Our most recent workshop concerning the role of software in the teaching of
Calculus was:
Basic Maple has been used at
Spelman as an aid to teaching both Calculus streams (one for mathematics
and "hard science" majors, the other for biology and economics majors)
since about 1993.
Exposure to moderate amounts of Maple has helped students in introductory
calculus courses distinguish the roles of repetitive work such as symbolic
differentiation or integration by parts from central concepts such as
what numerical derivatives and integrals actually tell us.
Some proponents of software tools such as Maple advocate their use in
every aspect of a course; I believe that this is misguided at best, and
in some cases which I have observed, an actual abuse of technology.
The Curves and Surfaces of
The Digital Age, a three-hour MAA short course, was given jointly
with Jeffrey Ehme, at the 78th Annual MAA Southeastern Section Meeting,
Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, 12th March 1999.
Smart use of computer
technology as an enhancement to teaching, understanding and learning
in calculus and linear algebra courses (four hours),
Project NExT, Atlanta,
2nd-3rd August 1997.
(This is http://www.spelman.edu/~colm/calc.html,
click here to return to main page.)