CHAIR:     Jerry Kissick                    Portland Community College, OR

EDITOR:     Joyce E. Oster                       Johnson & Wales University, RI

 

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:	Page 2:  Incoming Chair Report	Page 3:  Pittsburgh PA Minutes
Page 5:  Revised Goals (draft)	Page 6:  Feature Article	Page 8:  Message from the Editor

A Farewell Message from the Outgoing Chair, Brian Smith

It has been a great experience for me to chair the committee and I feel that I gained as much as I gave by holding the position.  I wish Jerry the very best of luck and hope that he will enjoy his time as committee chair as much as I did.

I still have a little unfinished business – specifically completion of the technology survey and handing over the listserv, so I am not quite done!

My sincere thanks to all the committee members who have worked with me over the years.  The best part of it is that although the official position comes to an end, the friendships endure.  Many thanks, and I look forward to many more years working with the committee.

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Message and Report from the Incoming Chair, Jerry Kissick

As a part of his final duties as chair, Brian presented preliminary results of the technology survey at the Pittsburgh conference.  He will continue to evaluate the data and compile a final report during the upcoming year.  I want to thank everyone who took the time and effort to respond to the survey.

During our committee meetings in Pittsburgh, the committee worked on revising the goals of the TiME committee and established sub-committees to help the committee function more efficiently.  The following sub-committees were established along with their chairs:
 

Newsletter:	Joyce Oster
MATHEDCC discussion list:	Wayne Mackey
TiME Committee discussion list:	Darrell Abney
TiME Committee web page:	Brian Smith/Phil Thurber

The draft of the revised goals is included in this newsletter for comment.  If you have any suggestions as to how we might improve the wording or modify the content, please send them to me at jkissick@pcc.edu.  These revised goals will be submitted to the board for approval at their next meeting.

I want to thank everyone who participated in the recent e-mail discussion concerning the relation of the TiME committee to the AMATYC Strategic Plan.  I am sure we will be hearing more from the board as to how they would like us to support the plan during the upcoming years.

Anyone who would like to submit a technology article for a future newsletter, report on a technology event attended or advertise upcoming technology happenings of interest to the TiME committee members, please submit your article or information to me at jkissick@pcc.edu or to Joyce Oster at interact@ici.net.

I hope that everyone had a wondrous holiday season and is off to a great start in the year 2000.

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Minutes of the 1999 TiME Committee Meetings at Pittsburgh PA

Meeting #1 - Friday, November 19, 1999 - 12:00 to 1:00 PM

2.  Agenda Item #1: "Introduction of New Chair"
    - Brian Smith introduced Jerry Kissick of Portland OR

3.  Agenda Item #2: "Committee Business"
    -discussion on need for a Newsletter Editor - no newsletter for 1.5 years
        -opening to be posted on the web page with a mailing to Board Members
        -At the end of this meeting, Joyce Oster agreed to be the Newsletter Editor.
    -restructuring of subcommittees
        -Wayne Mackey will now handle MATHEDCC
            -originally Brian Smith's list
            -now has several hundred members
        -Brian Smith will continue to manage the TiME_TYC listserv (presently about 40
                members) until Darrell Abney takes over management of the TiME listserv
        -Phil Thurber volunteered to develop a Committee web page.
        -Brian Smith and Phil Thurber will develop the web page
            -suggestion: put history of committee on web site.

4.  Agenda Item #3: "Motion to retire the present Calculator Position Paper"
     -discussion of the present paper and its overlap to the Position Statement of the
            AMATYC's Instructional use of Technology in Mathematics
     -unanimous decision to retire present Position Paper
     -Brian Smith will speak about this at the Delegates' Meeting on Saturday

5.  Agenda Item #4: "Preliminary Report of Technology Survey"
     -discussion of "unofficial" online technology survey on the use of graphing
            calculators and CASs recently sent out by Brian Smith
     -results have been compiled and are being evaluated
     -more to be done with this survey in the future

6.  Agenda Item #5: "Revision of Committee Objectives"
     -TiME members should be prepared to discuss this Item in detail at Saturday's meeting.

Meeting #2 - Saturday, November 20, 1999 - 10:30 to 11:30 AM

2.  Agenda Item #5:  "Revision of Committee Objectives"

 -Goal I now reads:

To foster among the AMATYC membership an understanding of the instructional use of technology in mathematics through workshops and conference presentations in the use of calculators, computers and other technologies in mathematics and mathematics education.

To ensure that presentations at AMATYC conferences maintain a high quality of professionalism through the provision of appropriate state-of-the-art technology, hardware and operating systems for conference presenters.

 To develop guidelines for:
 A. the incorporation of technology (e.g., computers, calculators, software) for
          mathematics education in two-year colleges;
 B. the interaction of educational technology among mathematics and other
          disciplines;
 C. the review of technology-related presentations at AMATYC conferences;
 D. the appropriate use of the INTERNET in mathematics education.

