Joseph M. Furner

Taking an Internet Field Trip: Promoting Cultural and Historical Diversity through Mayan Mathematics.

SummaryTeachers in today’s mathematics classrooms are confronted with the challenge of meeting the needs of students with diverse needs and backgrounds. The NCTM standards and the literature on diverse learners suggest that all students may benefit from strategies that promote cultural and historical connections and the use of technologies, such as Internet Field Trips, and manipulatives that focus on the active engagement of students through exploration and communications.In a passionate plea for bridging the culture gap in our classrooms, Moore (1994) proposes that, Mathematics is definitely not culture-free … no mathematics teacher could even contemplate seriously taking only the values of his culture and a textbook which is a product of his culture and imposing both himself and the textbook upon individuals possessed by a culture that diverges from his in any significant area. (p. 13)Teachers who use a variety of resources and who incorporate innovative ideas such as Internet Field Trips into their teaching in order to make learning more meaningful will find students more interested in mathematics. Bridging the cultural gap in mathematics instruction will profit all students as they becoming more understanding, appreciative, and tolerant of one another and each other’s cultures—and using the Internet, which now most young people can relate to, can make learning more meaningful for the learners.