Listening isn't learning. This approach allows easy integration of graphical, numerical, and symbolic aspects of key mathematical concepts. Furthermore, the student can insert explanations and comments at will, and can maintain a permanent record of investigations made. Students are actively engaged in the learning process, and encounter a strong emphasis on applications, real-world data, and scientific literacy. Most of the student's time is spent actively solving problems.
Hyperlinks facilitate reference to needed earlier concepts.
The focus is on the mathematics, not on Mathematica itself. The vehicles that help make this interaction possible are the computer, the student's brain, and Mathematica . In a traditional printed textbook, the student gets to read the examples that the authors chose, and that's that. Maybe they have one example, maybe they have several, but in any case the student is limited to the examples the authors chose . The point of doing many examples, however, is not just to take up time or to keep the student off the streets.