However, I think the places you mention that don’t have Mathematica available at schools also don’t have computers available at schools, so free software would hardly be a benefit there.
They do. Or rather, small tracts of them do (and that’s still millions of students) and governments are trying to get computers to the rest of them. And colleges everywhere definitely have computers.
As far as teaching math using software without teaching a language: I’m basing this on my experience with a few classes that did use such a model. … (the rest of the post)
You’re right, my analogy was off. If what you care about is the final output, (like in math) you can afford to be language-agnostic. On the other hand, if your concern is writing code that gets some specified output… well, of course you need to teach a language.
They do. Or rather, small tracts of them do (and that’s still millions of students) and governments are trying to get computers to the rest of them. And colleges everywhere definitely have computers.
You’re right, my analogy was off. If what you care about is the final output, (like in math) you can afford to be language-agnostic. On the other hand, if your concern is writing code that gets some specified output… well, of course you need to teach a language.