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From: tlh@cs.purdue.EDU (Thomas L. Hausmann)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.edu,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Becoming CAI literate
Message-ID: <3221@arthur.cs.purdue.edu>
Date: 15 Feb 88 18:52:19 GMT
References: <776@zippy.eecs.umich.edu> <3316@killer.UUCP>
Sender: news@cs.purdue.EDU
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
Lines: 47
Summary: Computers and drills

In article <3316@killer.UUCP>, elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) writes:
> in article <776@zippy.eecs.umich.edu>, dwt@zippy.eecs.umich.edu (David West) says:
>  ... when teachers do discover computers, inevitably it's used to
> inflict the three-B's of educational software upon unsuspecting students --
> that is, software that's Boring, Banal, and just plain BAD. 

This I agree with, all too many "eduacational software packages" are video
game-ish glorified drill and practice sessions.  These effectively distract
the student from learning to zapping aliens.
> 
>                                             ... Hair-brained things such as
> multiplication drills in an age of $5 calculators are just plain silly.... 

I HOPE you mean that PROGRAMS to do multiplication drills are silly.  For if
students are trained to use calculators instead of doing the simple arithmetic
by hand, they will be crushed down the road when it comes time to solve 
equations symbolically (having to do some symbol pushing.) The skills developed
by NOT using a calculator are invaluable.  I can forsee complaints like
"...what do you mean "solve in terms of x, x is not a number!" coming from
students because they are used to having push button answers.

Use of calculators in the classroom is not a solved issue.  However, I
advocate that teachers either observe carefully how they are used or simply
do not allow them on examinations (in high schools.) I fear that too many
students will use them as a crutch for true understanding.  (For example,
I have seen college students use the stat functions to enter data and do
calculations and arrive at correlation coef's of 1.2 or negative probabilities.
All because they believe the "calculator is right." I fully realize that
if they KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING they wouldn't make these mistakes.  It is
important (at least to me) that students understand they don't NEED a calculator
to do everything.  (Can you say divide by 10? 10000? 10E-50?)

> 
> ---
> Eric Lee Green  elg@usl.CSNET     Asimov Cocktail,n., A verbal bomb
> {cbosgd,ihnp4}!killer!elg              detonated by the mention of any
> Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191              subject, resulting in an explosion
> Lafayette, LA 70509                    of at least 5,000 words.


      .^.^.        Tom Hausmann 
     . O O .       tlh@mordred.cs.purdue.edu    ( ARPA )
      . v .        ...!purdue!tlh   ( UUCP  )
     / | | \
     ./   \.       "Whooo do ya think you're foolin' "
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