Learning Arithmetic in the 21st Century

Assignment 2

Due

• Tuesday, 9/7 12pm as a group! on the class website

To-Do - Preparation

Please work as a group (minimum: 2 members; max: 6 members — discuss the answers between your group members) and submit one answer as a group (clearly identifying the members of your group)

You are hired as technology and education experts by the Boulder Valley School Board to help to reach a decision between the following 4 alternative positions how to learn and practice arithmetic in the 21st century when hand-held calculators are available to all students:

1. ignore the existence of the gadget; the educational goals are important mathematical skills not an interest in technology
   • recommendation: do not use hand-held calculators in schools
2. keep the curriculum the same, make students learn arithmetic, multiplication tables, long division, drawing square root by hands, etc;
   • recommendation: after students have mastered arithmetic skills, allow the use of hand-held calculators.
3. invent/ create new calculators, new curricula, new scaffolding mechanisms that make learning these skills more fun and create a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts
   • recommendation: by using these new hand-held calculators, the students would acquire the skills and the knowledge and eventually become independent of the gadget
4. find new ways to distribute responsibilities between humans and computers such that (a) humans do the qualitative reasoning, use estimation skills, relate the mathematical result to the real world and (b) machines do the detailed quantitative computations
   • recommendation: create and support new divisions of cognitive contributions

To-Do

Develop principled arguments (backed up by: research, empirical findings, your personal experience, hypotheses about resulting cognitive developments, and the topics discussed in class) which of the four positions YOU will favor!

Create Your Response

To create your response, you should first choose a name for it (it's a good idea to have your group-name in the name)

Existing documents

• Learning Arithmeticinthe21st Century Makeshift Crew
• Learning Arithmeticinthe21st Century Jon Mai
• Learning Arithmeticinthe21st Century Thomas Cavalier
• Learning Arithmeticinthe21st Century Storm Drain
• Learning Arithmeticinthe21st Century Trevor Aparicio
• Learning Arithmeticinthe21st Century Brionna Lopez
• Learning Arithmeticinthe21st Century Andrew Jason Leon Myung
• Learning Arithmeticinthe21st Century Team Cacti
• Learning Arithmeticinthe21st Century Fischer Aparicio