subject: ARE CALCULATORS TAKING AWAY OUR THINKING ABILITY? [print this page] ARE CALCULATORS TAKING AWAY OUR THINKING ABILITY?
ARE CALCULATORS TAKING AWAY OUR THINKING ABILITY?
Can you do math?!! What is one hundred times four, divided by the square root of a hundred? If you know that, then you know the answer to this: How many years ago did the scientists in USA invent the handheld electronic calculator?
The answer is forty. The scientists' device could add, subtract, multiply and divide. It had twelve bytes of memory close to nothing compared to today's powerful calculators. And it weighed more than a kilogram and was powered by batteries. That meant it could be taken anywhere. Other electronic calculators had to be plugged into electricity. Not only that, they weighed close to twenty-five kilograms and were almost as big as typewriters.
Some people say teachers at every level should support the use of calculators. Students are even permitted to use them when they take high school entrance tests. That may surprise those who still think of the days of paper and pencil only. Some education experts think calculators are used too much. They say, children, learn to depend on these electronic brains instead of their own. Despite the advantage of giving answers to numeric problems, Calculators may keep them from discovering ideas for themselves. See the danger?!
Though other experts say calculators have helped make mathematics more understandable to more students. They say calculators give students more time to understand and solve problems and to develop a better sense of what numbers mean. That way, the reasoning goes, they can study higher level ideas than they would do otherwise. And they can feel better about their abilities. When I asked some teachers in my school about the use of calculators at school some said calculators can be useful especially with more complex math especially at A-level. But they also said that young students should know the basic operations before they begin using them.
And you? What do you think of calculators in the classroom? Today we talk about the problem that affects the brain's ability to process and understand the meaning of numbers. The name for this is dyscalculia. Children with dyscalculia have trouble in reading numbers and picturing them in their mind. For example, they might mistaken a three for an eight or six for nine, because the numbers look similar. They also have trouble in counting objects and organizing them by size.
Memory is another issue. Children with dyscalculia may not remember the correct order operations to follow in solving math problems. Difficulties like this can lead to a lifelong fear of mathematics. Of course, just because people have trouble with math does not necessarily mean they have dyscalculia. But experts say parents and teachers may begin to suspect a problem if a child is good at speaking, reading and writing but slow in developing math skills.
Does a child remember printed words but not numbers? Does the child have trouble making sense of time or understanding the order of events, like yesterday, today and tomorrow? From the book I was reading, people with dyscalculia might also have a poor sense of direction. For instance, they might have difficulty in keeping score during games like volleyball. Yes, I discovered this during a volleyball game at our school.
The writer wrote that, Children suspected of having dyscalculia should be examined by professional trained to recognize this condition. Experts say the disorder never goes away. But say carefully designed practice can improve math skill.
For example a teacher might use a number line to help a child understand the difference between larger and smaller numbers. The child could be asked to point to different numbers and to describe their relationships to other numbers on the line. Or objects could be grouped to represent numbers.
Something else that can help children understand number relationships is to have a math problem described in the form of a story. Experts say students with dyscalculia need extra time to complete their work. They also advised to be allowed work with a calculator in school. Recently when I asked some people around, including teachers and students about use of calculators in schools, different views were given. One says: "My brain is rusting. Why? Because I use calculators everywhere, on my mobile phone, on my computer, at the market, in meetings etc. New technology makes us use everything except our brain.
Another madam says: "Calculators can provide us with an answer, but we may not understand it completely" And Calvin, a student calls using calculators "a kind of laziness." Those who discourage use of calculators in schools say that it reduces the students' thinking capacity. They encourage use of brain and a pencil in solving math problems until up to higher level in secondary schools.
While we use calculators in schools, the ministry of education discourage use of these machines in the examination rooms. Students should therefore be careful when using these tools so that they do not impair their power of thinking.
