Algebra Touch Educates iOS Device Owners

In modern society, which came first, technology or education?  This is the personification of the age old question of whether the chicken or the egg came first.  In the case of technology and education, one cannot exist without the other, so the modern educational system has adapted to adopt the technologies of the age into the classroom experience.

Over time, everything from calculators to computers were successfully integrated into the education system and if the developers over at Regular Berry have anything to say about it, iPhones or iPads may be next on the list.  Just yesterday they debuted Algebra Touch, an app that is targeted at streamlining the process of teaching students the key concepts of Algebra, while still providing an interactive experience.

So how interactive is this application, you ask?  Why not take a look at the iPad and iPhone demonstration videos to see for yourself:

When I was watching these videos all I could thing about is how much better I would have been at Algebra, had this app existed when I was in school.  It has managed to find a way to meld the processes necessary to be successful with the material, while still making it fun to do.

According to Regular Berry's developer blog the application is current designed to cover the following concepts:

• Simplification


• Like Terms


• Commutativity


• Order of Operations


• Factorization


• Prime Numbers


• Elimination


• Isolation


• Variables


• Solving Equations

I may not be a math wiz or a seasoned educator, but I know enough to comprehend that a good portion of a teacher's workload could be eased with software of this nature.  Further encouraging classroom adoption is the compatibility with external display cables, which could be used to connect the iPad or iPhone to the teacher's projection device of choice.  So not only is it visually appealing, but it is convenient as well.

If there's anything that concerns me about Algebra Touch it might be that the low level math is being done for the user by the software.  In a classroom where you are working with younger children, it may be best to integrate in a process wherein the students do the basic calculations on their own.  I know calculators made me lazy; I would hate to see the same happen here.  Though, at the end of the end of the day, if it helps our future children learn, then it is all worthwhile.  Good luck securing funds for a classroom worth of iPads.

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