"You look back because that is where the answers lie..."
Tom Rath from his book Strengths Finder 2.0
Why k-12math.info
K-12math.info is an online information system used by elementary and secondary school mathematics material developers, teacher trainers, school district resource professionals and home schooling parents.
K-12math.info provides the fastest way to locate information in this subject area. Student textbooks are extensively referenced on this site as they are on a global scale the single largest learning resource on elementary and secondary school mathematics materials. They are not only available to the student, but to teachers, a learner's peers, parents and others who help the learner.
This bibliographic system uses 1000 of the most common terms used in elementary and secondary school student mathematics textbooks. It tracks which textbook contain which terms, on what page (for OER materials a link to the term), for what grade level, and how the term is being used. K-12math.info has been collecting information on the 1000 terms in mathematics series since the 1970’s to the present OER materials. It helps in following trends that are occurring. All of which help in the reviewing and designing of new materials.
K-12math.info helps educators by reducing the search time for information in this area. I (and others - much appreciated for your tips) have put the information together in this simple and easy to use website. Sorry about not having a Google search box (don't believe you need it) or all the other ad copy that appears on and takes up screen space. My purpose is to get you to information in as few a key strokes as possible. Also accept my apologies for the screen design, or lack of, on this website, but I believe function is more important than form.
Please note: www.K-12math.info is not affiliated with any other website of a similar name. www.k-12math.info only purpose is to provide information on primary and secondary school mathematics. K-12math.info has never been funded by any publisher of mathematics materials. On occasion publishers and users who find this website useful, have sent textbooks to be reviewed or gave me information on places where textbook series can be found (San Francisco bay area)– always appreciated, thank you. Jim Kelly (contact: k-12math(at)sbcglobal(dot)net)
History, direction and general thoughts
"Instead of making kids love the math they hate, make the math they would love!" Seymour Papert, AERA 2004
2011 a step back.
2011 was not a year for elementary and secondary school OER math development. In fact everything seems to have gone in reverse. The hoped for development of grades 1 to 5 Flexbook materials from CK12.org have not materialized (their grades 6 and 7 materials offered great hope). Wikieducator organization literally retreated to the "ivory tower" to form its OERu organization. Curriki has also showed a slowing in its growth of materials. Hopefully 2012 will be better for math OER development. (January 10, 2012)
Future school mathematics?
Does the world outside the mathematics classroom (business, scientific, daily life activities) match the content being taught? One wonders what would an elementary and secondary school mathematics textbook series look like if the only number systems used were Whole Numbers, Decimals (+/-) and Real Numbers. Maybe we should do a simulation of taking the appropriate modules of CNX or chapters of CK-12's and see what it would look like! This type of simulation would be cost effective and would give learning communities a chance to evaluate such approaches. More to come....... (December 3, 2011)
Teaching OER Mathematics
Have begun to address the questions of going from a paper oriented elementary and secondary school mathematics program to one based in OER materials. I am presently outlining the materials to be covered. The website ( teachingOERmath.com and teachingOERmath.info have been reserved and will be populated in early 2012) will use OER materials as the primary resource. You can not teach OER math, without some of your own learning came from OER materials (hopefully projects like the OER university movement will provide a comfort level with OER resources). Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. (November 30, 2011)
Interesting news
Will Apple’s newly released iPhone 4S with siri (voice recognition system) allow an 8 year old ( 3rd grader ) to get a definition of the term “FRACTION” – the evolution of classroom media just took an interesting turn !
(October 4, 2011)
Links checked
During the last week a check of all the links that this website references where checked. Some links were deleted, and new ones were added.
Spanish and French sections of k-12math.info have been updated with the appropriate language Wiki links. (October 1, 2011)
CK-12 working on improving bookmarking
Gary Clarke who is Content Manager for CK-12 in an e mail today said that efforts are underway to support a better bookmarking process with their textbook materials. Presently a link to their materials can only be done at the chapter level. This will help reduce the need to use the search option to find specific information in its longer chapters.(June 2, 2011)
Historical Documentation:
The following are links to some of the history behind K-12math.info:
1. One of the first copyrights associated with K-12math.info content.
2. A sample page
Please note the following 2 letters have never been made public:
3. An unsolicited but much appreciated letter from Lola May.
4. A letter from the UNESCO 1988
The world just got more interesting!
