Photomath...Previewing the Future of Math Education

Hi there! How the heck are you? Thanks for clicking by on this snowy day (well it sure is here!). Help yourself to a mugful of arabica coffee and jiggle a virtual jelly doughnut onto your plate, why don't'cha. Say...did you like math in school? Me? Ah...not my best subject. It was a toss up between recess and lunch with lunch getting the edge because it was longer and there was food! Speaking of math though...

More than 6 million students have downloaded the new iPhone app PhotoMath to solve Algebra I and Algebra II problems by pointing the phone's camera at a printed equation. The answer, and the explanation, quickly appear on a screen, as a teaching tool -- or for the students to show "their" work if PhotoMath is used on exam questions. 

The Croatia-based developer told the Quartz website in October that it is working on upgrades for higher-level math equations (though no relief is in sight for those chronically pesky "word problems"). Meanwhile, the debate has been triggered over whether PhotoMath is a dynamic technological advance in education -- or a cheating-enabler. [Quartz, 10-31-2014; CultofMac.com, 11-7-2014] 

The innovative technology company MicroBlink is behind the creation of this awesome tool in solving bane of many students’ existence.  But the company’s CEO Damir Sabol insists that they have only made this app to promote their vision technology which is quite popular among software development kits. Still solving mathematical equations, even if it doesn’t work that often beyond linear equation is pretty impressive.

The CEO has indicated that they are still working to add to their repertoire of mathematical equation which is quite understandable because it has also been known to misread x variable as a multiplier. If you see the image below the answer should be “x = 5” instead of “-369 = 4”. So a lot of work still needs to be done so that this app could be usable in the more complex portion of solving mathematical equations, i.e., for college students too.

But with the technology advancing so fast and even middle schoolers having their own Smartphones now-a-days, there is a possibility that this app can change the complexion of how kids shape up their mathematical concepts. Many parents and teachers must be against the usage of this app, and don’t get me wrong they are part right to think that way, but this app can be used as a learning tool too. When you scan the equation through camera and it provides the answer in real time, you can just push at the forward button and sift through the problem.

This app has the potential to be used as a learning tool in solving mathematical equations, but the temptation might be high for students who are poor in Math to cruise through their 7^th Grade algebra.

Okay...one vital question. Where the heck was Photomath when we were in school?

See ya, eh!

Bob