Title of App: Wolfram Alpha

Cost: $2.99

Creator of App: Wolfram Group LLC

URL: N/A

Target Audience: Those who need a graphing

calculator

Content Area: Mathematics

Evaluator: Dani Lanting

Medium

What do you notice?

Design Elements

Describe the significance

of your design noticings.

Content Elements

Uses phone keyboard alongside the Wolfram Alpha keyboard for users to type
in mathematic questions and/or expression
When user types in mathematic expression and/or question, the app provides
multiple representations of the answer, alternate forms of the question, and
even solution strategies and pathways
This could be an incredibly helpful tool for students to use, particularly
because this application not only provides a solution to a question, but the
student can look at how the answer was obtained and multiple different
representations for the answer (ie algebraic, geometric, number line, etc.)

Operations
Numbers
Algebra
X-y coordinate plane
Degrees vs radians
Greek letters
This application has an incredibly vast amount of mathematic content elements as
it provides more functions than a graphing calculator.

Title of App: Wolfram Alpha

Cost: $2.99

Creator of App: Wolfram Group LLC

URL: N/A

Target Audience: Those who need a graphing

calculator

Content Area: Mathematics

Evaluator: Dani Lanting

Because Wolfram Alpha provides so many different mathematic elements for
Describe the significance
students to explore, the app is incredibly versatile when it comes to being used
of your content
effectively in a classroom. Pretty much in mathematic class could benefit from the
noticings.
application as long as it is used correctly.

Mobile Application Evaluation Form

Mobile Application Evaluation Form Continued
Mark your response to each statement as strongly agree (SA), agree (A), disagree (D) or strongly disagree (SD).
Design
Usability: The app is easy to use. Navigation is intuitive.
Multimodality: The graphical, textual, and auditory features complement each other.
Feedback: The feedback to user is functional and helpful.
Aesthetic: The aesthetics contribute to the learning or engagement of the content.
Notes on Design:

SA
X

Content
Difficulty: The content becomes more complex as the user progresses in the app.
Cognitive Processes: The app engages user in higher order cognitive processes.
Feedback: The app provides feedback to the user that is helpful in learning content.
Playfulness: The app draws the user into the content in an engaging way.
Notes on Content:

SA
N/A

Integration
Differentiation: The app offers flexibility to alter settings to meet students needs.
Learning Objectives: The app fits with established learning objectives.

SA

SD

D
N/A
X

SD
N/A

D
X

SD

X
X
X

A
N/A
X
X

A
X

Assessment: The app has built in mechanism for tracking student performance.
Perception: I have an idea of how to integrate the app into teaching/learning practices.
Notes on Integration:

X
X

How do the design elements support or hinder learning of content?

Students would very easily be able to take advantage of the fact that Wolfram Alpha will just spit out the answer to any
mathematic question they have. If used correctly, meaning that students use the application to understand the answer it gives,
this application would support learning of the content. If used incorrectly, it may hinder student progress in certain
mathematic areas.
How does this application add value to the teaching/learning experience?
The huge value that can be added to the teaching and learning experience through the use of this application is the fact that
students can see a wide variety of representation of mathematic information. In addition, students can clearly view how a
certain answer to a question is obtained and why it is correct.
Now that you have evaluated your app, Write a mini lesson on how you would integrate this app in your class.
Think About:
a)A topic
b) Standard you would use
c) Activity using the app

a) Parent Functions
b) CAS Mathematic Standard: HS.2.1.c.i Graph functions expressed symbolically and show
key features of the graph, by hand in simple cases and using technology for more
complicated cases.
c) Students will be given manipulatives where they are given several different functions,
and they must match the corresponding parent function, parent function name, graph,
horizontal and vertical shifts, and other defining characteristics of the function. Students
should use Wolfram Alpha to help them and to check their matching for accuracy. This
would be a good classroom activity for students to use Wolfram Alpha because this
activity ensures that students cannot just write down an answer from the application, but
they have to interpret and make connections on their own.