From: Ken Tilton
Subject: Calling all NYC math education-interested yobbos
Date:
Message-ID: <cVO1h.47$WP5.25@newsfe11.lga>
[Folks, this is something with which I am spamming a possible audience
for my upcoming "Win Big With Lisp" Algebra software cuz I am gonna be
talking about the software (mostly from the math educational standpoint)
at the next Lisp meeting (but if anyone wants to hear about Cells and
Cello, gosh, what can I do?). Plz forward as you see fit.]
I am a software developer based in the New York area currently
developing a program that does its best to simulate a private Algebra
tutor, something I did to augment my income when I worked as a math
teacher years ago.
The software is due to be released in three to six months, but the core
capabilities are there and I want to start now to round up possible
alpha and beta test sites, so I will be previewing the software in
midtown NYC in a couple of weeks. Details below. First, some background:
Math for America (http://www.mathforamerica.org) says: "To teach
mathematics effectively, one needs strong knowledge of mathematics,
solid pedagogical skills and a disposition well suited for the
classroom." I like that because one of my mantras is that good teaching
/software/ must be expert at its subject. Few Algebra products include
an embedded expert system capable of solving Algebra. Instead they rely
on hard-coded solutions to set examples. This prevents them:
* from working with the student's own homework or classwork;
* helping with intermediate steps in a solution entered by the student;
* and worst of all means they do not recognize and will mark as
incorrect answers in mathematically correct but unconventional form,
such as 3yx instead of 3xy.
With MfA, I also like to say good educational software must be expert at
teaching, giving neither too little help (frustrating) nor too much help
(no learning). The design principle of my software is simply to
replicate as well as possible the things I did working as a private
tutor. The key features of the software are:
1. "Old school" Algebra I content and explication.
2. One-of-a-kind student-friendly WYSYIWYG math editor. No cryptic
ASCII encoding such as (x2-1)/(x+1)
3. Enter any problem. Not limited to built-in examples. Use with
any textbook. But no cheating. The software will help with but not
solve problems entered by the student.
4. Step-by-step assistance as if a private tutor were by the
student's side:
* Progressively more helpful hints suggesting the next
step in the solution
* Solved examples similar to the student's work, randomly
generated on the fly. The tutor offers textual annotations
and/or visual highlighting to explain and illustrate its work
as it proceeds. This is similar to solved examples in a
textbook, but the software lets the student control the tutor
interactively and have it explain or illustrate specific parts
or steps of a larger problem as they see fit.
* Incorrect steps (not just the final answer) are flagged
immediately and must be corrected before continuing. The flip
side is that, when an intermediate step is correct, the
student knows so at once, reducing math anxiety.
* The software awards points and penalties for each
correct step and mistake, providing an incentive for students
to wean themselves of automatic checking and hints (which
reduce the points earned).
No, it is not a game. Another guiding principle for me is that no one
who does not enjoy mathematics for itself should be teaching
mathematics. A game format tells students "we know math is boring and
painful, so we have sugar-coated it". The best math teacher appreciates
and convey the beauty of math to their students. And math is fun, as any
successful math student will tell you. Are they oddballs? No. One needs
look no farther than the current suduko craze or the popular puzzle page
of tabloid dailys to know that people simply enjoy solving things--as
long as they can. I believe the learning aids offered by my software --
feedback, hints, solved examples -- will put success within the reach of
vastly more students.
Past experience confirms this. I sold a similar product called Algebra I
HomeworkTutor back in the 1980's and 90's, under the company name
Missing Link Software. Here are some review sound bites (I have the full
reviews somewhere if you would like to see those):
* "The best algebra tutorial program I have seen." Macworld, 4/1991
* "For students requesting extra assistance in Algebra, a useful
software alternative to the human tutor." Math & Computer
Education, Fall, 1990
* "An interactive tool to help a student solve homework or practice
problems...unobtrusive monitor correcting errors...several levels
of excellent instructional hints." MacGuide, August 1989
With MfA I agree great teachers can always teach Algebra effectively. My
software hopes to be at least a good tutor itself, but -- unlike even
the best teacher -- always be there to work with students one-on-one, in
the classroom, computer lab, or at home. Perhaps software like mine is
another way to make more good teaching available to students?
If you would like to see for yourself, I will be hijacking the November
14 monthly meeting of our NYC Lisp computer programming user group for a
live demo of the software, which should be on the market as a commercial
product (for Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux) within six months, covering
the first half of a conventional Algebra I course. The full Algebra I
curriculum should be in place by summer. The focus of my presentation
will be on math education, not programming. The software is pretty far
along and I want to start the process now of finding folks interested in
trying the software out on real students, or at least in trying out the
software themselves and offering feedback.
