Wolfram|Alpha Queries

This is my response to this post by Mr. Morford concerning his view of Wolfram|Alpha.In my Finite Math class this semester, I have been using Wolfram|Alpha a lot.  The other day one of my students wanted to use Wolfram|Alpha to reproduce one of the feasible regions, when all she knew were the corner points.  I told my student to do it directly.  Our first query was 'shape with corner points at (1,3) (4,5) (8,6) and (3,1)'.  Wolfram|Alpha didn't take very well to that. After a few trials, I put in the query:  'polygon with vertices at (1,3) (4,5) (8,6) and (3,1)'…
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Using Wolfram | Alpha Effectively

When I was helping some of my students review for their final exam tonight, I was reminded about Wolfram|Alpha, and how to effectively use it in the classroom.  One of my students was trying a factoring problem, and he all of a sudden started typing it into his computer.  I asked him what he was doing, and he told me that he was using WA.  I was also reminded that I was the one who told him about it.  I am very adamant that WA is an effective tool to aid in student learning, as long as it is used…
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