Wolfram|Alpha
28 05 2009
If you haven’t seen Wolfram|Alpha yet it rocks! Instead of trying to tell you every little thing about it go watch the video: http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html Even if you only watch the first 3 minutes you will get a great idea of it’s power! I think this is going to be a fabulous tool for schools.
Here are my thoughts:
- One of my favorite parts of Wolfram|Alpha is the ability to save a PDF of any data you find. (Look at the bottom right of the screen when you get your results.)
- Instead of having to search for an answer to a question you get all of your information on one screen. Even more importantly your results are vetted and are by acknowledged experts (overcoming the hurdle of sites like wikipedia).
- The compare and contrast functions will be amazingly useful in all different subjects.
- You can type a word and get definitions, synonyms, and even a synonym network (much more than just the define: function of google).
- The math and science functions are (obviously) off the charts.
I truly think there is probably a way this could be used in almost every subject. What do you think? How do you see it being used?
Wow! Thank you for your blog. I think I ran across you on twitter4teachers and added you to my blogroll. Now that summer is upon me, I am following up on all the tech blogs I’ve added to my blogroll. Yours was the first I looked at. Thank you for your great ideas. I will be planning for next year, and as I come up with uses for wolframalpha, I will try to remember to reply back here to let you know.
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Thanks for your comment Nina. Please do let me know how you find uses for it! twitter4teachers is a great site… I’m writing a post about twitter and including it – what a great resource. Good luck with planning for next year – you might find my wiki helpful too – http://katiechristo.pbworks.com
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