Understanding the learning process is the key to everything

Teaching mathematics effectively, requires an appreciation of the big picture – of how the broad issues of mathematics fit into our daily lives. How you see math, and how deeply you see the patterns below the surface, will influence your teaching and the quality of the instruction you deliver. Ed Tech 4 Math is dedicated to exploring how educational technology can support high quality teaching.

Las Meninas (Spanish for The Maids of Honor) is a 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez (1599 – 1660), the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. The work’s obscure and mysterious composition provokes questions on illusion and reality creating a somewhat vague relationship between the viewer and the figures portrayed. This is the very reason why Pablo Picasso was almost obsessed with Las Meninas creating tens of interpretations of this composite work of art.

I have a very strong reason to place Las Meninas and Picasso’s interpretation of it right at the beginning of the very first article in this blog which is supposed to be on mathematics: Imagine you happened to see Picasso’s version of Las Meninas first. Would you be able to “see” what it really reveals? In other words, would you be able to see the Las Meninas that really lies behind? Let us set aside the symbols and analogies for a moment and ask ourselves the ultimate question: Can we manage to see the big picture without getting lost in the details? Let us keep in mind that life is never as crystal clear as Las Meninas and things often appear as complicated as the way Picasso sees it.

We are the inhabitants of a world in the age of information flooded by bits and pieces of knowledge which grow with an ever increasing pace that the word exponential is simply not enough to express. Despite the level of technology that has been attained, the critical part of the job still remains to be performed by the humans: decide on what information to make use of and what to discard. Believe me, it is harder a job than it sounds!

All in all, those who can see the Las Meninas behind the Picasso will be the ones who survive in the big picture situations and manage to move forward in life; those who fail to do so will unfortunately remain insignificant.

Once again, this blog is dedicated to mathematics and technology, with a special emphasis on how we can employ technology in the mathematics classroom in order to enhance the students’ learning process. However, we will not hesitate to share instances where wisdom has improved the way people think and changed their lives, as well as society, for the better. Therefore, if you have any relevant ideas, comments, suggestions, or experiences that you think are worth being published in this blog, please contribute! Let us join our forces to advance humanity! After all, is this not the definitive objective of mathematics and technology?