1. Skill Building. I.e., the same reason we start teaching them to write letters in kindergarten even though they won't have a practical need for writing until

1. Skill Building. I.e., the same reason we start teaching them to write letters in kindergarten even though they won't have a practical need for writing until late in elementary school. So that there's a foundation to build on later. 2. Feedback. E.g., there are some good fractions apps that help students understand what it means to "divide" a set of things into a set of groups of things. you can do that on pencil/paper or with other props, but there's no tight feedback loop. It's unclear whether (2) is strictly a good thing; learning how to validate your own results is also an important skill...