MathsNet: Mathematics Email Centre

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An attempt to maintain an up to date summary of uses of email in mathematics education.
[All URLs checked 19 February 2003]

Help! - to keep this page up to date, please email Mathsnet with any new information you may have.

News
More and more companies are offering free email services - with no strings attached!

BT announce free email schools services at talk21.
talk21 is designed for use by students (principally between ages 9 and 16) at home and at school and is scheduled to be launched in Spring 1999.
The schools service will provide a number of benefits: an email address students may keep; a simplified registration process; protection of personal data associated with school age students; support for the National Grid for Learning; controls to restrict the flow of undesirable emails; ex directory email addresses.

Interested?
If your school would like to be one of the first to take advantage of the talk21 schools service please send an email at education@talk21.com with your details. with any new information you may have.

Viruses
An attachment to an email can contain a virus (Melissa is an example). Make sure your email has come from a legitimate source before you open any attachments!

Electronic mailis a system whereby person A uses a computer to compose a message and send it, using the structure provided by the Internet, to the mailbox of person B. To receive that message, person B uses the Internet to contact this mailbox to see if it has any contents, and if it has, downloads it to their computer.

Both sending and receiving email require a brief local phone call - whether the message is being sent to your literal neighbour or your aunt in Australia.

Once you have access to the Internet you can log on and get yourself a free email address and free email software.

Any email program is fairly easy to use. Copies of emails you send out are stored in your "Out" box (a window on screen); those you receive go into your "In" box. All your email addresses are stored in an address book.

At the entry level, the only costs involved are your phone bill for local calls and your subscription to an Internet Service Provider (though these are often free nowadays).

To send an email you must know the recipient’s address. Accordingly, many websites, besides offering free email addresses, also provide a search facility to find a individual person’s email address.

Subscribe | Projects, Penpals & More| Free email | Finder | Thanks

Subscribe to a mailing list

Electronic mailing lists allow many users to participate in a "group" email discussion. The principle is simple: each message submitted to a mailing list is forwarded to all the people who are subscribed to the list.

Many mailing lists provide additional functionality, such as archiving the messages, and allowing users to see who is subscribed to a given list. All mailing lists must provide the basic tools to allow users to add or remove themselves from the list of subscribed members. A number of mailing lists have some level of access control. Many mailing lists are moderated, meaning that a message submitted to the list is not automatically forwarded to the members of the list, but is subject to approval by the list manager.

There are two distinct ways of interacting with a mailing list. The first way is to submit a message to the list itself, the second is to subscribe or unsubscribe oneself from a mailing list. Make sure, when you do subscribe to a list, that you keep safe the instructions to unsubscribe - as you may find your in-box filling up at an alarming rate!

Here is an example using the TEACHING STATISTICS MAILBASE list.
To join the list send a one line message to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk as follows:
subscribe teaching-statistics Your Name
To circulate a message e-mail to: teaching-statistics@mailbase.ac.uk
To leave this listemail the message
LEAVE teaching-statistics to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk

Note that, though this is typical of Mailbase lists, other may be slightly different.

If you want to set up your own email discussion group, contact Mailbase, Egroups, ListBotor OneList.

At Scoot, which has a "What's On" page, you can join a mailing list so that you are emailed automatically each week to tell you what is on at your local cinema.

At Shareware.Com, you can join a mailing list for a weekly email newsletter to keep you up to date on shareware programs.

At This Is True, you can receive strange but true stories each week by e-mail for free. Register by sending e-mail to join-this-is-true@lyris.net

MathsNet

MathsNet's very own newsletter, started in early 2001 with the aim of keeping users up to date with interactive resource development at this site. An archive is available.

To subscribe, fill in a form at MathsNet.

NRICH

NRICH is based at Cambridge University. It is aimed at teachers of all levels of school Mathematics in the UK. NRICH currently has 3 mailing lists: NRICH Support for secondary teachers and non-teacher parents; NRICH Primath for primary teachers; NRICH Talk for children. Teachers can be on both teachers' lists if they wish. All three lists are moderated to screen for any undesirable messages.
Some recent correspondence.
To register, fill in a form at NRICH.

Dynamic geometry
A new dynamic geometry discussion group has been started at jiscmail.ac.uk and is managed by Pam Bishop and Adrian Oldknow. The new KS3 recommends the use of dynamic geometry, and it is hoped that the forum will serve to exchange ideas and best practice.

