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Conrad Wolfram: Teaching kids real math with computers

TED · talk · Watch on YouTube

Education & learningMath & theory (other)

What it is

Conrad Wolfram argues that the part of math taught in schools, hand calculation, is tedious and mostly irrelevant to real mathematics. He proposes teaching math through computer programming so students can tackle real problems.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Cited in HN discussions of math and CS education reform as an argument that school math is boring because it is taught wrong.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2012, last 2020

What HN commenters said

  1. “Conrad Wolfram gives a talk about the need for math education reform”

    Talk on the need for math education reform with computers.

    marshallp, 2012-10 · Recommendation · in “The Unreasonable Ineffectiveness of Mathematics Education”

  2. “But isn't maths boring at school because we're teaching it wrong?”

    Suggests school math is boring because it is taught wrong.

    kranzky, 2013-09 · Recommendation · in “The Commodore 64 Spike: A Freakonomics-ish Theory of CS Education”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: math education, computation, mathematica, curriculum reform, ted

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