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Concluding remarks
In The CASe for CAS the authors set out to show 'beyond reasonable doubt' that teaching with CAS was 'innocent' of eroding the by-hand skills of mathematics students. We feel that we have gone beyond that aim and provided a definitive CASe for the use of CAS by all students of mathematics.
In summing up, provided students have access to CAS technology at home and in the classroom, effective use of CAS can have a number of important benefits. These include:
- Making concepts easier to teach because students can approach situations numerically, graphically and symbolically,
- Supporting visualisation and allowing situations to be explored that cannot otherwise be, thus enabling students to take mathematics to a more advanced level,
- Saving time on routine calculations - time that can be exploited to study effects, outcomes and 'what if….?' Situations,
- Improving the students' perception of mathematics and consequently increasing their enjoyment of the subject and their motivation to learn.
We live in a mathematical world. The level of mathematical thinking and problem solving needed in the workplace has increased dramatically. In such a world, those who understand and can do mathematics will have opportunities that others do not. Mathematical competence opens doors to productive futures. A lack of mathematical competence closes these doors. But the vision of mathematics teaching and learning is not the reality in the majority of classrooms and schools. In this age of Information Technology students need to learn a new set of mathematics basics that enables them to solve problems creatively and resourcefully. (Heugl, 2000)
The authors of The Case of CAS believe that teaching and learning with CAS can transform these classrooms. We hope you will make the above vision a reality and find in favour of The CASe for CAS.
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