Geoff,
I agree that Intermediate Algebra should be a prereq. Otherwise you
just can't do what you would want to/should do in the course. We treat the
"For all practical purposes" course as a "terminal" college math
course.
Sally
of. Sally Glover mailto:sglover@clark.edu
Clark College, Mathematics http://clark.edu/~gloves/
rom wmackey@COMP.UARK.EDUSun Mar 2 00:03:30 1997
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 19:36:00 -0600
From: Wayne Mackey <wmackey@COMP.UARK.EDU>
Reply to: "The Technology in Mathematics Education (TiME) committee of"
<MATHEDCC@MCGILL1.BITNET>
To: Multiple recipients of list MATHEDCC <MATHEDCC@MCGILL1.BITNET>
Subject: Re: Web Courses
>Please help!
>My dean announced in a meeting on Monday that our VP is wanting us to develop
>courses for the Internet. Now, I perfectly understand the concept of putting
>the syllabus and the assignments on the web, but HOW do you explain concepts
>on the printed screen? I may be old fashioned (yes, I wash my clothes on a
>scrub board), but I still believe that an audible explanation is worth a
>million written words. Do the students have any sort of access to video
>lectures? How do you write out explanations to topics such as factoring
>trinomials? How is it any different from giving the students a book and a
>syallbus and an assignment sheet and saying "Go home, read, and mail your
>tests to me"? I guess I am a bit skeptical, Huh? I would be most
>appreciative of what y'all are doing out there in webland. Lee Ann Spahr
To all the old hands on this list
Does all of this business of deans and vp's jumping on bandwagons and
trying to drag teachers along sound familar? How many times have we seen
this in the last 3 or 4 decades and is education( particularly math
education ) any better off for any of them? To the teachers who are being
pressured - just tell the deans and vp's that you will be happy to develop
a very good Web course or anything else but that you need at least 2 years
of 100% release time and $100,000 worth of equipment. Of course you might
also mention that you could accomplish a lot more by just having a maximum
class size of 5 students per year.
My apologies for the sarcasm. I'm giving final exams and that always puts
me in a foul mood.
Wayne F. Mackey
SCEN #301
University of Arkansas
(501) 575-7661
wmackey@comp.uark.edu