Inside Mathforum.org

Wesley Shumar is an anthropologist at Drexel University, Philadelphia. His research focuses on digital media, math education and virtual educational communities. Since 1997, he has worked as an ethnographer at the Math Forum. Currently, he is Co-Principal Investigator on EnCoMPASS, a four-year National Science Foundation (NSF) project designed to build an online community of math teachers through formative assessment and a focus on student problem-solving. He was the Principal Investigator on two other NSF projects, the Online Mentoring Project and the Math Forum's Virtual Fieldwork Sequence. He is co-editor of Building Virtual Communities: Learning and Change in Cyberspace (with K. Ann Renninger, Cambridge, 2002).

• 1. Introduction; 2. Ethnography with a leading internet-based educational center; 3. History of the Math Forum; 4. Possibilities and their foreclosure in the digital educational economy; 5. Mathematical conversations and mathematical thinking; 6. Mentoring students and faculty with digital technology; 7. Noticing and wondering in a mediated environment; 8. Space, affinity, and consciousness; 9. Identity and online interaction; 10. Conclusion; References; Index.

'This case study of The Math Forum highlights the contributions to mathematics education made by this online math resource center, making clear the essential components of the technology, invisible elements of the social structure its design invites and supports, and the cultural elements (e.g., values, ethos) that affected its original design and that have sustained its life over two decades. Shumar's analysis suggests lessons about building and sustaining communities of practice that have implications for teacher learning, online education more generally, and design of a wide range of other spaces for transformation.' Janet L. Kolodner, Chief Learning Scientist, Concord Consortium