Text recognition company MicroBlink announced earlier this week the release of PhotoMath– a new mobile app that allows users to solve complex algebra problems simply by snapping a picture of it with their phone.
The app, which is basically a calculator on steroids, renders high school math teachers virtually useless – at least in the eyes of their students.
Not only can PhotoMath solve your math problems straight out of the textbook, but it can show its work for you too. When it comes to homework, how is a teacher ever going to know the difference?
And for students with “allowed to use a calculator” on their IEP (individualized education plan), how exactly is that going to play out?
Further, how is a teacher supposed to respond when a student asks,
“Why are you teaching us to do something a machine can already accomplish with ease?”
Or…
“Isn’t this a highly inefficient way of doing things?”
Quite frankly, those would be a completely legitimate question for a student to ask, because after all, shouldn’t we be preparing our kids for the future, and not a world that no longer exists?
Until next time,
Jason Stutman
Check us out on YouTube!
