Conrad Wolfram, Friday Potpourri, and...

1) "The central change in real-world maths of the last 50 or so years is that we automated the hell out of calculating." That's Conrad Wolfram in the course of espousing his view of digital reform for British math education (and singing the praises of Estonia for adopting a more computer-based math education system):

http://tinyurl.com/kyp8yto
(...not surprisingly, he gets some push-back in the comments)

2) Several science bloggers do regular end-of-week linkfests to articles they found interesting over the prior week. I've been doing little "potpourri" posts haphazardly here at Math-Frolic from time to time to direct readers to pieces that I don't care to write a whole post on. I'll now try (as an experiment) to do a once-per-week "potpourri" offering over at MathTango (probably on Fri. or Sat.) of all the extra stories I want to take note of... a sort of weekly mini-math carnival solely of my own picks-of-interest.
Check MathTango tomorrow for the first one! (And then on Sun. or Mon. the next Math-Frolic interview will be up over at MathTango as well.)

3) Speaking of interviews... Frederick at White Group Mathematics recently interviewed yours truly for his blog (...wherein you learn that I'm waiting for a call from Taylor Swift ;-):

http://www.whitegroupmaths.com/2014/02/exclusive-interview-with-creator-of.html

"Computer Based Math"

A new education effort calling itself "Computer Based Math" appears to be taking a foothold. It is initially backed by Conrad Wolfram (and Wolfram Research) who has argued for some time now for a sort of revolutionary computer-based approach to math education, wherein calculating is downplayed in favor of learning coding and information technology applications. It is to be an international effort, and they are joining forces with UNICEF as announced here:

http://tinyurl.com/m67l2jb

main page for the organization: http://www.computerbasedmath.org/
with an "about" page here:  http://www.computerbasedmath.org/about.html

They state that what is needed is "...a fundamental change to the school subject we call math. It needs to be clearly articulated and decisively acted upon. That's why Conrad Wolfram has founded computerbasedmath.org. He and many others see a growing chasm between math in education and math outside, between the increasingly irrelevant school math curriculum that contrasts with the critical and growing importance of math and its uses in the real world. They've observed how many of those involved in school math fail to appreciate the total transformation and fundamental change that computers have brought to this ancient subject in recent decades."

The website appears young at this point, rather thin on details and speaking in generalities, but probably worth following as things progress.

They have a Twtter feed (@ComputerMath) here:  https://twitter.com/ComputerMath

(image from Open Clip Art Library)

The Shape of Things To Come

"There are changes lyin' ahead in every road 
And there are new thoughts ready and waiting to explode 
When tomorrow is today the bells may toll for some 
But nothing can change the shape of things to come."

Pardon my stubborn connection to the 60's....




Am always a tad nervous about heading down the rabbit-hole of math education… the topic is so huge (but also so vital), with a multitude of views, from so many intelligent, passionate people… but seems impossible not to venture there on occasion:
I'm familiar with Conrad Wolfram's views for reforming math education from some of his prior interviews, but somehow I missed this 2+ year-old TEDTalk (17 mins.) that summarizes his thoughts nicely (emphasizing programming/coding over calculating/computation, computer work over manual, pad-and-pencil work):



Speaking of math education, any day now Keith Devlin should be announcing his own personal company's animated approach to young math education (from innertubegames.net), so, anxious to see what that looks like.

And speaking of animation, Sol Lederman's newest podcast was with the producers of the popular computer-generated film "Dimensions" who are now out with "Chaos."
Unfortunately, the podcast audio was unsatisfactory so Sol had to transcribe the interview.  His post below links to the pdf transcription of that interview AND to a link for viewing "Chaos" (in 9 parts):

http://wildaboutmath.com/2013/02/16/an-interview-with-the-chaos-film-makers/

And finally, on a somewhat different note about the future of mathematics, this potent piece from John Baez on what is being deemed "green mathematics" and its role in our lives to come as we approach significant planetary problems ahead:

http://tinyurl.com/c3ge4nj

Baez writes that "mathematics will become increasingly driven by our need to understand the biosphere and our role within it" and notes that interdisciplinary "network theory" will be a major tool for solutions going forward.