The Mathematics Mentoring Network is a technology-based community of students and educators consisting of one or more university classes, one or more school district classes, a university mathematician, and a university class professor. These networks complement current teacher preparation programs by using technology to connect future teachers with the students they will eventually teach, and by training these future teachers in inquiry-based strategies. The idea is simple. Once a network is established, school district students submit questions through the MathNerds website either from school classrooms or from home. These questions are routed to mathematics classes or mathematics education classes, at partnering universities.
By following the inquiry-based guidelines at MathNerds, these university class students address the school district students' questions by providing support in the Socratic tradition -- where often the best response to a question is another well-posed question that leads the student to an understanding of the problem. These questions and answers are monitored by both mathematics educators and mathematics professors. The university class professors will be simultaneously training their own students (typically preservice teachers and/or mathematics majors) to correctly interpret students' questions and guide students to their own understanding of the problem.
Rather than providing answers, the university class students are trained to empower their students with the ability to solve their own problems. Such a strategy marks a paradigm shift away from simply delivering knowledge, and toward preparing a generation capable of creating knowledge. Because the students submitting the questions are at the same curricular level as the students whom future teachers will be teaching upon graduation, the process will better prepare these future teachers for their own instruction experiences.
Furthermore, the process will introduce the future teachers not to textbook examples, but to "real-world" examples of the types of questions students really ask and the misconceptions students really have. With oversight by both mathematics educators and mathematics professors, the quality of the responses may be assured so that the school district students receive the maximum value from the project. In addition to these quality assurances, MathNerds has its own seasoned team of volunteers who oversee quality on the site.