Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Weekend in Philly - Educon 2.5

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January is Educon month for me. I'm looking forward to this year's rendition later this month. What's unique about the Educon experience is that the sessions are conversations rather than the usual "sage on the stage" presentations. This creates a dynamic between participant and session leader that makes the participant feel like they are on the stage with the sage exploring interesting ideas highlighted during the session.  Though not explicitly stated my session is a sequel to the conversation I started at last year's event. (See Wannado Math at Educon 2.4.) 

This year my conversation will focus on how we can achieve in Math Ed what Malcolm Gladwell wrote about in his book Tipping Point - How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference: a tipping point where all of a sudden learning math becomes interesting, useful and even empowering for students and makes that all too common phrase "I'm not good at math," or worse "I hate math," obsolete. It's seems like a pipe dream, but with today's emerging technologies hope is on the rise again for students experiencing math in more positive ways.