Students' math scores jumped 20% with iPad textbooks, publisher says

[Pholus]

22. I guess you have to be there....

> What people really need to learn is how to read word problems, set up the right equations, and compute the right answers.

Now ya did it -- I am in full on "preach" mode. Every one of my students would agree with you, but I attribute that to a lack of experience. Once you have progressed far enough, you realize that LIFE is not merely a word problem with a beginning, an end and an answer but an extended interaction with nature. The real skill is in trying to understand WHY someone thought that a particular word problem was worth including because frankly they're all based on applications in the real world. When you can do that proficiently most of the time, you can consider yourself a professional.

> When was the last time you saw someone calculate a square root that way?

In my field (science, not math) all the time. We do calculations for a living, after all. The better ones do it in their head to a several digits of precision. After years of practice, I can quickly do two places in my head but that is definitely a lesser display of the skill. Many of us appreciate skills like that for their own sake and because they also indicate some level of mental agility.

Actually, let's be completely serious that isn't even one of the deeper things you SHOULD know. If you're going to do science/math/research/engineering for a living these days you had better not be caught with your pants down during a conversation on any kind of math covered in the first two years of your undergraduate major. You might not have aced it when you took it the first time, but you had BETTER eventually be able to ace it without cracking the book or what prayer do you have for the really hard stuff.

Professional conversations tend to be explorations between two experts of something neither has considered before. Doesn't mean the answer is impossible, just that the reference is not handy at the moment. Many of these answers can be quickly solved through techniques you should have learned already , if you get tripped up by an integral which would be solved by hand using a simple textbook technique, goodbye modicum of credibility.

It's just human nature, you will be done for...

Even with some TI Inspire calculator could eventually do all the dirty work of the calculations for you.

Even with an e-textbook that could give you immediate interactive quizzes and feedback.

Even with freaking Mathematica running on a freaking Mac.

If you cannot understand the material to the degree that you can use it without some kind of aid, you do not understand it period. That takes time, and that takes work. My weightlifting analogy applies here -- you physically cannot get to high levels of proficiency without repeated practice and strain. The more outside assistance you use, the less you actually develop.

I might sound arrogant here and I don't mean to. It's just that after years and years and years of facing your material you will naturally get to the point where it should seem second nature. I think that forms a failure of many teachers though too -- after teaching the same thing 10 years straight you get to the point where you simply can't understand why your students can't see something sooooooo obvious. It wasn't the first time through and it wasn't obvious to you more than likely -- but it gets that way. But you didn't get there without a lot of effort.

The more your technology helps you get there, the less your personal growth was on the journey.