Week 9 Post B - Blogs, Vlogs, and Such

 For a Rad Math Tutoring blog, I was thinking I could break content down into 4 categories: educational math content, entertainment (funny or positive) math content, puzzles, events. The educational math content could include my take on a very specific math topic (usually focused is better), a comparison of different ways to approach the same problem, or even worked out solution to a problem that a follower submits. Having followers submit questions could be a good way to keep viewers engaged and active. When people follow an educational site, they probably want to see some applications of the knowledge or a few "how to" posts. However, I would not want the blog to turn into Chegg or some other website where students are just looking for answers to their homework.

 The entertainment content would include STEM jokes, memes, and riddles. It would also include motivational quotes and stories. These may seem like two different categories, but both the funny posts and motivational posts are aimed to help the readers feel good about a subject that could be intimidating to them. The motivational stories can be some from my friends and family, so that the readers feel more connected to me. They can also be stories that followers submit. This would be to allow followers to connect by giving something about themselves back. On the off chance that no one has ever asked them to share their experiences in education, it gives them an outlet. 

Puzzles are just fun and a great mental exercise! "You learn math by doing math," said some nameless person who was very clever. (I've only ever seen this claim as a meme, but there's truth to it.) It would be disappointing to have a math education blog and not include a "challenge of the month" problem. People can be very competitive, against others and also toward themselves. I could have the readers submit their solutions. The best 2-3 solutions are posted or win a prize (mentally setting aside a budget for prizes and giveaways). There could also be simpler puzzles every 1-2 weeks: sudoku, kakuro, magic squares...the list could go on for a while!

Events was a category suggested by my friend when I was asking them for advice. I am not sold on hosting LIVE events and tutoring demos, yet. I'll need to work up the courage for that, but I did think it was a good idea. At the very least, I could try to find public math and science events in my area and online events, while consolidating that information for others. I would feel comfortable with that for the present.

There are just some roles in Rad Math Tutoring that I'll have to grow into.


Note: I commented on the blogs of Engir, Cara, and Margaret this week. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 2 Part B - Education-Based Businesses Research

Image
I researched five businesses that related to math education in different forms. These are my findings listed below: ✶ Mathematical Association of America https://www.maa.org/ The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a national organization that focuses on pushing forward the understanding of mathematics. In their 2019 Impact Report, which was released on their website, the MAA had a total revenue of $11,813,365. The top five sources of income were development, grant and donor funded programs, math competitions, publications, and membership fees, in that order. They are a large organization whose members include math faculty at all levels of education, college students, and STEM professionals.  The MAA promotes their social media in a clear and easily accessible way on their website. The social media icons appears on a banner at the bottom of every page on their website.  In addition to the banner, there is a page on the site that connects the viewer to social media. The social
Read more

Week 9 Post A - Adding a Personal Touch

 I think that a human touch is something that could make Rad Math more accessible, and possibly more popular in the long term. One of the Instagram sites that I visited was The Math Guru. I started following Vanessa the Math Guru after only a few minutes of exploring the site because I saw a video of her explaining what her mission was. Her mission was to break down math stereotypes, but I could hear and see why it was so important to her. She had a casual way of speaking, instead of a stuffy-ness that we might expect from a mathematician. Vanessa looked like a rocker, and was part of a band. She was an anti-stereotype herself, and was trying to create a diverse space in mathematics for others liker her...or not like her. Creating the human connection takes something abstract and cold (like the way mathematics is perceived), and it gives someone the opportunity to explore it and think of it differently.  Since we are talking about educational sites, it would be strange to insert person
Read more

Week 1 - Choosing themes and taking names

In anticipation of creating my first blog entry, and with the goal of trying to put off writing the first course assignment as long as possible, I probably spent much more time than needed on the theme. I spent about two hours in the acts of browsing themes, selecting and re-selecting features, and uploading photos. I'm sure that sounds surprising given how simple the final layout of the blog looks.  Two factors helped me finally choose my theme. First, I tried to pick a layout and font that would be easy to read online. Second, I wanted to choose a background that would inspire me in some way. The font issue only came up recently when a coworker mentioned that text sans serif is easier to read online. She stated it as fact, as if it were from a meticulous study conducted on fonts. Rather than ask my coworker for a cited source, I've just accepted here words, and I try to make my online work easily readable. The one exception in the blog might be the bright green title against
Read more