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>His tutorial is obviously meant to make the introduction to the topic more accessible. And I'm saying he doesn't much succeed at that. After the first few cha

>His tutorial is obviously meant to make the introduction to the topic more accessible. And I'm saying he doesn't much succeed at that. After the first few chapters, the content is either trivial or very similar to what you'd find in a textbook. >As for the Wolfram Alpha comment, the idea is about "immersion". You could be right, but it seems like a generous appraisal. It reads to me more like an attempt to brush over the fact that the student doesn't actually know any calculus yet. If your intent is to teach that calculus can be performed intuitively, teach that - don't teach how you can phrase your question to get a computer to solve them.

jasode 11y ago
> It reads to me more like an attempt to brush over the fact that the student doesn't actually know any calculus yet. ... - don't teach how you can phrase your question to get a computer to solve them. No, he's not showing WolframAlpha as a mental shortcut to cover up deficiencies of not knowing calculus. The point is to utilize it as a diagnostic tool to check the student's understanding of previous Ch 1 - 4. If the student understands the previous chapters' vocabulary and concepts, he "doublechecks" that understanding by seeing if he can "describe" problems to WolframAlpha. Again, the idea is to create a feedback loop for the self-directed learner. Instead of using WolframAlpha, one could be shown how to use the TI-83 graphing calculator for the same purpose. However, since the student is likely reading Betterexplained on the web, he can just conveniently click over to wolframalpha.com and "check his calculus knowledge" there. As a bonus, WolframAlpha is easier to use, draws prettier graphs, and doesn't cost $100.