They write lab reports, projects, and meet outside of class. In terms of the number of hours of work, the reformed course is very challenging. This year, the department has decided to teach the reformed course exclusively. Other area colleges, such as UC Santa Cruz and San Jose State, continue to hedge their bets by offering both styles of instruction. The most significant difference between reformed calculus and traditional calculus is the use of computers, according to Wade Ellis of West Valley College.
Technology is the stick that stirs the drink.
In the mid- 80s, college math teachers were faced with a dilemma that school teachers had already dealt with five or ten years earlier. A new breed of calculator, the graphing calculator, and a new kind of software, computer algebra systems, both hit the market. Suddenly, machines could not only crunch numbers, they could crunch formulas. According to Reed, they could now do 70 percent of the problems in a traditional calculus course. Some people were outraged, says Ellis.