To find out how to join the list, go to http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/GEOMETRY.html

maths-gcse-a
maths-gcse-a, which is aimed at UK school teachers,has been going since May. It has grown quite quickly and currently has just under 100 subscribers. Paul Statter, the "list-owner", started the list because he could not find any list "out there" for teachers of mathematics in this country. Quite a number of subscribers to maths-gcse-a are observers in higher education, partly because much of the early publicity was web-based and there is a much higher proportion of wired .ac's than .sch's. He will be pushing to attract more teachers to the list. So far the list has been used partly to pass on announcements of relevance to teachers of mathematics, and partly for teachers to exchange views on topics: there was one discussion about computer platforms that simmered for a week or two! Traffic on the list is still fairly low - perhaps five messages per week.
Some recent correspondence.
To find out how to join the list, send the single message "help" to majordomo@felsted.rmplc.co.uk

ATM

A new discussion list has been announced from ATM (The Association of Teachers of Mathematics, UK).
The list is intended for the following purposes: discussing the use of ATM resources; sharing classroom ideas; sharing information about ATM and the teaching of mathematics; job opportunities; ATM book/resource reviews; notification of ATM conference and other courses; notification of regional ATM events; announcements from the ATM office in Derby.
To join the list, send the single message "subscribe" to atm-mail-request@nottingham.ac.uk

Texas Instruments

There are two TI email lists: Graph-TI, allows users of Texas Instruments graphing calculators to share ideas and solve problems together and is provided by Texas Instruments in support of educators; Calc-TI, is intended to support the programming hobbyist with more technical information and discussions.
Go to TI for more details.

Maths-Education
The Maths-education list is based at Nottingham University. It is aimed at those working in mathematics education and is intended to act as a means of sharing ideas and experiences, request for information, and so on. Other possibilities include: Job opportunities, notification of courses, book/resource reviews, international awareness. It is possible too that reports of research and development work might be circulated too if this is thought to have interest for the intended audience.
Some recent correspondence.
Make contact by emailing majordomo-owner@nottingham.ac.uk.

CIGS
The Corner for Interactive Geometry Software is based at the Maths Forum and collects together many good starting points for investigating dynamic geometry (Cabri, Geometer's SketchPad etc.).
Some recent correspondence.
It has a mailing list at CIGS.

Maths Forum Internet News
Having trouble keeping up with Maths Education on the Internet? The Math Forum provides one-stop access to all the maths resources you need. The Math Forum Internet News is an electronic newsletter sent out via e-mail once a week to those who subscribe.
To subscribe, send the message subscribe newsletter to majordomo@forum.swarthmore.edu

Mathematica
A thriving maths discussion list is available at Wolfram Mathgroup. The email list formed in the late 1980s shortly after the introduction of Mathematica.

PALM
Another collection of college level maths discussion lists is available at Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists .

Mailbase

Mailbase is based at the University of Newcastle and hosts a number of discussion lists for the UK higher education community. They currently have 2,134 discussion lists, and 144,293 members worldwide. Contact Mailbase if you are interested in setting up your own email discussion group.
Each of the following four is a Mailbase list

assume
ASSUME (Association of Statistics Specialists Using Microsoft Excel) aims to provide a discussion forum for all those in higher education who make use of the statistical facilities in Excel. Membership is free to all who join this list, upon application to the owner.

Teaching Statistics Mailbase
This is for those concerned with the initial teaching of statistics in all phases of education. It is related to the objectives of the journal Teaching Statistics and the associated Trust, and is for discussion of how to make teaching and learning statistics more effective. Since the list began in 1996, 37 countries have contributed sending messages at a rate of about 22 per month. The most popular topics have been discussions of teaching statistical techniques, and technical help.
Some recent correspondence.

maths-itt
This is a forum for those involved in the Initial Teacher Training of mathematics teachers in UK HEIs including all PGCE and B.Ed courses, whether primary or secondary. Issues include current and future policy and practice, QTS and HEI-school partnerships.

cti-maths
cti-maths is a discussion group for mathematicians, particularly those interested in the use of computers or the teaching of mathematics in higher education. The average no of messages/month is 5, nearly all put on by CTI. They are currently advertising the list in the hope more people will get involved, and have also set up a very useful Web page at CTIMATH
giving links to other UK lists - many at undergraduate and research level.
To subscribe to any of the above Mailbase lists, go to Mailbase

Other lists which are not mathematics-specific:

Teachers.Net
At Teachers.Net in the USA you can find "mailrings" on various subjects, including "family math".

eGroups

makes it easy for you to start your own e-mail group, and manage all of your subscriptions using a simple Web interface.

WWWEDU
The Internet's largest forum on the use of the World Wide Web in education. WWWEDU is a moderated discussion with over 1600 members from 35 countries.
To subscribe, send the message "subscribe wwwedu your name" to: listproc@ready.cpb.org

Coollist

Coollist is another site that allows you to start your own e-mail group.

Projects, Penpals & More

askNRICH, Dr Math and AskERIC all provide teachers and pupils with an online answering service. Ask them a question and they guarantee to email you back with useful answers.

If you want to find other schools, teachers or pupils to form joint projects with or to make penpals, there are a number of sources on the Internet. Try a search engine or ePALS, IECC, EduWeb or Kids Connect, but note that they are general sites not specific to mathematics.

The Cost of Living project
Here's a starter for a simple email-based project. Fill in this form with the price of any of these goods or services and your geographical location (town/city and country). We'll maintain a database which you can use to research comparative prices and the cost of living around the world.

A can of Coke
A can of Pepsi
A Mars Bar
A Snickers Bar
A pint/litre of milk
A ticket to see Titanic

What else?

