Welcome from the Mathematics Education Curator

Michael L. Connell, Ph.D.
307 MBH
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112

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** CONNELL@GSE.UTAH.EDU <-- THIS ADDRESS WILL WORK **
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	For those who have read these words before...  Please note
that my EMAIL adress in the earlier version is no longer correct. 
The address shown above is correct. For those who have been trying 
to reach me... TRY AGAIN PLEASE!!!!  Your comments and suggestions
are essential for the growth and development of this section.

	For those of you who are new here, let me introduce
myself.  Since my initial training as an elementary teacher, I have 
been driven to address three fundamental questions from elementary 
mathematics: "How do students and teachers best learn mathematics?", 
"How can we tell what students and teachers have learned in this 
effort?", and "How can we best teach elementary mathematics in light 
of this information?".  Looking back, I realize that my pursuit of 
answers to these questions have played a substantial role in shaping 
my professional career.  For example, after being a teacher for several 
years, I chose to accept a curriculum position at the district level to see 
if my techniques for teaching mathematics could be effectively 
transmitted across an entire district.  As it turned out they could, but 
only with substantial effort.  In analyzing why this should be the case,  
I realized I needed further professional growth.  My subsequent 
doctoral work in Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois 
was a direct result of this reflection.  Although I have utilized differing 
approaches over the years, pursuing answers to these questions still 
form the cornerstone of my work.  
	Along with these three questions, I have a strong related 
interest in educational technology which arose from teaching 
experiences and district responsibilities.  I was fortunate enough to 
have been using technology in the classroom long before there was an 
established body of literature describing what could be done.  The 
paucity of available research information, coupled with the then 
astronomical costs of educational software, lead me to use existing 
software in novel ways.  I used a spreadsheet, for example, as an 
integral part of my students' sense-making and problem-solving 
efforts.  A simple paint program provided the basis for sketching out 
problem situations and student pictures of their thinking.  It was 
during this time that I realized that this new tool, the computer, had 
the potential of significantly increasing my students' learning in 
mathematics. 
	Since then I have been fortunate enough to have had many of 
my ideas actually work - often in surprising ways.  I have also seen the 
technology advance to the point where my word processor now takes 
up more space on my hard disk than I originally had on my entire 
school server.  These are clearly exciting times!  I look forward to 
being of service to you and learning from you as we begin this journey 
of knowledge co-construction together.
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