1. Introduction; 2. Ethnography with a leading internet-based educational center; 3. History of the Math Forum; 4. Possibilities and their foreclosure in the digital educational economy; 5. Mathematical conversations and mathematical thinking; 6. Mentoring students and faculty with digital technology; 7. Noticing and wondering in a mediated environment; 8. Space, affinity, and consciousness; 9. Identity and online interaction; 10. Conclusion; References; Index.
Inside Mathforum.org is an ethnographic study of how digital media transform the learning contexts of both teachers and students of mathematics.
Wesley Shumar is an anthropologist at Drexel University, Philadelphia. His research focuses on digital media, math education and virtual educational communities. Since 1997, he has worked as an ethnographer at the Math Forum. Currently, he is Co-Principal Investigator on EnCoMPASS, a four-year National Science Foundation (NSF) project designed to build an online community of math teachers through formative assessment and a focus on student problem-solving. He was the Principal Investigator on two other NSF projects, the Online Mentoring Project and the Math Forum's Virtual Fieldwork Sequence. He is co-editor of Building Virtual Communities: Learning and Change in Cyberspace (with K. Ann Renninger, Cambridge, 2002).
'This case study of The Math Forum highlights the contributions to
mathematics education made by this online math resource center,
making clear the essential components of the technology, invisible
elements of the social structure its design invites and supports,
and the cultural elements (e.g., values, ethos) that affected its
original design and that have sustained its life over two decades.
Shumar's analysis suggests lessons about building and sustaining
communities of practice that have implications for teacher
learning, online education more generally, and design of a wide
range of other spaces for transformation.' Janet L. Kolodner, Chief
Learning Scientist, Concord Consortium
'One of the pleasures of reading Shumar's ethnography, Inside
Mathforum.org, is the care he takes in portraying how larger
neoliberal structures, digital technologies, and the affordances of
the Math forum community unfold over the long term, almost twenty
years. This portrait shows different strategic moments in the
existence of Tthe Math Forum whose creative staff and online
participants facilitate the emergence of community spaces both in
spite of and because of the increasing commodification of the
university. Rather than situate himself against some literature,
his more intellectually generous approach is to use that literature
to generate a sense of a broad interdisciplinary field where both
structure, agency, and indeterminacy allow us to understand the
potential for learning and pitfalls for organization faced by the
Math Forum. Brilliant ideas and exegesis emerge on every page.'
Jonathan Church, Arcadia University, Pennsylvania
'Many years before Khan Academy, a distributed network of math
educators were conducting Problems of the Week and inspiring
learners. In my online learning communities courses, I've always
enjoyed teaching with Wesley Shumar's ethnographic research
writings on the pioneering Math Forum. This book now provides the
ultimate resource on this seminal effort for spawning and
sustaining community discourse about mathematics.' Roy Pea,
Stanford University, California
'Shumar presents a well-researched analysis of the political and
cultural impacts to and the contributions of MathForum.org, as well
as the broader scope of the internet in education. An ethnography
in method and style, the book is organized in concise, yet dense,
sections, offering a discussion that spans ethnography to
neoliberalism. The inclusion of figures from the Forum, including
the grading rubric and mentoring example, assist in transforming
the community from an abstract idea to a tangible place of
learning.' C. R. Hebert, Choice
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