> > Some may say I should persevere until the students "snap out" of their > old passive way of doing things. If I was sure this was the silver > bullet of math teaching, I would be confident enough to fight this > battle. I'm not sure this is the holy grail yet. > >
This is certainly pedagogical, not really computer or math per se. But (at least in the US) nearly every math class is more or less formula-driven, so it can extremely intimidating for a student to have to do something like this - and then to add to it a non-click way of interacting with computers, where one has to precisely word what one wants the computer to do, adds an additional layer of difficulty. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try it! But having students have to learn both math and to program (understanding lists and defining functions is definitely real programming to someone who has only used GUIs, especially ones that mimic "natural" motion) at the same time introduces a number of challenges, and certainly isn't a 'magic bullet'. However, if you have the energy and support of administrators and parents to continue getting students to really interact and learn the material in this way, I think it could be quite successful - especially if you are able to get the same students for a couple years. It takes a long time to unlearn how to learn math, if you know what I mean; even weak students are far more comfortable doing it the 'traditional' way (which is not necessarily a 'bad' way), because it's familiar, than trying something new which might help those particular students internalize it better. As a final suggestion, you might want to make the transition to the typing a little more gradually - perhaps using Sage @interacts that are completely click or drag, then ones where you have to type in numbers, then ones where you have to type in functions or symbolic expressions, then ones where depending on several controls different things happen, then what you are doing. The Scratch project at MIT (http://scratch.mit.edu/) is also an excellent way to think about programming in a different way, though I don't know how usable it would be for a math class. Oh, and I missed the fact that this is online below. Yup, another layer of pedagogical challenge, since you aren't 'right there' over the shoulder. Sort of like the discussions on sage-support :) Good luck! - kcrisman -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To post to this group, send email to sage-...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sage-edu+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu?hl=en.
