Stanford’s Media X talk – Videogame Abacci with Keith Devlin
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From Chuck House and Martha Russell…
“The textbook is perhaps the worst possible medium for teaching mathematics,” says Stanford mathematician Keith Devlin.
Link to Video
“We are at a moment in history where mathematics education, at least at the middle school level, could change completely and dramatically,” according to Keith Devlin, a Stanford mathematician with an interest in how the subject is taught.
Videogame Abacci
Keith Devlin
Monday, March 1, 2010 12:30 – 1:30 pm
#124 Wallenberg Hall
Live stream at: http://mediax.stanford.edu/video/MediaXLive.mov
The first modern textbook on everyday, practical, commercial mathematics was Leonardo of Pisa’s “Liber abbaci” (The Book of Calculation”), completed in 1202. Given Leonardo’s innovative vision in writing the book, it seems clear that had the technology been available at the time, his book would have been supplementary to a videogame. Why is this? What challenges would he have faced in doing this? And what kind of game would it have been? I can answer the first question, give a partial answer to the second, and can speculate about the third.
Dr. Keith Devlin is a co-founder and Executive Director of the university’s H-STAR institute, a co-founder of the Stanford Media X research network, and a Senior Researcher at CSLI. He is a World Economic Forum Fellow and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His current research is focused on the use of different media to teach and communicate mathematics to diverse audiences. He also works on the design of information/reasoning systems for intelligence analysis. Other research interests include: theory of information, models of reasoning, applications of mathematical techniques in the study of communication, and mathematical cognition. He has written 28 books and over 80 published research articles. Recipient of the Pythagoras Prize, the Peano Prize, the Carl Sagan Award, and the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award. In 2003, he was recognized by the California State Assembly for his “innovative work and longtime service in the field of mathematics and its relation to logic and linguistics.” He is “the Math Guy” on National Public Radio.
Other Media X Philips 2010 Winter Seminars
March 8
Integrating CRM into Social Media
Lyle Fong, Lithium
Attendance is free and open to the public, pending availability.
