Possible death of calculators in education?

[EugeneNine]

(05-20-2017 03:46 PM)SlideRule Wrote:  

(05-19-2017 11:31 AM)EugeneNine Wrote:  ... the ones that didn't allow a calculator or limited you to a specific one were typically professors whose exams were simple memorization ... exams required understanding of the subject and your ability to think and resolve problems instead of just memorize formulas.

I'm slightly confused. Are you advocating for NO memorization, selective memorization, ...? I memorized my times tables (grade school) memorized basic geometry and algebra (high school) etc; these exertions were neither irrelevant nor a hindrance in attaining a B.S. in Physical Science and a B.S. in Civil Engineering (undergraduate). I occasionally encounter peers who can no longer solve and/or are clueless in attempting to solve algebraic/geometric problems with respect to say either the Pythagorean or the Binomial theorems. When queried, they generally respond with "I'll look it up in a reference manual, later": they seldom did! I have no frame of reference for your expression simple memorization, although I can reference memorize then purge (selective brain dump). This, however, was the STUDENT and not the INSTRUCTOR as the primary agent. So, what should I (as an instructor in TECHNICAL MATHEMATICS) do with respect to memorization? Your thoughts are welcome.

BEST!
SlideRule
MBA scl
DBA student

There are a bunch of big complex formulas in physics that were built on small simple formulas and constants. I could never memorize them so I had to work through and derive them from the simple ones which took time. Others could memorize the complex ones but did not understand them. So what I'm against is memorization without understanding which is similar to plugging numbers into a calculator without understanding why.