Monday Math Buffet...

Another potpourri of offerings, if you've missed any of these…:

1) I love this relatively brief recent post from a secondary educator:

http://practicaltheory.org/blog/2013/02/28/we-dont-know-how-to-teach-math/

Also have to smile a bit at this particular line from the piece: "Seymour Papert said that math represents the failure of progressive education because the way we teach math always reintroduces coercion back into education."

But every line is good, and it largely reminds me of a fantastic, (looong) older post by Fields Medalist Timothy Gowers (which drew over 160 comments) that deserves frequent re-visiting:

http://gowers.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/how-should-mathematics-be-taught-to-non-mathematicians/

2) Latest (#96) Carnival of Mathematics is now up at "Math Mama Writes" blog:

http://mathmamawrites.blogspot.com/2013/03/carnival-of-mathematics-96.html

...Plenty of variety!

3) "Futility Closet" recently highlighted the delightful (to me) Yablo's Paradox:

http://www.futilitycloset.com/2013/02/22/yablos-paradox/

4) On the same day that I interviewed Evelyn Lamb over at MathTango, she put up a new post at her blog on the four-color theorem:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/2013/03/01/4-color-map-theorem/

5) Once again Keith Devlin covers some aspects/difficulties of running a MOOC at his "Devlin's Angle" blog (Keith is running at least 3 separate blogs, plus a Huff. Post column!):

http://devlinsangle.blogspot.com/2013/03/can-we-make-constructive-use-of-machine.html

...and over at Huffington Post Keith writes about the dropout rates for MOOCs, and why an 80+% dropout rate isn't necessarily a problem:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-keith-devlin/moocs-and-the-myths-of-dr_b_2785808.html

6) Math educator Maria Droujkova, with a focus on toddlers and youngsters, is Sol Lederman's 24th podcast interviewee here:

http://wildaboutmath.com/2013/03/01/maria-droujkova-inspired-by-math-24/

7) And finally, if you have any mental energy/time left, a long, thought-provoking read from the Simons Foundation on the future of computers in mathematical proofs (can we trust computers, as we turn to them more and more in the future for proofs of highly-complex theorems?):

https://simonsfoundation.org/features/science-news/in-computers-we-trust/