Alternate Mobile
Technology: Too Smart for
Class?
Dr. Phil Larson
Greenville Technical College
Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive objectives
Computer-Intensive Algebra (CIA)
› Classical high school Algebra 1 with quadratic and
exponential functions
› 1989-1992 or so
› About $900,000 split between University of Maryland and
Penn State
› Wrote new textbook materials (loose-leaf)
› Classrooms stocked with Model 25 PCs (no hard drive, 2
floppies)
› Derive software, plus one other from IBM
CIA: Derive software (CAS in 1990)
What can be learned from CIA—1
› CAS software (with graphing and tables) can support
learning
› Students can engage with more realistic problems (linear,
polynomial, and exponential regression—intuitive)
› Focus on functions, not pencil-and-paper procedures
› Possibly forerunner of approaches in MAT 109, 130, etc.
What can be learned from CIA—2
› Students did not perform less well on a departmental
final exam (compared with non-experimental classes)
› Students had a richer sense of “function”
› Students thought of functions as
–
–
–
–
Tables
Graphs
Symbols
Verbal stories
What can be learned from CIA—3
› Tests have to be written differently
› Can’t focus on procedure
– Not that procedure is disregarded
› Can consider the nature of linear, polynomial, and
exponential functions
– Minima and maxima
– Zeros and y-intercepts
› Can think of model quality (goodness of fit)
CAS in the 1980s: HP 28 models
CAS in the 1990s?
› Legal for hardware owner
› I use this often.
CAS in the 2000s (2005)
› Standard for our calculus track
CAS in the 2000s (2005)
› Legal for hardware owner
› I use this often.
CAS in the 2010s
CAS in the 2010s
But smart phones now very common
› Supermajority of students already have them.
› They can already run very inexpensive CAS software
› Such as Wolfram applets (not free, but well done)
Such as a fluid force problem
Such as a fluid force problem
Such as a fluid force problem
Mathematica Online
Mathematica Online
Open-source software
› Sage
Open-source software: 1982, Macsyma
› Maxima
Open-source software: Maxima
› Maxima
Web software: StatCrunch (Pearson)
Web software: StatCrunch (Pearson)
Web software: StatCrunch (Pearson)
Conclusion—1
› My first desktop computer: 384 kilobytes of storage, two
floppies with 720 kilobytes of storage each
› My phone has at least 32 Gigabytes, and my micro SD
card has about 64 Gigabytes.
› That’s 52,632 as large (for storage) as my first desktop,
just in my hand. It doesn’t count the several terabytes
this phone has rights to in the Cloud, Dropbox, Amazon,
Google Drive, One Drive, etc.
Conclusion—2
› High-powered software runs on our students’ phones.
– Today’s Androids, iOS phones, and Windows phones
– 1980s mainframe software, Macsyma
› Tests can be written to accommodate student access to
CAS
› Better suited up the line in Bloom’s taxonomy
Alternate Mobile
Technology
Why not ask our students to use the
technology already in their hands?