Week 11 Already, Good Grief...

Due to the similarity of these two readings, I shall consider them as a unit rather than individually.

The idea of cognitive tutor computer programs is rather intriguing. I agree that in an ideal world, every student would have his or her own tutor to help them with school work. So creating a program (in this case an Algebra program) that mimics the way a tutor interacts with a student is on the right track to creating useful, beneficial educational technology.

I like the fact that besides just improving the test scores of students, the students themselves seemed to enjoy this software. (Although I highly doubt that two students would have really engaged in a "fist fight" over the availability of a computer terminal just to use this software as one of the readings reported.) What matters the most is that students like receiving computer-based instruction. Even if their test scores stayed the same, rather than improving, I would still say that it was successful if students found math (algebra) more favorable as a result of interacting with the computer.

However, one aspect that I did not like about Cognitive Tutor Algebra is the way it monitors the student's skill or progress level so obviously on the computer screen. Having been a slow math learner, I think I would have felt ashamed to have my skill level visible to other students in the class. While this feature may help teachers to tell at a glance who needs more help, I still don't like the idea of a student's progress known to all.

Perhaps because they are both mathematically based programs, reading our two chapters for this week reminded me a lot of reading the SimCalc articles, or even the Jasper Woodbury articles. Written by the program's designer, they are so overwhelmingly positive that I begin to feel that I am reading the same article all over again. Although to give Cognitive Tutor Algebra credit, its unique take on trying to mimic one-on-one human tutoring seems to me to make the most sense of all.