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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.'"
Are they protected?
How did you play tetris during class?
No, those are the best types of classes, because no one does any work and everyone tanks the exam, making the curve oh so easy.
I just don't know if I can deal with all this math-debating.
Well Wolfram Alpha has been a big buzz kill for me.... My query was "average penis length?".... WA answered: 5.94 inches.
Now I understand the meaning of "ignorance is a bliss"
Let X_n and Y_n be positive integrable and adapted to F_n. Suppose E(X_{n+1}|F_n) \leq X_n + Y_n, with \sum Y_n \lt \infty a.s. Prove that X_n converges a.s. to a finite limit.
Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input.
.
Useless!
Using math books is cheating. The only REAL way to learn algebra or calculus is to re-invent it like people did hundreds of years ago!
No, I will not work for your startup
You CS whinies had it easy. For us EEs, the exams came pre-tanked.
Well in my CE department, we came to the exam pre-tanked!
The enemies of Democracy are
No offense, but is there any particular reason we had to cite such a leading authority as Muskegon Community College? My raccoons say that Google Maps is the instantiation of the all-seeing eye of god and the definitive sign of the judgement day - can we get some front page coverage of that too?
In Soviet Russia, tank exams you!
What!? Calculus is fruit?
If Computer Science were about computers they'd call it astronomy. No, that's not right. They'd call it Telescope Science. No, that's not right either. If Computer Science were about computers they'd call it Computer ..Hmm.
You mean, your students are actually there to learn academic skills? Heretic! They should be learning practical things, like, um, leadership skills. Or networking.
Ability to solve problems in the limited-time test format.
Heh. Not really related, but I have fond memories of some "tests" from upper division real analysis and abstract algebra courses during my undergraduate degree. They were open-note, open-book, take-home, with only 6-8 problems and we were given a full week to finish them. Of course, all of the problems began "prove or disprove:" and each one took several hours of hard thinking/playing to grasp the core issues so that you could either write a proof or construct a counterexample.
I guess they were technically more like assignments which constituted a major part of your grade, but they sure felt like exams, even when I was working on them at home in the bathtub (my favorite place for the part of the thinking process where no paper or pencil is required; after the nature of the problem is thoroughly internalized, but the key structure not yet apparent). My wife remembers those tests, too, mostly me staring blankly into space for hours on end until I finally shouted "Gotcha!" as the last pieces fell into place.
Wolfram Alpha would not have been the slightest assistance with those tests :-)
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I assume they were rather dry?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."