On Thursday 27 Jan 2011 7:02:37 am David Corking wrote:
On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 8:18 PM, Edward Cherlin wrote:
We have the offer of a calculus book for elementary grades.
.... At a brief (and all too cursory) first impression, Don Cohen's approach seems to be based on what a student can discover with pencil and paper. These are good things. Yet, to me, one strong appeal of calculus is its dynamic applications, which can be revealed (numerically if not analytically) to students who build their own animated Etoys.
Just a note of caution. Elementary grades are where students pickup fluency in writing and reading. I hear teachers, even in USA, face students who are yet to become fluent in reading/writing to use programs like Etoys meaningfully. Try using Etoys with dingbat fonts for a week to understand how it feels to a elementary grader.
Elementary grade students are intensely physical. They learn more through movements, touch and sounds than through sight. If "teaching" means 'reaching out to >80% of learners' then abstract models like Etoys or Pen/Paper can only supplement more concrete learning aids.
Subbu