begin quoting Christopher Smith as of Thu, Jun 28, 2007 at 07:49:30PM -0700: > Andrew Lentvorski wrote: > >Certain things need some rote. Multiplication tables, grammar rules, > >etc. > There is increasingly questionable need for rote learning as computers > become increasingly prevalent. I know that sounds all "new math"-ish, > but the reality is that just using a calculator a lot (which should be > an inherent part of the educational process) can help give students the > same intuitive arithmetic insights that come from memorizing > multiplication tables.
I have cousins that are much younger than myself. They had a calculator on hand all through school, and never had to memorize anything. They have no "intuitive arithmetic insights". So. I don't buy that argument. I believe the ACM RISKS folks don't either. In searching for a mention of the dangers, I ran across this: http://bioinfo.uib.es/~joemiro/opinion/ParShfDgr.html > Simply doing lots of reading and writing (which > should be an inherent part of an education process) with an > instructor/computer program that provides guidance and/or corrections > will produce a student with grammatical aptitude far above the norm, or > even above those students who had memorized the rules but hadn't been > taught how to apply them. Agreed. Memorization is not sufficient. You have to /use/ the knowledge. -- Not sufficient is not the same thing as not necessary. Stewart Stremler -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