To foster communication among the national mathematics and mathematics education organizations on topics that relate to instructional use of technology in mathematics.

To communicate the goals of the committee, and suggestions for their implementation, through the TiME committee Newsletter, TiME listserv, MATHEDCC and other AMATYC publications (e.g., The AMATYC News, The AMATYC Review).

4.  Agenda Item #7:  "Brief Report on Distance Learning"
     -brief discussion on TiME not incorporating distance education into our goals
     -a liaison between the TiME Committee and those involved in distance education
          will take place

5.  Miscellaneous:
     -computer/calculator survey should be updated on a regular basis; how
          often, to be determined.
     -discussion about possibly changing the topics in the future

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Draft of the Revised Goals of the TiME Committee

Goal I:          To foster among the AMATYC membership an understanding of the instructional use of technology in mathematics through workshops and conference presentations in the use of calculators, computers and other technologies in mathematics and mathematics education.

Goal II:        To ensure that presentations at AMATYC conferences maintain a high quality of professionalism through the provision of appropriate state-of-the-art technology, hardware and operating systems for conference presenters.

Goal III:       To develop guidelines for:

     A. the incorporation of technology (e.g., computers, calculators, software) for mathematics
            education in two-year colleges;

     B. the interaction of educational technology among mathematics and other disciplines;

     C.  the review of technology-related presentations at AMATYC conferences;

     D. the appropriate use of the INTERNET in mathematics education.

Goal IV:       To foster communication among the national mathematics and mathematics education organizations on topics that relate to instructional use of technology in mathematics.

Goal V:        To communicate the goals of the committee, and suggestions for their implementation, through the TiME Committee Newsletter, TiME listserv, MATHEDCC, and other AMATYC publications (e.g., The AMATYC News, The AMATYC Review).
 

DRAFT     DRAFT     DRAFT     DRAFT     DRAFT     DRAFT     DRAFT

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TiME Newsletter Feature Article

After a bit of thought (and thirty some years of giving and grading tests) I realized that it usually is very difficult to devise a study that will clearly demonstrate that the different contents of two different textbooks will result in a greater amount of learning by students using one or the other.  After all, the two groups of students will likely be taking different tests graded by different people at different times.  All these factors make it difficult to compare results from classes with innovative content and ones with more traditional content.  Other difficulties arise when comparing classes with the same content but taught with traditional and non-traditional techniques.

These difficulties might lead us to think that standardized, multiple-choice tests should be used so that student learning in different classes can be compared.  Unfortunately, there are problems with that approach besides questions about the validity of assessing student learning with a multiple-choice test.  On a network news broadcast recently it was announced that a large number of public school teachers had been caught changing their students’ answers to improve their scores on required standardized tests.

So, how can we assess student learning in a way that ensures that all students in all classes have comparable tests graded by strictly uniform (and high) standards and that minimizes the possibility of cheating by students, teachers, and administrators?  Why, my goodness, it’s simple!  Just give each student in each class a unique but comparable test that is like the traditional tests we all give.  Then, to ensure fairness and uniformity in grading, one person must grade all the tests, being careful to award all partial credits and full credits uniformly.  Of course, as anyone who has tried it on even a couple of classes knows, this is totally impractical for even a few classes.  And now we see technology (computers) riding in on a white horse to save the day.

It is possible to develop a testing program that generates a different but comparable test for each student.  The tests can have exactly the same problems and questions as a test given on paper.  The program can be made to grade each test almost instantly using completely uniform standards for awarding partial and full credit on each problem or question.

With such a testing system it is possible to compare results in all sorts of situations.  You could compare classes taught by the same teacher using different teaching methods, morning and afternoon classes, or different teachers covering the same materials.  The latter possibility may be slightly intimidating to some teachers but our experience with a system like the one described indicates that it needn’t be.  In other words, don’t worry, your students won’t do any worse than anyone else’s.

It should even be possible for AMATYC to actually provide standards for particular courses through such a system.  For instance, an exam covering all the topics normally included in a college algebra course could be developed by AMATYC.  Then any college or university wishing to use the exams could say with assurance that a student who passed the course (and the exam) at their school would have done so according to uniformly high standards as set by AMATYC.  With such a system in place it would be possible for a teacher, department, or school to show that an innovation in teaching or learning was actually producing better results.

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Message from the Editor

My goals for the TiME Newsletter include three printings per year: Fall, Winter, Spring.  With this in mind, please mark the following dates:
 

ISSUE:	PRINTING:	DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTALS:
Spring	May 2000	April 15, 2000
Fall	September 2000	August 15, 2000
Winter	January 2001	December 15, 2000

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