Re: [MATHEDCC] calculators

Edward Laughbaum (elaughba@MATH.OHIO-STATE.EDU)
Thu, 25 Feb 1999 13:44:29 -0500

At 12:04 PM 2/25/99 -0500, Bret Taylor wrote:
>Thank you.
>
>Our school is apparently one of the dwindling few who do not allow use of
>technology at the developmental level.
THE PROBLEM WITH THIS IS THAT HAND-HELD TECHNOLOGY IS A TEACHING TOOL. SO
BY REFUSING TO ALLOW CALCULATORS IS TO DENY TEACHERS THE TOOLS THEY NEED TO
TEACH. ANOTHER RELATED PROBLEM IS THAT HAND-HELD TECHNOLOGY IS A
SOPHISTICATED TOOL AND REQUIRES TRAINING ON THE PROPER USE -- SOMETHING
TEACHERS (COLLEGE) MAY THINK THEY DON'T NEED.

ED
______________________________

>At 07:22 AM 2/25/99 -0600, Seese, Lillian wrote:
>>I recently noted that 6 of my differential equations students began here
>>in our developmental math classes - most in Basic Math (arithmetic). So
>>I had a luncheon with these students and all of the math, science, and
>>engineering teachers who had been their instructors, and we chatted for
>>about 2 hours about what made them successful, advice they had for us,
>>etc. Without exception they stated that they really felt that doing
>>arithmetic without calculators was a big factor in their success in
>>uppor level math classes. They said (without our asking them to) that
>>the felt it was not possible to make the jump to abstractions in algebra
>>without a firm understanding of the arithemtic operations in Basic
>>Math. My favorite statement came from a young man who said that the
>>one thing that was most influential in his moving forward in his math
>>classes was when he finally had the courage to stop doing the
>>comfortable and easy homework problems (because he felt so good when he
>>got them right) and pushed himself to do the hard ones that he was
>>almost sure he wouldn't be able to complete successfully. Getting
>>outside of his comfort zone, and realizing that he could make some
>>progress on difficult problems encouraged him to continue in this mode.
>> Lillian Seese SLCC Meramec
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