How new Technology Changes the Learning in Introductory Mathematics
K. Schmidt (Technical University of Denmark)
At DTU (the Technical University of Denmark) we use Maple from the very first day of the teaching in linear algebra and introductory calculus.
Maple is a highly profiled CAS software program with support for both numeric and symbolic computation, as well as for visualization. This gives new possibilities to focus on the understanding of the fundamental concepts and to explore mathematics through modelling and experiments. Power switches from solving standard problems to working in groups with projects from real life, projects which are developed in collaboration with different engineering departments at DTU. The talk will give examples on how we meet these challenges in the introductory math courses and discuss a recent study on how technology changes the student's use of textbooks and other knowledge resources in different study activities.