As K-12math.info is an “interactive” information source, the recent contest between IBM’s Watson and others on the game show Jeopardy was very interesting. The outcome was not much of a surprise. Clearly among the innovations IBM has used is a superior “bookmarking” routine; an important component that OER textbook developers need to address.
One of the high points for this person was when the host Alex Trebek reprimanded Watson for not listening to the same incorrect answer that Ken Jennings had just given. How human was that! How far have we come in accepting our interactions with machines.
Now all we need is an avatar that takes on a human form and mannerisms – excuse me it looks like this work is being done in the electronic visualization laboratory of the University of Illinois in Chicago.
The world just got more interesting. Maybe in less than 5 years we will have friendly faced avatar connected to a math oriented Watson operating on our iPhone and Droid devices helping us solve math problems. One hopes that teacher training will reflect the reality that is coming. (February 22, 2011)
An interest note was made during the NOVA presentation on Watson. It seems that teaching Watson by feeding it rule after rule was a failing approach. Yet if you gave it many examples Watson was able to create generalization and observations. Very interesting. (May 5, 2011)
Adding "Content by textbook in page number order"
One way to create OER textbooks is to examine the order in which terms appear in existing textbooks. K-12math.info is now adding "5. Content by textbook in page number order" which will do this. (November 24, 2010)
CK-12
Content reviews of CK-12's Mathematics series have begun.
(October 5, 2010)
Positioning for Success.
One of the purposes of this site is to help materials’ developers to position their resources for success. To use vocabulary that is not appropriate for the grade level, guarantees that the resource will be ignored. A simple example is the use of the word Natural Number in the title of a resource for first graders. While it maybe mathematically correct to use that term, the first grade teacher will most likely not even look at the resource. A check under whole numbers category in this website shows that the term Natural Number is not used in textbooks until the seventh grade. Interestingly the seventh grade teacher will also ignore the resource as the author has set it for the first grade. So a great resource fails to help anyone learn. Hopefully authors will check out resources like k-12math.info to position their resources for success.
Where are textbooks going?
As Kodak camera successfully moved from a paper based to an electronic based system; so will the world’s education systems move from a textbook based to an electronic media system. Increasing textbook costs (and weight), the length of the developmental cycle in creating new textbook series, environmental concerns, and increasingly creative audio/visual lessons that make learning more real and timely will accelerate the change. The success of electronic media will depend on a clear understanding of why textbooks have been a successful media for the last 60 years. Devices like Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Portable Reader, Apple's i-Pad, and similar devices will replace textbooks. They will provide all the information, exercises and testing functions that textbooks provide plus a personalizing of the curriculum for life long learning.
Where's the 12th grade?
Traditionally, materials in 11th grade Algebra II books are divided between the eleventh and twelfth grades. With additional materials, like advanced algebra and calculus topics, being added to the twelfth grade programs.
In the 1970/80's a list of about 800 additional terms were created and materials reviewed. The additional terms expanded the list of Logic and Topological terms and added terms from Analysis. The list in addition to the twelfth grade covered materials being used in colleges and universities. Cost in storing the data in paper form proved to be too expensive. Apple II versions of the information stored in random access text files formatted so that programs, written in Applesoft (and GWBASIC for PCs) could read them were created . In the 80's a limited number were produced because few educators and publishers desired to view K through second year college mathematics as a single continuously developing subject.
K-12math.info is considering the possibility of adding some of these materials.
Just a thought
Just as “spell checkers” have allowed people to concentrate on developing ideas and not dealing with the mechanics of expressing those ideas; material’s developers are going to have “content checkers”. For any website whose purpose is to help its users develop educational materials “content checkers” will be a must have. A “content checker” will not only check the age appropriateness of the content being used in defining and developing an idea, but also provide links and other information during the developing process. Manual “content checkers” like K-12math.info exist, it is only a matter of time when the people who brought us the “spell checker” will have the enlightening moment and create “content checkers”.
Why the formal copyright on k-12math.info ?
