Truly an awesome technology. I think it would be a hassle to set up and manage a classroom submission system. For me, as a math teacher in a country that seems to be falling behind other countries in student math achievement, I don’t see how to use it to help remedy our ills.

If we had the time for something like collaborative report on how to use the balancing method to solve equations, which resulted in a class of 34 students generating a total or 6 or 7 documents to evaluate, that might work. To be honest, I don’t think the time spent by the students would be as valuable as time spent  actually solving equations using the balancing method.

Maybe I’ll try something like that though, and see how it works. I’m open to the possibility that it might engage students and result in a better understanding. BUT, I’m not Jack Black pretending to be a substitute teacher who has studied under some school of “Experimental Education.” There is no evidence that any of this actually improves education. I will be thrilled if you can show me some.

NOTE: I do not consider survey data about what a bunch of people “think or believe to be true” to be legitimate education research.

“Math is best learned through the arm,” a colleague once told me. I still think he’s right.

Calculators are a huge enabling technology for scientists, engineers, accountants, doctors, lawyers, construction workers — just about anybody. Anybody, that is, except middle school math students. Oh it’s an enabler for them too — it enables them to avoid learning fundamental algorithms. Calculators prevent them from getting comfortable with the idea of place value. Calculators severely delay learning of multiplication and division facts. Calculators waste incalculable quantities of time when students use them to do what mental math can accomplish in a second or less.

I detect a swing of the pendulum (yet again) away from the calculator in the classroom. I know of few teachers (none actually) who think calculators have improved math education. I know plenty who believe it has damaged it. Less than half the students in my class can reliably multiply or divide 2 and 3 digit numbers without a calculator. That’s a problem.

Calculators should not be allowed through the door of an elementary school (unless it’s in the pocket or purse of the book keeper).

Yes I want the folks who build the bridges and design the aircraft to use calculators — good ones! But I also want then to be good at math