Want help with your maths homework? Email your problem to Math Homework Help

askNRICH

AskNRICH provides an answering service on mathematical topics. It is staffed by student volunteers monitored and backed up by their university teachers. Questions are sent in by email and appear on a bulletin board. Answers and follow-up discussion are given 'one-to-one' and there is an 'open discussion' section where anyone can join in. To use this service you need to register with NRICHwhich is free.

Dr Math

The American maths website at Swarthmore allows you to ask Dr. Math. Dr. Math answers questions from students up to the age of eighteen and their teachers about Mathematics. Questions can be about homework, puzzles, math contest problems, or any other mathematical topic.
Also at Swarthmore, if you have a question about teaching mathematics or wondering about the ways your children are learning maths, then contact Teacher2Teacher. Their panel of teaching professionals, Presidential Awardees for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching, is available to answer questions on topics ranging from classroom teaching techniques to finding good Internet resources for professional development.

AskERIC
askeric

According to the information listed at askERIC "teachers, library media specialists, administrators, and others interested in education can send a message requesting education information. The AskERIC Network Information Specialists, drawing on the vast resources and expertise of the ERIC System, will respond within 2 business days with ERIC database searches, ERIC Digests, and Internet resources. The benefit of this personalized service is that it allows the AskERIC staff to interact with the user and to provide relevant education resources tailored to the user's needs."

ePALS Classroom Exchange
ePALS Classroom Exchange is the world's largest online collaborative classroom network. ePALS connects students and teachers from different countries on joint projects pertaining to curriculum and culture via the Internet.
The ePALS Web site is used for its interactive classroom community, teacher moderated email, instant language translation, lesson plans, international weather, world maps and more. ePALS is a very effective tool for educators to integrate technology into their curriculum and for students to participate in co-operative learning within the emerging global community.

Intercultural Email Classroom Connections
IECC is based in the USA and provides access to classroom projects, surveys and exchange. For more details, go to IECC.

EduWeb

Try the Link Up page at Eduweb, where you can find penpals or project partners, send in your own project or join a discussion group.
A recent search there based simply on Age:14-16 and Subject: Mathematics brought up a project on "Graphing Linear Equations" based in the USA.

Kids Connect

Are you a Kindergarten-12th grade student looking for information on the Internet for a report or project to do for school? Let KidsConnect, the on-line question answering and referral service, help you out!

Free email addresses & Finder
The UK has gone free access crazy! Completely free access to the Internet, including email and webspace is available from a number of providers, such as FreeServe (get the CD from Dixons), Tesco, even Toys R Us, or online sites such as Freenet or Free-online. There is no cost to you. They make their money from a tiny share of the phone bill, as agreed between them and BT. Free email accounts using web-based email only require you to have internet access. You use your browser both to send and receive email. There are many websites offering this now. Visit .net for lists and ratings of and discussion on the free Internet Service Providers. At Hotmail, which is part of Microsoft, you must suggest an email address (though most basic names will have been taken by now), then give a password, name, brief address, gender, date of birth and occupation. You then receive your free address. Under the name "WebCourier", Hotmail will also offer free email newsletter services, like the lastest news, sports or health info. To access your email you return to Hotmail and enter your "logon name", which is your new email address, and your password. The system at Yahoo is similar. Both systems for registering your new address take a little while to complete - as long as half an hour if you have slow access, which is worth bearing in mind if you want to do this with a large number of people. Email forwarding allows you to get a free permanent email address like yourname@bigfoot.com but you must already have your own email address to begin with.	Free Email Address Directories Your quest to find a free email provider is over! You'll find over 550 free email providers and free email-related services listed here, and directories for you to look up the email addresses of family and friends... 1-2-Free is a UK directory of free services. Free email accounts Free full email accounts, some including free webspace, are available at Freenet, The UK's First Internet Service provider to offer free access for 100% of the UK. All you pay is Local Rates 0845 call charge (approx 1p per min offpeak). Has full V.90 Support and MPPP ISDN 128k Freeserve, Get a disk from your local Dixons Store. Free-online, Comprehensive support, five POP3 mailboxes, unlimited webspace. FreeUK, Unlimited mailboxes, 25 mb webspace. Connect Free, Free email, newsgroups, games. Eidos, the people who brought you Tomb Raider now offer 20mb free webspace too. Virgin Net, Tesco, LineOne, Toys R Us, Breath Net, Arsenal, X-Stream Free web-based email accounts are available at schoolmaster, talk21, both of which have facilities aimed specifically at education. Others include: Hotmail, Yahoo!, AltaVista, iName, Net@ddress, Fortune.City, PostMaster, Netscape, Fiberia Email forwarding If you already have an email address then you can obtain further free ones which will make use of it. Try Bigfoot or Stones. Find an address If you are looking for a friend's email address, you may be lucky if you try WhoWhere? or Bigfoot or Infospace. At CelebrityEmail you can track down the addresses of famous people.
Thanks to...
A number of people helped in creating this information.	Toni Beardon (NRICH), Paul Statter (maths-gcse-a), Pam Bishop (cti-maths), Mike Fuller & David Green (teaching-statistics), Samantha Romanello (askERIC), John Irving (ePALS), Peter Gates (maths-education)

Go to MathsNet.com to purchase mathematics resources