NSF Grant to Support the Development of VITAL: Early Childhood Mathematics Education

The NSF-Funded Project

The National Science Foundation is supporting the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) and Herbert Ginsburg, Jacob H. Schiff Foundations Professor of Psychology and Education at Teachers College, with a grant to continue development of Video Interactions for Teaching and Learning (VITAL), a learning environment for early childhood mathematics educators. This web-based application was first used in Professor Ginsburg’s Development of Mathematical Thinking course at Teachers College in 2003.

Project Goals

The VITAL: Early Childhood Mathematics Education project seeks to develop a learning environment that consists of a curriculum for early childhood mathematics education, a digital library, and videos, contained within an online community workspace.

The major goals of the grant proposal are to:

• create model undergraduate and graduate courses in early childhood mathematics education,
• design a new version of VITAL based on extensive user testing and formative evaluations,
• test VITAL: Early Childhood Mathematics Education (the VITAL environment and curriculum) at partner universities around the country, and
• conduct an evaluation of learning outcomes.

By the end of the grant period, May 2009, the resource will be ready for distribution to teacher-education programs nationwide.

“This is an exciting and groundbreaking new program that will revolutionize the way children are taught mathematics,” notes James Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian at Columbia. “We are grateful to the NSF for supporting a program that will have a powerful impact on teachers and learners.”