On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 7:11 AM, kcrisman <kcris...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> >> 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
These are particularly good because the students who *want* to can easily change the code for the interact, but the students for which code looks like greek can just ignore the code and embrace the math instead. William -- 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.
