Wolfram Alpha Rekindles Campus Math Tool Debate

An anonymous reader sends in a story about how Wolfram Alpha is becoming the latest tool students are using to help with their schoolwork, and why some professors are worried it will interfere with the learning process. Quoting: "The goal of WolframAlpha is to bring high-level mathematics to the masses, by letting users type in problems in plain English and delivering instant results. As a result, some professors say the service poses tough questions for their classroom policies. 'I think this is going to reignite a math war,' said Maria H. Andersen, a mathematics instructor at Muskegon Community College, referring to past debates over the role of graphing calculators in math education. 'Given that there are still pockets of instructors and departments in the US where graphing calculators are still not allowed, some instructors will likely react with resistance (i.e. we still don't change anything) or possibly even with the charge that using WA is cheating.'"

Comments

Re:I don't see how this matters

[Karganeth]

Screwing themselves over? How? In the real world you can use any software you wish. The only people screwing themselves over are those who waste their time learning how to do the things that wolfram alpha can do instantly for you. Knowing how to do very large sums is just as useless as knowing how to integrate.

Re:I don't see how this matters

[linzeal]

Anyone else hate exams that require you to "show all work" when advanced students (perhaps yourselves) are then burdened with consciously writing down each step instead of utilizing the methodology that solves the problem in fewer steps? Teachers that scream at you to show your 'work' typically only know how to solve a problem one way and often by rote. IF you come at them with something they have not seen like when in high school I solved a double integral for a classical hydrodynamics problem involving two pitchers of water they freak out at you. The teacher accused me of plagiarizing the answer from the internet, which admittedly I had learned the concept from but this was before wireless internet and for this over-demonstration of knowledge I had to plead my case in front of her superiors. I won after 2 weeks of wrangling but it damaged my reputation amongst the other teachers until I finished high school. That is why the first thing any sane student does is check the exams from last semester to see if they jive with how they work. Rote learning can't teach you how to think it can only force feed you the answer and make you throw up answers on cue.