[was_hellbanned]

I went to college in the late 90's, before laptops were really viable for use in lectures (despite what I recall from the 1986 movie Back to School). We did have our math class in the computer lab, so we could graph functions. Of course, I spent most of my time reading newsgroups and mailing lists, the equivalent of modern students on Facebook.

Looking back, I really regret the use of technology. I'm talking about the computer distraction, but also the heavy reliance on advanced calculators like the TI-92 that did symbolic integration and differentiation. The classes were focused on making the graphs appear and getting answers, not on grasping the fundamental, underlying concepts. I'd prefer a strict paper and pencil analysis course.

I also remember the countless student questions, "will this be on the test?" The basic concept of testing student knowledge is that you can only administer a test where a small set of questions are randomly distributed across the much larger subject matter. You aren't supposed to memorize the answers to some questions, you're supposed to demonstrate that you learned everything.

I didn't even learn what learning is until a good fifteen years after I was done with school. I suspect the students engaging in these behaviors, also, don't understand what learning is, and will graduate having passed some tests without knowing much.

[jimmaswell]

On the other side, I get annoyed at having to do a quadratic equation or matrix multiplication by hand for the millionth time because I can't have advanced calculators on the tests or quizzes. After you understand the concepts of those it becomes pointless to do them by hand so much. What am I getting out of manually multiplying two matrices? It prepares you for a situation that will pretty much never exist - not being able to look up a formula or make wolframalpha do some tedious algebra for you. This is what I like about physics tests; they tend to just give you a sheet full of all the formulas because if you don't understand the concepts of the material, then all the formulas in the world aren't going to help you. Physics professors tend to understand what's important more, in my experience.

[ScottBurson]

I think the right answer to "will this be on the test?" is "I don't know yet".