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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Homework's largely supposed to be about reinforcing the lesson for math courses. For other courses it's largely about reading which shouldn't be done in class. Tests/essays are for assessment.
Then why should homework be factored into grades at all?
It is not cheating. It is leveling the playing field. Some students will inevitably have access to tutors or parents who can give them the full answer. With wolfram|Alpha all students have access to this. What this really show is that homework isn't the best tool for gauging student prowess.
Poor-man's (student) tutor.
When I was 18, back in 1999, I had an internship at WRI (Wolfram Research) in Illinois. I'd applied armed only with a library copy of the Mathematica book, so they sent me a CD with Mathematica on it. I made some demo things and got a slot, and flew to Champaign. I worked on polyhedra for a summer, writing code that could unroll a polyhedral model to its 2D net. Find the volume, the number of faces and all kinds of s…
This is the wrong approach. There's no way you wouldn't understand math much better with these tools.
I'm hoping that in the future, math will be less about equations and symbols and more about graphing and being able to move around in the spaces described by the equations.
I would draw an analogy with a compiler. After using it for some time, your brain will take on the shape of the compiler and you'll write correct (lol is it ever tho) code without even having to compile it.
I understand the arguement that math is important, but the way it's taught in America, even at the AP level, is criminal. It boils down to "if you see this pattern, apply these steps" without any effort at going beyond. We teach "how" but not "why", which I think is a common refrain when talking about the American education system, or any test driven education system. Math is a means, not an end.
It's a true problem, but the consequences are not visible yet.
Am I the only one here that would program their TI-83 in high school to run equations for me so I didn't have to solve them by hand? I wasn't even that dev-savvy (and still am not), but it was super easy and was a huge time-saver on timed tests. I obviously had to learn the concept in order to program the equation, but once I did - why should I have to go through everything manually every single time?
Since we developed the tools, we obviously had an understanding of the concepts and we allowed to use them for homework, and tests and such.
And it kept us from being bored and disruptive, so it worked out for everyone.
There is of cause a level where you cannot just copy solutions but those tend to be badly covered by "facts centered" written exams anyway so why not build your exams around the reality that modern tools exist and will be used, instead of testing as if the world had not changed since the teachers left school.
Or they could cheat by doing their homework, then checking the results on Wolfram Alpha to make sure they always get 100%.
What we should discourage is students using Wolfram Alpha to just get the answers without any initial work. That robs students of the chance to learn and would definitely be cheating.
> “Stephen Wolfram, the mind behind Wolfram|Alpha, can’t do long division...” What the heck kind of article is this...? I can’t read it seriously.