COURSE TITLE: DIY Math

COURSE TWEET (200 CHARACTERS OR LESS):

This course is designed to build independent study and peer-support skills for mathematics learners at all levels.  It will require both self-directedness and active participation.

FACILITATOR:

Joe Corneli (Board Member at PlanetMath.org; Ph. D. student at the Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, UK; http://metameso.org/~joe)

COURSE DESCRIPTION (NO MORE THAN 500 WORDS):
This is a mathematics course open to all topics and levels (unless participants come up with a compelling reason to
focus during the course).  The main "pedagogical" reasons for such radical openness are:

(1) To give people one extra reason to take initiative in their own learning.  One might say "I've always wanted to learn about P vs NP", another might say "I've always wanted to learn precalculus" -- both are overcoming a mental and emotional hurdle.  I'm not suggesting that it's the *same* hurdle, but there are probably some similarities.  In the same way that a writer's workshop can serve writers with different interests, this "DIY Math" workshop can serve mathematics learners with different interests by providing a place to talk about their challenges and successes.

(2) To help people develop skills at co- or peer-to-peer teaching.  Ultimately people have to do their own homework exercises and so on, but one can also learn a lot in mathematics by helping others.  My "teaching philosophy" is that there are no stupid questions, even if there are a lot of dumb answers.  Let's see if we can get better at answering questions together.

There is no official text book, but participants may want to take a look at "How to solve it" (or other books) by George Polya.  Participants will get access to a new "beta" grade libre software platform being developed to support mathematical communication; we'll also have a mailing list available as a fall-back mechanism (and if you're interested in the course, please sign up for the list now to talk about your ideas or any questions you have about the course).

PREREQUISITES:

The willingness to learn.  Also, you'll need to come up with some realistic goals for a 6-week mathematics course!

AUDIENCE:

I hope the participants will want to both *ask* and *answer* questions.  Collectively I hope that they will have varied backgrounds and aspirations.

EXPERIENCE: I have a bachelor's degree in mathematics from New College of Florida (2002), and I did a couple years of math grad school before switching to a more "DIY" approach.  My current Ph. D. project has to do with "Crowdsourcing a Personal Learning Environment for Mathematics", and this course can be considered to be an informal dry run.