaps this means they work on an exercise or two, then
copy that curricula back to their own website.
Are there common experiences in this area? Things that happen more
often than not?
Are these sorts of collaborations welcomed, and made easier, or seen
as something else?
What sorts of ways could this be done better, and what efforts are
being made to improve this type of activity?
Systems, and educational systems especially, can be a minefield.
Every system has the potential to reinforce bad behavior when
misapplied, and as humans learn better how to be a part of the
solution that engages systems and helps us be compassionate and follow
a general outline together it seems we are growing in our ability to
meet the needs of the young and the demands of those who find
themselves needing to apply their learning for their betterment later
in life.
This email isn't meant as criticism in any way. I simply saw another
math community the other day and I said to myself "hey, I wonder why
these two aren't together, and the same thing? I'm sure there's
plenty of reasons, but I'd feel better if they knew about each other.
Hmm..." I decided I would write and let you know about an approach I
take to this sort of thing, outlined (in shadow) in the approach
above. A sort of looking and listening approach to how we work
together and respect that groups have, sometimes, very specific
context, and yet there can be, if we focus on making it, room for
collaboration.
Alex Rollin
http://p2pfoundation.net/User:GoodRollin
Maria Droujkova
Aug 2, 2010, 12:21:21 PM8/2/10
to natur...@googlegroups.com, Chris Smith
Alex,
What a timely letter! In the last several months, more and more people have been asking for ideas on how to run math clubs, how to implement Natural Math within their families, and how to organize math communities. Toward these goals, I am preparing to organize online meetings and "unclasses" for parents and community leaders in the Fall. Is there any way to invite you into this work? I would love to use your systems expertise!
I plan to use open and/or free online tools to organize these activities. For example, LearnCentral provides live conferencing community and rooms. For the last year, I have been organizing live events in collaboration with them. This week, Don Cohen, who many people here know for his "Calculus for Seven Year Olds" work, will host a live event on Wednesday, and Alan Kay, one of the computer and ed heroes, will host an event on Saturday: http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/events
Another tool we prepared for the Fall and tested a little bit is an open source Q&A community, Ask Natural Math, for exchanging and storing family-centered education expertise. Check out a question by another (then prospective) dad of a week-old mathematician: http://ask.naturalmath.com/questions/43/teaching-different-bases
We will probably use wikis to create "book-like objects" based on the conversations, Twitter, email groups and possibly FaceBook for fast communication.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Maria Droujkova
Make math your own, to make your own math.
What a timely letter! In the last several months, more and more people have been asking for ideas on how to run math clubs, how to implement Natural Math within their families, and how to organize math communities. Toward these goals, I am preparing to organize online meetings and "unclasses" for parents and community leaders in the Fall. Is there any way to invite you into this work? I would love to use your systems expertise!
I plan to use open and/or free online tools to organize these activities. For example, LearnCentral provides live conferencing community and rooms. For the last year, I have been organizing live events in collaboration with them. This week, Don Cohen, who many people here know for his "Calculus for Seven Year Olds" work, will host a live event on Wednesday, and Alan Kay, one of the computer and ed heroes, will host an event on Saturday: http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/events
Another tool we prepared for the Fall and tested a little bit is an open source Q&A community, Ask Natural Math, for exchanging and storing family-centered education expertise. Check out a question by another (then prospective) dad of a week-old mathematician: http://ask.naturalmath.com/questions/43/teaching-different-bases
We will probably use wikis to create "book-like objects" based on the conversations, Twitter, email groups and possibly FaceBook for fast communication.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Maria Droujkova
Make math your own, to make your own math.
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Bradford Hansen-Smith
Aug 3, 2010, 8:41:40 AM8/3/10
to natur...@googlegroups.com
| Check out my experience with math word problems. http://wholemovement.blogspot.com/ Brad Bradford Hansen-Smith Wholemovement 4606 N. Elston #3 Chicago Il 60630 www.wholemovement.com |
Alex Rollin
Aug 3, 2010, 9:30:12 AM8/3/10
to natur...@googlegroups.com, Chris Smith
These are great ways of reaching out. I'm seeing so many different kinds of partnerships out there.
Alex
I'd be happy to talk some more over Skype. Add me as "discursives"
Alex
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