Would you like to come check out what I am doing? We will be meeting
Tuesday, November 14th, from 7-9 pm at a place to be determined once I
know how much interest there is. If you need more information, just
write or call and I will be happy to talk with you about what I am
doing. And please feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might be
interested.
Cheers,
Ken Tilton, MEd, NJ Certified Elementary and HS Math teacher
Tilton Technology
·········@gmail.com
--
Cells: http://common-lisp.net/project/cells/
"I'll say I'm losing my grip, and it feels terrific."
-- Smiling husband to scowling wife, New Yorker cartoon
Hmm. Sounds interesting. But, for people like me who aren't familiar
with education in the US, can you /briefly/ outline the contents of
Algebra I (just enough to give an idea of the level), so we can
understand better what your program achieves?
--
* Harald Hanche-Olsen <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- It is undesirable to believe a proposition
when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
-- Bertrand Russell
From: Ken Tilton
Subject: Re: Calling all NYC math education-interested yobbos
Date:
Message-ID: <AGP1h.49$WP5.26@newsfe11.lga>
Harald Hanche-Olsen wrote:
> Hmm. Sounds interesting. But, for people like me who aren't familiar
> with education in the US, can you /briefly/ outline the contents of
> Algebra I (just enough to give an idea of the level), so we can
> understand better what your program achieves?
>
<cough> Right now, about 40% of Algebra I. By summer the whole year.
Chapter titles from one Algebra I text I have:
Signed numbers
Equations and Inequalities
Polynomials
Factoring Polynomials
Rational Expressions
Systems of Equations and Inequalities
Roots and radical Expressions
Quadratic Equations
If those titles are too vague lemme know and I'll bang in some example
problems.
kt
--
Cells: http://common-lisp.net/project/cells/
"I'll say I'm losing my grip, and it feels terrific."
-- Smiling husband to scowling wife, New Yorker cartoon
Are you looking for people to help you program it, or do you just want
us to give you feedback/test it?
From: Ken Tilton
Subject: Re: Calling all NYC math education-interested yobbos
Date:
Message-ID: <Dwx2h.97$_h.9@newsfe09.lga>
················@gmail.com wrote:
> Are you looking for people to help you program it, or do you just want
> us to give you feedback/test it?
>
Latter. I use other folks part-time for development, but mostly ones I
know already. If I ever want to run an ad, it will certainly appear here.
kt
--
Cells: http://common-lisp.net/project/cells/
"I'll say I'm losing my grip, and it feels terrific."
-- Smiling husband to scowling wife, New Yorker cartoon
You have my best wishes for luck with this, Ken.
Just wondering---what is your scheme for diagnosis? Do you use any
kind of modeling?
--
Fred Gilham ······@csl.sri.com
A gold coin standard transfers monetary policy-making from central
bankers and government officials to the common man, who can walk into
a bank and demand payment for paper or digital currency in gold
coins. This is the ultimate form of democracy, and the Establishment
hates it. -- Gary North
Fred Gilham wrote:
> You have my best wishes for luck with this, Ken.
Thx, Fred. This went well in the '80s/'90s before I had Lisp/Cells for
development and the Internet for marketing (and before the US got into a
frothing panic over math/science education) and I do not see anything
that has filled the niche, so (touch wood) I should do OK.
> Just wondering---what is your scheme for diagnosis? Do you use any
> kind of modeling?
"any kind of modeling"? whassat? remember, I am just a simple
application programmer. :)
To answer your first question (and maybe the second?), basically I
created a software Algebra expert (rolling my own "expert" methodology
for that since I am a Lispnik and do not use libraries) so the expert
has no problem identifying mistakes, including understanding
intermediate steps on the way to a solution, or demonstrating the
solution to random problems. My next step is something I did not do in
the C version: have the expert generate random problems similar to a
problem entered by the student, for a reasonably high value of
"similar". Should be fun.
Getting ready for the presentation led me into a few days of GUI
refinement and I am loving the outcome of that. I am also having a ball
with the fact that the expert can give insanely fine partial credit and
(eventually) sub-skill assessment since it sees all that along the way.
And I am just using a field of dots green, red, or black to convey
progress, errors, unfinished work. I expect kids to get off on that
almost as much as if it were a game, without in any way compromising the
focus on Algebra.
