Guiding Principles

Next week my school is hosting an Apple Distinguished Educators conference, and this has provided the ideal opportunity for me to pin down what I think is possible with Swift in math, and how we should concentrate our energies over the coming months.

Our school employs a lot of technology, all of which is measured against the three pillars of our overall digital strategy: to provide seamless access to content, remove barriers to learning and allow teachers to do what they do best (ask and answer great questions). The hardware/software isn’t our starting point, the learning opportunity is paramount.

In preparation for a conversation with Cupertino last night I tried to isolate what similar condensed thoughts might be for Coding/Swift:

  1. That code is the natural experimental side of mathematics and should be embraced as a tool which allows us to glimpse into a world of much harder mathematics than we could access (at this stage of training) with traditional tools.

  2. That coding techniques should be motivated by example and always have utility and make new things accessible.

  3. That computation can complement rather conflict with classical analysis and interplay between the two should be fluid (see example above).

  4. That code is not always the best technical resource we have - GDCs, Geogebra, and Excel can be very powerful.

  5. It would be wonderful if we as maths teachers could make much more of an effort to highlight real maths/styles of creative thinking, and allow basic coding to free us of much of the drudgery of calculation.

We still need to ensure the students can ace exams, and ensure that the correct support is given to everyone (both students and teachers) but hopefully this will be a seed for discussion (beyond what Dr Google has to say). I link to a write-up of a fascinating lesson which emerged organically yesaterday, and I think demonstrates the power of Swift in experimental mathematics.