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Just things I wonder about ... and some people are nice enough to answer. You are welcome to answer, too ... just click on "Comments" and off you go! IF you don't want to be Anonymous, use the Name/URL option and just put in your name ... no URL required .... Starting Jan 28th, 2009, I am using questions from "Table Topics: Right or Wrong?"
6 comments:
I use both a computer and a calculator in my work. The calculator makes some things I do easier and quicker, but I could get by without it. The computer is essential.
As for their use in school - I think they should be used,and used a lot. As far as the calculator is concerned, the basic math skills should still be learned - multiplication tables by rote, long division, etc. There is not always a calculator handy when you need to do some basic math.
I think the future of education is in the computer - self-paced learning where the student goes at his or her own speed (with a certain minimum for advancement to the next grade), and the teacher provides assistance as each kid needs it.
No Child Left Behind right now means all children achieving at their grade level - but it really should be each child achieving at his or her best level.
Not politically correct I know, but pragmatic and realistic - which none of the current education models is.
I think the basics of mathematics without a calculator is a necessity prior to High School. And the in the current era, computer skills have become a requirement. So I believe both should be required skills for graduation.
Yes to BOTH! I use MSExcel most of the time as my calculator if I'm on the computer, but in a pinch I even use the cell phones calculator....as a matter of fact, I use it each time I fill up the new car to check the gas mileage.
I use a calculator and computer everywhere. They are essentially one in the same. What I mean by that is the work PC has a scientific calcultor as part of the tools. I know how to use a slide-rule (Thank you Professor Ledet). Yeap - I'm aging myself.
University of Louisiana adressed this very issue in the math department. My Calculus teacher said that 'I have instructed the department that calculators aren't going away, you can embrace them or not, but it won't change the outcome'.
Yes we did learn 'line number theory' in school.
There are well published research accounts of group studies where the calculator was programmed for 6+4 to respond with 11, and not 10.
Overwhelmingly the group study showed that the students trusted the calculator and wrote '11' as their answer.
NOT everyone is made for college or research yet over Thanksgiving my school teacher friend said that the shools ACT as if everyone is bound for college. As Cin-Cin has so poignantly demonstrated, there really needs to be a fundamnetal change in our educational system.
In California in 1981 my Air Force boss'es kids could not use the 'finger math'(Chi-sen-boop) in school; strictly forbidden, yet they were FAR and away much faster than their piers.
Use computers as much as possible, our very existence now depends upon them.
Case in point - I dare you to make your cell phone out of vacuum tubes!
My square root of 4 cents squared.
I use both. Both should be taught in school along with the basic theory behind each, up to a point. We don't teach people how to hand wash clothes even though we've been using washing machines for going on 70 years. If we were without washing machines, we would figure it out. After all there is plenty of written evidence on how washing was done before the advent of the washing machine.
I think it's fine to use them in school once they've learned the basics. Every kid should know their times tables and should know how to do multiplication and division and subtraction,etc.
Serioulsy, I only use a calculator for large figures and very complicated math problems.(However, my checkbook has a built in calculator which I do take advantage of. I guess I fear being overdrawn! LOL) Otherwise,I use pencil and paper. I do use a computer. Can't beat it for research.
And I use a Computer in my home (I work at home!)
I use both a calculator and a computer often at work and at home. I could do averaging with paper and pen, but that takes too long. The computer is necessary.
Kids will be working in a world that calls for the use of both, so they should learn to use both tools well. They also need to be responsible in their use.
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