Any time you embark on a tele-communicative project, there are many places along the way in which you might encounter difficulties. Of course one cannot predict every possible problem when implementing a project that involves so many parts; however, with any roadblock, good planning and help to avoid many of the most common ones.
Language-Much of this project, particularly at the beginning stages, really revolves around looking at yourself and your immediate community and how math relates to your daily life. However, as the project progresses, the level of interaction increases. Students move from a personal stage to critical analysis and social action. In each stage, students share their projects online with the global community. Likewise, students from other countries also share. So for students to look at and understand other student work may be problematic if language is a barrier. In addition, communication with others may also be a difficulty. To avoid this, at the beginning, you may want to just concentrate on other projects and schools who speak the same language as yourself. However, within a short time, you will probably want to expand outward. In this case, the teacher may want to make use of the project facilitators (which we will discuss further down) or even employ a translator to help translate communications. Again, while this may be a barrier, it may also be a good teaching moment for students to understand how this process works and how to communicate with others who may not speak the same language.
Data Collection-Depending on the community in which the school exists may impact how easily data can be collected. The one section of the project asks students to interview parents, family members or community members regarding how they use math in everyday lives. The cool thing about this is that the project itself gives an alternative in which students can write math story problems about the way they use math. The teacher may want to give students guiding questions or ideas of what to ask or look for when the students determine how their community uses math.
Time-The issue of time with this project doesn’t necessarily mean that the activities within the project are too long and tedious to complete. In fact, they are pretty engaging and of high interest. However, like it was mentioned earlier, there are many different levels to this project. And while the students don’t have to progress systematically through the levels, the Critical Analysis and Social Action levels are definitely more difficult to understand for students and take more time to complete. Within the project description, it states that students may not get to the Social Action level within one school year. For teachers, this can pose a problem in terms of wanting to see a project through to its end (or at least to the point where students employ higher-level thinking skills). Since most of the time teachers here don’t teach the same students more than one year in a row, it is entirely possible that students will be left with a feeling of “unfinishedness.” To address this, teachers may want to limit the scope of the project, especially if it is their first time participating. The goal may be to only hit the Personal and Critical Analysis stages in that year.
Using facilitators/experts-One of the supports that the project provides is the use of facilitators to bridge the communication gaps as well as to provide support for teachers. I think one big difficulty with utilizing this would be the availability of the facilitators. Teachers would have to be flexible with when they would be able to get support. Teachers may need to plan out well in advance when using these services.
Students at different levels of math-One of the biggest issues that may come up is the fact that teachers may have students at very different levels in math. While the project is somewhat specific about what type of data should be collected, there is some flexibility. The idea here is that students will contribute a report of their local project to the “Connecting Math to Our Lives” site. The report will be on the “issue of global importance” that the project determines. Data is then collected and analyzed by classes around the world with the intent to “uncover stereotypes, understand history, and examine issues of inequality.” Because the data that needs to be submitted is going toward global analysis, the teacher really doesn’t have flexibility in what needs to be submitted. However, what a teacher can do is to look for different levels of participation. For example, a student who may struggle with math could identify some ways math is used in everyday life and work on the collage part of the project. Other students who have more math skill may be able to look at data collected through interviews (also part of the project) and graph that data to be presented.
Language-Much of this project, particularly at the beginning stages, really revolves around looking at yourself and your immediate community and how math relates to your daily life. However, as the project progresses, the level of interaction increases. Students move from a personal stage to critical analysis and social action. In each stage, students share their projects online with the global community. Likewise, students from other countries also share. So for students to look at and understand other student work may be problematic if language is a barrier. In addition, communication with others may also be a difficulty. To avoid this, at the beginning, you may want to just concentrate on other projects and schools who speak the same language as yourself. However, within a short time, you will probably want to expand outward. In this case, the teacher may want to make use of the project facilitators (which we will discuss further down) or even employ a translator to help translate communications. Again, while this may be a barrier, it may also be a good teaching moment for students to understand how this process works and how to communicate with others who may not speak the same language.
Data Collection-Depending on the community in which the school exists may impact how easily data can be collected. The one section of the project asks students to interview parents, family members or community members regarding how they use math in everyday lives. The cool thing about this is that the project itself gives an alternative in which students can write math story problems about the way they use math. The teacher may want to give students guiding questions or ideas of what to ask or look for when the students determine how their community uses math.
Time-The issue of time with this project doesn’t necessarily mean that the activities within the project are too long and tedious to complete. In fact, they are pretty engaging and of high interest. However, like it was mentioned earlier, there are many different levels to this project. And while the students don’t have to progress systematically through the levels, the Critical Analysis and Social Action levels are definitely more difficult to understand for students and take more time to complete. Within the project description, it states that students may not get to the Social Action level within one school year. For teachers, this can pose a problem in terms of wanting to see a project through to its end (or at least to the point where students employ higher-level thinking skills). Since most of the time teachers here don’t teach the same students more than one year in a row, it is entirely possible that students will be left with a feeling of “unfinishedness.” To address this, teachers may want to limit the scope of the project, especially if it is their first time participating. The goal may be to only hit the Personal and Critical Analysis stages in that year.
Using facilitators/experts-One of the supports that the project provides is the use of facilitators to bridge the communication gaps as well as to provide support for teachers. I think one big difficulty with utilizing this would be the availability of the facilitators. Teachers would have to be flexible with when they would be able to get support. Teachers may need to plan out well in advance when using these services.
Students at different levels of math-One of the biggest issues that may come up is the fact that teachers may have students at very different levels in math. While the project is somewhat specific about what type of data should be collected, there is some flexibility. The idea here is that students will contribute a report of their local project to the “Connecting Math to Our Lives” site. The report will be on the “issue of global importance” that the project determines. Data is then collected and analyzed by classes around the world with the intent to “uncover stereotypes, understand history, and examine issues of inequality.” Because the data that needs to be submitted is going toward global analysis, the teacher really doesn’t have flexibility in what needs to be submitted. However, what a teacher can do is to look for different levels of participation. For example, a student who may struggle with math could identify some ways math is used in everyday life and work on the collage part of the project. Other students who have more math skill may be able to look at data collected through interviews (also part of the project) and graph that data to be presented.