Before being assigned this special assignment, I never heard of WolframAlpha. The only search engines I have ever really used were google, ask Jeeves, and yahoo. Form using WolframAlpha, I have concluded it be a fascinating way to retrieve knowledge and answers to questions. WolframAlpha does not retrieve this information by searching the web, but by computations according to a collection of information, stored in its memory. I think I will start using this engine regularly.
2. Did you know about Google Squared?
While reading the assignment instructions, I did not recall being familiar with Google Squared. Once I opened its page, I remember randomly using it once before. I wasn't really familiar with this Lab at the time, but I played around on it for awhile and retrieved a little information.
3. What percentage of China's population is the population of the United States?
China has a population of 1.35 billion people, whereas the United States has a population of 309 million people. 23%
4. What percentage of India's population is the population of the United States?
India has a population of 1.21 billion people, whereas the Unites States has a population of 309 million people.
25%
5. Now what do you think of the facts reported in Do You Know?
Its obvious that the countries are growing faster as the years pass by.
6. Do you think WolframAlpha and Google Squared will be useful for you? for your students? Why or why not? Yes, both WolframAlpha and Google Squared will be very useful to me and my students in the future. We will be able to compute math prblems, compare numerical data, and also any other usful information.
Ouida McDaniel understood the point of this exercise better than anyone else so far. Here is a portion of her post:
ReplyDelete"After looking at this information I believe that the statics that are reported in Do You Know? did not show the whole picture. It is easy to be shocked that India has more gifted students than the U.S. has students if that is the only information that you are given. But when you look at the population size of each country you see that the population is so much greater in India that it follows that they would have more gifted students. India's population is almost 75% larger than the United States. I think as teachers we need to teach our students to look at all the data so they get a clear picture of a topic not just a piece."