Writing for On-Math

by the ON-Math Editorial Panel

ON-Math, the newest NCTM peer-reviewed journal, is committed to providing members with interesting and relevant articles that take advantage of electronic media. The Editorial Panel of ON-Math wishes to encourage teachers, teacher educators, and students to consider submitting manuscripts. The Editorial Panel is interested in publishing articles that—

• enhance the understanding of mathematics;
• reflect a vision of teaching and learning mathematics appropriate for the twenty-first century;
• capitalize on the opportunities that the electronic media affords;
• are useful to teachers and teacher educators in their classrooms;
• address a range of issues associated with equity and diversity in mathematics education that are compatible with NCTM's "mathematics for all" statement;
• reflect interdisciplinary approaches to learning mathematics;
• explicitly relate to NCTM’s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics;
• address student assessment, teacher preparation, or best practices in classroom instruction; and
• presented in a concise, non-linear, Web-based format.

Video Streaming video can be used in a variety of ways to enhance articles about mathematics teaching and learning. For example, an author might use a clip of students actively engaging in an investigation, project, or task that the article describes. Readers of the article would view the clip as a means of helping them understand how they could implement the activity in their classrooms. As a second example, the author of an article on teacher preparation might discuss specific teaching strategies and include a video clip of a teacher employing the strategies. This vehicle gives authors an opportunity to feature their best lesson, one that has evolved over time into a "fantastic" lesson and has even the most recalcitrant students talking when they leave the classroom.

Video Clip from the article Reflecting On Learning Without Understanding

Authors may use video clips to illustrate the uses of manipulatives, multimedia, and technology to make mathematics a hands-on, interactive, real-life experience for students. Video clips also might feature the use of technology to promote achievement in mathematics for special needs students.

When including video in a manuscript, authors should adhere to the following guidelines:

• The clip should clearly support the content of the article.
• The video should be of interest to the viewer.
• The clip should be less than three minutes in length.

Applets The Editorial Panel encourages articles featuring the use of applets that enhance students’ understanding by letting them dynamically explore a concept in mathematics. Important pedagogical considerations regarding each applet are its interactive abilities, ease of use, robustness under use, and attractiveness in a learning environment. Remember that the article must focus on the learning of mathematics; the applet should be only a part of the full article. Many previous ON-Math articles contain good examples of the use of applets.

Least Squares Applet

We encourage authors to use the many public-domain interactive applets that are currently available. Sources include the following:

The Illuminations project:
http://illuminations.nctm.org/

The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Mathematics:
http://matti.usu.edu/nlvm/nav/

VirtualMath, Science, and Technology Education Java Activities:
http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/java/default.xml

The Math Forum’s MathTools:
http://mathforum.org/mathtools/index.html

The Mathematical Sciences Digital Library:
http://www.mathdl.org/

Multimedia Presentations

Using multimedia tools to make available student or teacher presentations is another capability of ON-Math. For example, students could photograph objects that mimic the graphs of particular functions, then use technology to fit the graphs of functions to those pictures. Such “objects” could be the stream of water from a fountain or the motion of a point on a bicycle tire as it rolls along. The use of photographs of real-world patterns or geometric shapes could also be the focus of an article.

An author might investigate the mathematics in music through a multimedia presentation. For example, assigning notes to the rings in the Tower of Hanoi could create a sequence of tones that records the moves necessary to solve the problem.

Graphing Calculator, Mathematics and Dynamic Modeling Software

Articles in print journals about the use of graphing calculator, mathematics, and dynamic modeling software usually are accompanied by static screen shots. ON-Math’s online nature means that illustrating articles with dynamic calculator and computer applications is now possible. Examples include articles based on the following:

• Approximating the circumference and area of a circle by using inscribed and circumscribed polygons
• Approximating the graphs of functions by Taylor polynomials of a variety of degrees
• Generating Pythagorean Triples
• Conducting probability simulations involving spinners, dice, playing cards, the Monte Carlo method, and so on
• Demonstrating the difference between two groups. Statistical software could be used to analyze data that students in a class input
• Using downloadable calculator programs to investigate algebraic relationships

Electronic journals have opened a wealth of new methods for presenting information to a target audience. The Editorial Panel of ON-Math hopes that authors will be as excited about exercising their creativity in writing new articles as we are about presenting those articles to the members of NCTM. If you have any questions or ideas, please email the panel at onmathpanel@nctm.org.