New Web site may be double-edged sword for students, math teachers
By: Leah Fabel
Examiner Staff Writer
June 16, 2009
A new Web site can solve intricate math problems with the click of a button, leaving educators to wonder if students will benefit from it or abuse it.
The site, named Wolfram Alpha after founder and math prodigy Stephen Wolfram, brings the cost-free ability to solve equations that otherwise are near-impossible.
It’s the difference between spending years learning Greek and Latin to understand ancient texts, and picking up an English translation.
But it demands that teachers be aware of Wolfram Alpha and advances like it, said John Dell, a computational physics teacher at Alexandria’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
“It no longer makes a lot of sense to spend lots of time teaching students to perform calculations that machines can do better,” he said.
While Wolfram Alpha and technologies like it make possible concepts once unimaginable, it also makes cheating on last year’s math homework remarkably easy.
The site can serve as a calculator for algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus. And unlike graphing calculators, it shows the step-by-step path to the correct answer, thwarting a tried-and-true teacher trick to ensure understanding.
“The challenge for math teachers now is to rewrite [tests and homework], and rethink the ways they teach concepts with the technology. And that’s going to take time,” said Evan Glazer, principal at Thomas Jefferson. “But the questions they can ask are more rich, and dig deeper into understanding the concepts rather than focusing on the skills.”
Dell and others like him worry that too many instructors will continue teaching math’s version of ancient languages, and in the process create outmoded and uncompetitive students.
He pointed out that in China, students for years have had free access to the computational program that powers Wolfram Alpha, and therefore have been finding applications for equations that American students are still grinding out by hand.
“There are vast numbers of teachers who aren’t learning fast enough, and their students are going to be left behind. The re-education of teachers needs to accelerate as fast as computers are doing,” Dell said. “But that’s a problem because institutions don’t realize what revolutions are going on underneath their feet.”
