Do technologies such as this make mathematical training obsolete? Not hardly. In fact, I would argue that such technology makes mathematical training even more important than it has ever been. As Maria Andersen puts it, "If you can be replaced by a computer, you're likely to be replaced by a computer."
Rather than fear the technology or simply pretend it doesn't exist, I think the best plan is to embrace it. Of course, students still need to know the fundamentals of solving algebraic equations. But technology can both save them time as well as help them learn.
How to bring it into the classroom
And now we get the practicalities of the situation. What am I going to use in the classroom, and how will I incorporate it into the student learning experience? For various reasons, I've settled on Wolfram Alpha. The primary motivations are that W|A is inexpensive (no additional cost if you have access to the internet) and fairly easy to use given the sophisticated input interpretation. There are also some side benefits such as being able to generate graphs from real data on the fly.
In the past, I have primarily used W|A for classroom demonstrations and generating graphs quickly. It works well, the only obstacle being that many of the classrooms I teach in don't have computers and projectors already set up. While I encourage students to experiment with the software, I don't devote significant class time to working with the software. This is primarily due to the lack of a regularly available computer lab. That and the fact that there is no guarantee that students will use the software unless I force them, which I'd rather not get into.
Prototype demonstration
As an example of what I will do with W|A, consider the topic of graph transformations. A function plotting utility is the perfect means of quickly showing the effect of a transformation on a graph. For example, consider the following.
As we see, W|A color codes each plot. This makes graphs of multiple functions much easier to digest. And the input is simply the functions separated by commas. x^2, (x-3)^2, (x-2)^2+5, 3(x-2)^2+2 No confusing syntax involved.
Where to go from here
This particular aspect of planning for College Algebra is no different from my plans in recent semesters. I hope sometime to have ready access to a computer lab so that students can experiment with the program in class without pulling out their internet capable cell phones. The good news is that even if that doesn't happen, the technology is still a great help to my teaching. And the few students who do use it in and outside of class seem to get something positive out of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment