Timeline for Student: Why not use a calculator?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 8, 2018 at 19:33 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| Oct 9, 2018 at 5:03 | |||||
| Jun 7, 2014 at 18:29 | comment | added | Jason C | When I think back to, say, high school, most of the specifics of what I learned there were later forgotten or unused, but I learned how to learn, how to investigate, and was given a learning toolset that surely has helped me every day since, in every subject and activity, whether I realize it or not. Plus, who knows, learning the process may spark an interest that the student never knew they had. It's exciting to learn how a car works, even though in reality you can just take it to a mechanic and forget about it. By skipping straight to a calculator, you rob them of this skill/experience. | |
| Jun 7, 2014 at 18:28 | comment | added | Jason C | I also want to add that, especially for younger children, this also gets them in the mindset of learning the process that it takes to get somewhere instead of jumping straight to the calculator. So while it may be trivial for the specific example of addition/subtraction, by going through the process you are also teaching the child how to learn. There are an uncountable number of other areas where this can benefit the child; if a student learns to at least think about the process involved in getting somewhere, that opens a world of creative and academic possibilities for them. | |
| Jun 7, 2014 at 17:07 | comment | added | Loren Pechtel | As for point #1--many times while out shopping I have been asked what the price is when it's a $x with y% off. I don't carry a smartphone, it's my head or don't get the answer. | |
| Jun 5, 2014 at 13:53 | comment | added | Thinkeye | I would like to add a point about learning concept. You can add and subtract many more things than numbers. Think of sets, polynomials, vectors, matrices etc. Numbers are just a convenient starting point into the math. | |
| Jun 5, 2014 at 12:43 | comment | added | JPBurke | @Cephalopod Decades ago, research showed that students executing algorithms may know very little about how the numbers actually work. Erlwanger's seminal math ed research from the 70's (Benny's conception) is the most notable classic example, but I believe it comes up in Liping Ma's work on understanding algorithms as well (for a more recent example). | |
| Jun 4, 2014 at 20:09 | comment | added | Keen | A point I would add (since it would have helped me ten years ago), for students looking to go into more advanced mathematics: Learning to carry out an algorithm by hand is useful even if you already know the answer, because now you know how to produce an algorithmic proof of that answer. I would have shown my work all the time if I had thought of it as proof-building. This notion might not help everyone, but I hope it helps someone. | |
| Jun 4, 2014 at 18:00 | comment | added | Cephalopod | I'd add two things: First, by understanding how the operations work manually, you get a better understanding about how numbers "work". Second, you also practice calculating small numbers in your head, this will be relevant because you will never want to use a calc for every small addition/subtraction. | |
| Jun 4, 2014 at 14:29 | comment | added | Brian S | @TRiG, That's funny, I never get anything done at work until my computer is on. :P | |
| Jun 4, 2014 at 9:28 | comment | added | TRiG | "How often do you find yourself with a piece of paper, but without a calculator of any kind?" Fairly often, actually. I like having my phone off. And I'm leery of turning on a computer: once it goes on it never goes off again, and I get nothing done for the rest of the day. | |
| Jun 4, 2014 at 9:07 | comment | added | T. Verron | "You will not always have access to your preferred tool." That depends a lot on what calculations we are trying to do. If it can be done only within short-term memory, that's a valid point. But if it requires paper and pen (if "large" in the question means 20+ digits, for example)... How often do you find yourself with a piece of paper, but without a calculator of any kind (computer, cell phone...)? The only example that comes to my mind is no-calc-allowed exams, but it is hardly convincing in this very debate. | |
| Jun 4, 2014 at 5:18 | vote | accept | Rijul Gupta | ||
| Jun 2, 2014 at 22:32 | comment | added | WetlabStudent | Many of the things you mention don't explicitly come from the subtraction algorithm for large numbers. Ball parking, in a way, is a skill that can be taught without this algorithm. | |
| Jun 2, 2014 at 18:15 | history | answered | JvR | CC BY-SA 3.0 |