Wolfram Alpha

     Wolfram Alpha is an incredibly extensive online resource. According to their website, Wolfram Alpha uses “breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase, and AI technology” to solve your problems. Personally, I’ve used the sites mathematics portion the most, but the site also has help for science, technology, society, culture, and everyday life.
     Wolfram Alpha is a great tool to use to check math work, or figure out how to do a problem that you’re stuck on. The interface is a little confusing at first, but it has lots of examples to get you started. You can also type something in, and it usually finds what you want, even if your syntax isn’t exactly right. Wolfram Alpha can also plot 2D and 3D functions, and usually does this automatically if you type something in to solve.
     Last semester I took linear algebra. This course covered how to manipulate matrices. Finding the reduced row echelon form of a matrix is at the core of the course. This can be time consuming, and it can be easy to make a simple mistake. Wolfram alpha has an option to find the rref of a function, and it finds it in seconds. My professor actually suggested we use this tool for our homework because it can take a very long time to find the rref of some matrices and that would only be half the problem.
     Another very cool feature of wolfram alpha is their widgets. There are lots of widgets that you can embed into sites, or you can even create your own! Unfortunately, the widgets only work in certain browsers (like internet explorer). Below I’ve embedded a widget for determining the rref of a function:
   

     Wolfram Alpha is a great tool for learning but teachers and students should be careful with how they use it. While it can help students learn how to do something, it could also simply solve a problem for them.