Impact of Technology on the Teaching of Mathematics Mika Seppälä

Vision Technology will be used to: 1. Automate instruction 2. Deliver instruction 3. Make education more efficient in general Virtual delivery of (mathematics) instruction will be, in 2016, an important part of the educational systems everywhere. Educational institutes will be able to market their services globally. Size of the virtual education market in 2016: yearly revenues $ 10 billion globally

Key Enabling Technologies Ubiquous access to broadband  Practically all students have networked computers with broadband connections Advanced ways to deal with mathematical information in a meaningful way (MathML, OpenMath, WebALT) Advanced assessment systems suitable for mathematics

Scenarios: Technology in Contact Instruction Blackboards will be replaced with devices like SMART Boards  This increases the demand of slide show presentations of educational materials Applets, Maplets, Mathlets, and WIRIS will be used to make mathematics live  Technical details have to be shielded from the students, computer algebra systems will empower these applications but in a hidden way Advanced systems for automatic assessment will have a great impact

Scenarios: Delivery of Instruction Synchronous on-line courses will emerge as an alternative way to study for  busy professionals  people unable to go to campus  military A marketplace for instruction will be created based on on-line courses and services 10% of the student body

Scenarios: What is needed? Short presentations of topics suitable for use with SMART Boards or with Conferencing systems  Recorded live lectures  Slide shows to support the instructor Practice problems using technology as much as possible (Maplets, MapleTA, WIRIS)

WebALT Courses Consist of modules. Each module contains the following elements:  Ten Minute Talks presented as PowerPoint, pdf, pdf hand-out and recorded Flash lectures  A set of solved problems presented as PP and pdf  A set of unsolved problems (PP, pdf)  Maplet, WIRIS, MapleTA practice sessions: WebALT Maplets, WIRIS and MapleTA content is language independent – versions of this content can be automatically generated in many languages One semester course: 150 modules, full calculus: 500 modules

Sample WebALT Module Applications of Differentiation: Estimating Functions Applications of Differentiation: Estimating Functions

WebALT Index Materials are organized into chapter directories with names like  100_Preliminaries  200_The Real Number System … Each chapter directory has subdirectories for sections named in the same way Each section directory has module subdirectories containing individual modules. The also follow the same naming conventions. Example: 200_The Real Number System/200_Sequences of Real Numbers/ 200_Convergence of Sequences

WebALT Presentations of Materials Category Index Category Index HyperGraph Index HyperGraph Index  Created by Olga Caprotti, Matti Pauna and Patrick Holz using the HyperGraph package

Driving Forces Cost of Education has risen over twice the inflation during the last 20 years  Other parts of the society have become more effective thanks to proper use of it, education has not yet changed Technological Infrastructure is ready  Broadband access  Availability of good tools (pdf, Flash, PowerPoint, Assessment Systems, WIRIS)

Cost of Education in the US 16 Million students, tuition has risen over twice the inflation since Average tuition: $ 5000/student, $ 80 billion Faculty: over 1 million, salary + overheads $ 100K/year per faculty, total $ 100 billion. Virtual Ed Business in 2016: 10% of $ 100 billion = $ 10 billion.

Critical Uncertainties Inertia of the Academia  Do we have to wait for the next generation of instructors before education can embrace technology? How long is the cycle from inception to implementation? Content and Solutions Offered Year 1 Discussions among the Faculty, Budgets amended Year 2 First Adoptions Year 3

Critical Uncertainties Technology: in math, should slide shows be created by LaTeX, PP or KeyNote? Which formats are best for the end products: pdf, xml, PP, LaTeX source, Flash? How to get authors to write to the new media? Screenfuls are less than printed pages.

PP, pdf, Flash PowerPoint and pdf files are InkAware, you can write on these documents using your SMART Board Out of PP you can create pdf, but not the other way around. Pdf and Flash are understood universally.