Learning Mathematics with Microcomputers

This report was written post Cockcroft and at a time when a number of organisations were producing computer programs and packages for use in the mathematics classroom. The report is split into a number of sections.

As a teaching aid gives detail of the variety of organisations: national projects, regional centres, LEAs, subject associations and individuals producing computer software and computer packages for use in the mathematics classroom. The author asks about their effectiveness and calls for the need to plan carefully the changes suggested by Cockcroft.

As a problem solving tool considers the bookcase problem and shows how a BASIC computer program can be used to help solve this problem.

The value of short programs gives examples of how the teacher can take control of the computer, writing their own programs rather than rely on pre-written programs. Examples given include a simple graph plotter, how to draw a polygon and use in vector geometry.

The section entitled Home computers highlights the fact that students were beginning to acquire home computers and suggests that the teacher has a responsibility ‘to encourage students in the pursuit of applications through which the need for some mathematical technique or other may well be prompted’.

This leads to Implications for teachers and training and suggests that ‘mathematical programming should be a staple part of mathematics courses in the future’.