User:Prime.mover/Philosophy

From Will it rot my students' brains if they use Mathematica?


 * Mathematica is simulation software, as is most of the educational software I like. But this kind of software is much harder on the teachers.  Students are constantly going off on tangents and asking questions about what they've done.


 * At some schools, teachers (and maybe administrators) would rather use software that the students can use for an hour without needing a teacher. From their point of view, what's the point of spending your school's entire music, PE, and after-school programs budget on a shiny new computer lab, if you just have to hire new teachers to baby-sit the students?  For that kind of money, shouldn't it be "automatic"?


 * Finding and training teachers able to work with students using untamed, open-ended software is very hard. Potential teachers may be computer-phobic, or may not want to be put in the position of answering questions instead of lecturing.  It's much harder to answer students' open-ended questions than it is to spill out a prepared lecture.  They may not always know the answers to all the questions; from time to time, a student might actually end up knowing more than the teacher does about something.