College-Algebra.Com

Mathematics is an intellectual activity, not a motor skill.
Delano P. Wegener, 2005

College-Algebra.Com is affiliated with DrDelMath.Com. Both are written, owned, and copyrighted by Delano P. Wegener, Ph.D. (DrDel) This website and all content contained herein is for those students who are truly interested in learning College Algebra. College-Algebra.Com will be clearly different than most of the very many web sites which present algebra topics. This website will be based on correct mathematics and well established principles of learning and teaching.

Mathematics is an intellectual activity and is therefore learned by exercising the intellect. Once the mathematics has been learned, it may be used to answer questions from virtually every discipline or activity.

The content, presentation style, explanations, as well as frequent study advice will be designed to emphasize conceptual understanding of the relevant mathematics principles. A solid understanding of relevant mathematics is a necessary and sufficient condition to successfully use mathematics to answer questions and solve problems in other areas.

In the last 25 - 30 years the United States has gone from Number 1 to Number 25 (link) in a ranking of countries according to student's performance in mathematics. In the last 25 - 30 years mathematics education in the United States has become a motor skill type training activity based upon working thousands of insipid problems.

COGNITIVE SCIENCE EXPERTS

The teaching and learning theories employed on this website, and practiced for a lifetime by DrDel, are those well established and proven theories developed primarily by the the following cognitive scientists.

MATHEMATICS CONSIDERATIONS

Advice To The Student

Finding the answer is not your goal. Learning concepts, principles, and deductive reasoning is your primary goal. A secondary goal is to improve your ability to use concepts, principles, and deductive reasoning to answer a wide variety of questions both mathematical and non-mathematical.

My Pledge To The Student

• I will do my utmost to assist your learning by presenting good mathematics, to present it according to the best principles of teaching and learning as established by cognitive scientists, and to use the computer and internet to the best of my ability to facilitate learning.
• The mathematics will be correct.
• There will be no "gimmicks" or "one-off" methods or procedures.
• Every concept will be presented so that it is extensible.
• Only noteworthy mathematics will be presented.
• Reoccurring themes will be pointed out and will be clearly traceable through their various contexts.
• When a concept is an extension or abstraction of a previously learned concept that connection will be utilized to facilitate understanding.
• Emphasis will be on concepts, generalizations, structure, abstraction, and algebra vs numbers.

ESSAYS

The essay section of the website is a collection of essays (past, present, and future) about teaching and learning in general and in particular teaching and learning mathematics.

CONTENT TYPES AND PURPOSES

All the different instructional devices and their purpose.

TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS

I will strive to make College-Algebra.Com a state-of-the-art, standards compliant website, which passes all relevant W3C validation tests. Accessibility issues will be addressed to the best of my abilities.

College-Algebra.Com will be a dynamic mathematics education website, with interactive content designed to facilitate learning. To accomplish these goals the following languages, tools, and techniques will be used during development of College-Algebra.Com:

TIMELINE

Posted the index.html page on Wednesday 13 AUG 2008.
Completed major revison of index pages and menus on 1 NOV 2008.

Because the goals set forth above are ambitious and will be developed by one man in his spare time it will undoubtedly take years to complete. Material will be added to the site when it is ready. That implies that during development some sections will contain more components than others. I will also use the index pages as planning documents. Therefore this site will usually have menu items that lead nowhere. I will do my best to mark them.

College-Algebra.Com will probably always be a work in progress.

CONTACT

I may be contacted at drdel@college-algebra.com