I, Jim Kelly, am k-12math.info. I handled all aspects of it's creation, development, production (paper, floppy disk and internet editions), and distribution. It has been 100% funded by myself. I have sole rights, and can contribute some or all of the information contained within to organizations that I feel may be helped by its bibliographic information.
There are also technical problems, as all "free content" websites like Wiki's seem to require access to all the information. While K-12math.info uses exclusively HTML for its screens, the detail content information is kept in a MySQL database and accessed by one PHP program that produces the 1,000 screens of information. This is very efficient, allows for quick updating of information and protects the information.To produce 1,000 Wiki tables would be presuming upon the Wiki owner for space requirements; and would be a nightmare to protect.
Also in the 1970's and 80's the paper and floppy disk editions were formally copyrighted as that was the way things were done (even thought the materials were distributed at a price that did not even cover the cost of the media upon which it was produced on - some of us had the wiki philosophy in practice long before wiki became a reality!). Since the internet version uses the same spreadsheet format and some information from the earlier versions, it is copyrighted.
Evolution of K-12math.info
WWW.k-12math.info's origins were the result of a shortage of funds for the development of the first resource guide for the first year comprehensive secondary schools mathematics program in Thailand. Originally the program called for a six week program allowing the 22 selected teachers to gather and create and practice teaching the materials. Funds from out of country sources failed to appear thus reduced the already committed program to do its work in three weeks. The first year materials were written in Thai, which is the medium of instruction. The British Embassy Librarian and American Peace Corps quickly came forward and provided many resources as the availability of local resources in Thai were few. It was decided that the content of the resources would be cross referenced to the content in the first year materials. A detailed bibliography was developed before the program started, thus allowing the teachers to concentrate on adapting methods developed in English language settings to work in Thai settings. After numerous peer teaching sessions, a 179 page resource guide for the first year secondary comprehensive schools was produced.
If a single grade level bibliography helped reduced the time needed to develop materials, a broader based bibliographic system encompassing elementary and secondary school mathematics materials will accelerate the designing of new curriculum materials and translation efforts.
WWW.k-12math.info's in the "early years" came out as a series of memeographed publications. The information was displayed in spreadsheet format. The final edition was a trilingual edition, which had international distribution. Some discussion was had on setting up an international database of information within the UNESCO, unfortunately with the United States pulling out its support of the UNESCO the project died.
Shortly after the last paper edition came out, the personal computer came upon the scene. Using Applesoft for the Apple II computers; and GWBASIC for the PCs a series of floppy disks were produced and distributed. Several years after the first distribution, Kinko's through its Academic Courseware Exchange program handled some of its distribution.
Ubi D'Ambrosio
In the early 1970’s I started graduate school in SUNY at Buffalo only to come in contact with the two extremes in mathematics. On the one hand was John Myhill, a professional mathematician and on the other was Gerald Rising a good mathematics educator. Both men personified their respective profession, yet neither was one that I wanted to become. After talking several times with my Brazilian born algebraist faculty advisor I decided to leave graduate study to figure out what I should be doing with my background in mathematics. Interesting my advisor left shortly after I did; and years later when we meet at one of the annual meetings of the NCTM, he said he left for the same reason I did (besides as he modestly put it “I knew everything there was to know about algrebra.”) and founded the field of Ethnomathematics.
Some background information
Shortly after completing studies in mathematics and education, I (Jim Kelly) began an on and off interaction with education. 1) helped the NSDB of the Philippines in its school science equipment development projects; 2) helped officials in Thailand’s Comprehensive School Project develop materials; 3) helped Peace Corps to identify its working relationships and future plans in several countries; 4) mutually useful interaction with the UNESCO (mathematics development) in Paris over a number of years; 5) helped lay some of the foundation for the development of EthnoMathematics; 6) on and off for four decades made efforts to help people look at the larger picture of what is called primary and secondary school mathematics; 7) and during the off and on years was active as a senior administrative support person in retail, manufacturing and banking industries (applied a lot of elementary and secondary school mathematics in many out of classroom situations). (September 2010)
©1972 (paper), 1985 (APPLE II/PC), 2005(www), 2011 Jim Kelly - All Rights Reserved.
Contact: k-12math(at)sbcglobal(dot)net