The C version could have done that in principle but did not. I fell into
it this time just because in rewriting from scratch I ended up with a
tempting data structure or two that made it a no-brainer. This is the
Turing-non-equivalence thing: more powerful tools tend to make things
happen that just would not with lesser tools, even tho they would be
possible. I just have to resist feature creep, which is easy cuz I been
there, done that.
thx again for the support. Watch this space for an announcement of a
very rough Web site where you will be able to see some "work in
progress" screen shots.
ken
--
Cells: http://common-lisp.net/project/cells/
"I'll say I'm losing my grip, and it feels terrific."
-- Smiling husband to scowling wife, New Yorker cartoon
Ken Tilton <·········@gmail.com> writes:
> Fred Gilham wrote:
>> You have my best wishes for luck with this, Ken.
>
> Thx, Fred. This went well in the '80s/'90s before I had Lisp/Cells for
> development and the Internet for marketing (and before the US got into a
> frothing panic over math/science education) and I do not see anything
> that has filled the niche, so (touch wood) I should do OK.
Probably true for math tutor software: in other fields there exist
some pretty advanced software tutor apps. I remember in some of your
posts you've talked about music and music software (common music?), so
you might find this one interesting:
http://www.inthechair.com
Here is a promotional video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YG1yFDVyS8&mode=related&search=
--
vedm
From: Ken Tilton
Subject: Re: Calling all NYC math education-interested yobbos
Date:
Message-ID: <RlU4h.971$xf6.383@newsfe11.lga>
vedm wrote:
> Ken Tilton <·········@gmail.com> writes:
>
>
>>Fred Gilham wrote:
>>
>>>You have my best wishes for luck with this, Ken.
>>
>>Thx, Fred. This went well in the '80s/'90s before I had Lisp/Cells for
>>development and the Internet for marketing (and before the US got into a
>>frothing panic over math/science education) and I do not see anything
>>that has filled the niche, so (touch wood) I should do OK.
>
>
> Probably true for math tutor software: in other fields there exist
> some pretty advanced software tutor apps.
> I remember in some of your
> posts you've talked about music and music software (common music?),
common lisp music. CLM. Simular names, unrelated beasts.
> so
> you might find this one interesting:
>
> http://www.inthechair.com
>
> Here is a promotional video:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YG1yFDVyS8&mode=related&search=
>
So it samples the pitch and guesses at rhythm and provides tutoring
similar to what I would get from a good music teacher? Astonishing. AI
has been solved! Stop the presses on the emasculation of George Bush, we
have /real/ news!!!
Well, at least you /tried/ to do some marketing for your project. Loved
the link to the infomercial. Not.
It sounds like (a) a joke and (b) a pretty cool piece of software that
(c) has nothing to do with computer music (CLM, CM, SuperCollider, etc
-- those are about the algorithmic generation of quality music).
Getting back to (a), jeez, educational software itself is now an
acknowledged joke precisely because of people who try to foist on others
"oh, look at this, we used a computer, it must be in-frickin-credible".
No, it must not. There is a line that must be crossed, a line at which
the software becomes simular enough for some useful value of simular to
a human teacher.
hth, kt
--
Cells: http://common-lisp.net/project/cells/
"I'll say I'm losing my grip, and it feels terrific."
-- Smiling husband to scowling wife, New Yorker cartoon
Ken Tilton <·········@gmail.com> writes:
> vedm wrote:
>> Ken Tilton <·········@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>
>> Probably true for math tutor software: in other fields there exist
>> some pretty advanced software tutor apps.
>> I remember in some of your
>> posts you've talked about music and music software (common music?),
>
> common lisp music. CLM. Simular names, unrelated beasts.
>
>> so
>> you might find this one interesting:
>>
>> http://www.inthechair.com
>>
>> Here is a promotional video:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YG1yFDVyS8&mode=related&search=
>>
>
> So it samples the pitch and guesses at rhythm and provides tutoring
> similar to what I would get from a good music teacher? Astonishing. AI
> has been solved! Stop the presses on the emasculation of George Bush, we
> have /real/ news!!!
>
> Well, at least you /tried/ to do some marketing for your project.
I wish it were my project - unfortunately I am just a simple application
programmer...:), and I've never tried selling any software. I simply
saw the link to that site in an "Wired News" article [1] and thought it
might be of interest to you, since it is a "software tutor", and you are
developing one too.
Otherwise I agree that my message looked a bit like marketing.
[1]. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/~1,72092-0.html
--
vedm