Making maths mean something
A while ago, I went to a parents evening at my son’s school, where his IT teacher told me he wasn’t doing very well with Excel. This didn’t sound much like Theo to me. When questioned later, he claimed the spreadsheets were boring, and he was better off doing any bits of maths required in his head rather than typing in the formulas.
Now this isn’t going to turn into a boast about my (admittedly brilliant, if awkward) son, nor a diatribe about the more general decline of mental arithmetic. The lesson here for me was that maths is one of those things – like spreadsheets – that’s only going to mean anything when it means something.
Scrabble, fantasy football and holidays
For adults in particular, there’s very little draw to get involved in maths itself, for its own sake. In fact the very word ‘maths’ is probably a turn off for many, if not most. Now getting involved in a fantasy football league – and calculating the odds – that’s something to get engaged in. Playing scrabble and being able to plan your 36 pointer, measuring your baking ingredients, tracking your sponsorship for charity, creating a budget in order to save for a dream holiday – all of these MEAN something.
For me, this is the key to adult maths.
The Online Centres Foundation (OCF) runs the national network of UK online centres and those centres are experts at maths by the back door. In order to get people interested in the online world, centres focus on individual interests and maths comes in almost incidentally – for instance in doing online price comparisons, converting measurements to follow a DIY masterclass on YouTube, or working out time differences for Skype calls. As a partner in the Maths4us initiative led by NIACE, we want to see that back door opened for even more people.
Start something new
Over the next few months, we’ll be working with our network to make sure incidental or informal maths can follow clear pathways onto more formal learning, and that those who recognise their skills are rusty can access relevant and engaging tools to brush up – online or offline. We’re kicking activity off this week as part of our Start something campaign, challenging the nation to leave failed New Year’s resolutions behind and start something new online – you can find out more on Twitter by following @UKonlinecentres and using #startsomethingonline. Whether it’s getting a new job, getting connected, or getting healthy, we want people to start something new and get the online skills they need to make a real and lasting change in their lives. That might well be maths, or certainly include maths. Thousands of Start something sessions will be taking place across the country from coffee mornings to open days, workshops and masterclasses.
Like IT skills, maths isn’t an end in itself, it’s a way to help people do more of what they need or want to do, more easily and more effectively. And everyone – even (in case my son is reading this) a self-assured 17 year old has something to learn. Delivered in the right way, maths is relevant to everyone.
In short, maths really is for us.
Helen Milner is the Chief Executive of Online Centres Foundation, the social enterprise that runs the UK online centres service. She is passionate about the use of digital skills to build capacity in local communities and the benefits that ‘digital by default’ service delivery can provide.
Helen has over 20 years experience of working in the e-learning industry, starting in 1985 in the private sector with The Times Network Systems, developing online education services for schools. She joined Ufi in 1999, where she previously led the operation of the learndirect learning network and learndirect advice services. She also led the ippr and University of Sunderland ‘university for industry’pilot, following the Labour victory in May 1997. Helen has led UK online centres since its establishment and in 2011, she established Online Centres Foundation, the staff-owned mutual which won the contract to run the UK online centres service.
Get involved in Maths4us via Twitter – follow @NIACEhq and use #maths4us.
Find out more about OCF and UK online centres on Twitter – follow @helenmilner and @UKonlinecentres.
