Beth in SW WA Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Who uses this? Conrad Wolfram's TED talk on ditching hand-computations... and his personal website and professional website here. Stephen Wolfram's TED talk on Wolfram Alpha... I feel like I'm the last to learn about these math gurus. I try and watch at least three TED talks/day. It's a great day to self-educate. The problem is...I realize just how much I really DON'T know. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 My son uses Wolfram Alpha all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted March 7, 2012 Author Share Posted March 7, 2012 My son uses Wolfram Alpha all the time. Kai, What are your thoughts on Conrad's perspective re calculator/computer vs. hand-calculations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Kai, What are your thoughts on Conrad's perspective re calculator/computer vs. hand-calculations? (I should say first that my son uses Wolfram Alpha for fun, not for schoolwork.) I think kids (and adults) need to be comfortable doing calculations mentally and by hand. I think as they get into higher math they need to be able to do those problems by hand as well. But when the arithmetic or algebra or whatever is being applied, then I think it is not only ok but desirable to use a machine to do the work. For example, I let my son use a calculator when doing the Challenging Word Problems books (he thought he was getting away with something) because I wanted him to focus on the process rather than the computations. And I let both of my children use calculators once they've proven that their arithmetic skills are excellent and that they have reasonable number sense. I really don't see the point of doing arithmetic calculations by hand after that point, except maybe to keep in practice. I know people have strong views on both sides of this issue. The approach I took seems to be working for my kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temperance Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 I think I'm going to have to buy the app version of Wolfram Alpha. Looks interesting! Mathematica is an amazing program for modeling. Not sure where I stand on his speech though. I would probably agree with PP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 (edited) Man you guys scared me for a minute, I thought you were discussing Stephen Wolfram. :svengo: If that dude ever came out with a curriculum, I'd really be freaking out. :willy_nilly: Here's his TED talk (one of them) Oh Lord, I read too fast, you ARE talking about Stephen Wolfram..oh man... wow Edit 3: They are brothers. I have some reading to catch up, I first ran across S. Wolfram when he was working/publishing on his theory of Cellular Automata- now there's a brain buster for ya... So Beth, you are ahead of me on this one, nice catch! Good to share this stuff. :) Edited March 8, 2012 by one*mom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 So Beth, you are ahead of me on this one, nice catch! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I think kids (and adults) need to be comfortable doing calculations mentally and by hand. I think as they get into higher math they need to be able to do those problems by hand as well. But when the arithmetic or algebra or whatever is being applied, then I think it is not only ok but desirable to use a machine to do the work. For example, I let my son use a calculator when doing the Challenging Word Problems books (he thought he was getting away with something) because I wanted him to focus on the process rather than the computations. And I let both of my children use calculators once they've proven that their arithmetic skills are excellent and that they have reasonable number sense. I really don't see the point of doing arithmetic calculations by hand after that point, except maybe to keep in practice. I know people have strong views on both sides of this issue. The approach I took seems to be working for my kids. This computer doesn't have a soundcard (:001_huh:) so I can't listen to the videos. My personal calculator use philosophy is very similar to this. Calculators are useful when something is understood at a conceptual level, but would take an unnecessarily long time to write out by hand. I'd say the exception to that is something like calculus where it can take an unnecessarily long time to work through a problem by hand, but it's useful to be able to manipulate substitutions. I'm personally a bit shocked by a schism I've noticed at the university level, where some calculus classes are taught with no calculators and others with complete calculator use for very basic material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iucounu Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 My feelings on Wolfram are mixed. He's extremely self-promotional, as shown for example by the hype over A New Kind of Science, and I tend to think of him as a brilliant person who never came close to fulfilling his potential. I do think Wolfram Alpha is pretty cool, though. I tend to make DS6 work all problems by hand right now, but think that using calculators for completely mastered calculations (where by-hand accuracy is at 100%) to focus on problem-solving is a fine idea too, which I will probably use sooner or later. Right now DS is still in the stage where he can use the extra writing practice, if nothing else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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