[BlindMath] For Elise: was average r.o.c. question

[Steve Jacobson]

All,

Doug makes some good points in his note below.  As the person who attempts to moderate this list, I never quite know what we should do when we get specific questions relating to homework or class examples.  As we have gradually discovered here, the original question came from a very specific example in a course, but our answers have covered a number of approaches.  It is important, in my opinion, for any student to understand the solution to a problem within the context of the course and the particular instructor.  Even if we provide advice that is correct, it may be confusing or even irrelevant if it does not help a student understand exactly what the professor was trying to convey within the context of the specific course.  For example, this subject is often taught with a dependency on understanding a graph.  It is possible that the real question has more to do with how the function is displayed on a graph rather than how the average rate of change should be calculated.  Often, the rate of change is discussed in a class as the slope of a line at a given point.  Understanding the slope of a line can be very useful in understanding problems like this, even for those of us who are blind.  While I respect the fact that picturing relationships like this is difficult for some people and albebraic approaches are more helpful, I don't think it is something that should be assumed is the case for all of us who are blind.  Sometimes an explanation from someone who has given this some thought from a blindness perspective can go a great distance toward explaining a graph to a blind person.  I would hastily add that while another blind person may have experience that can help with this, I've known sighted teachers who are able to convey some of these concepts very well.  

If we can help by trying to explain, perhaps using alternative approaches, the specific portion of the issue causing the difficulty, we should try to do that.  I would submit, though, exploring numerous methods of solving this problem, with some approaches being well beyond the likely scpope of the class, is going to be more confusing than helpful.  It can easily give the impression that more is not understood than is really the case.  

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Doug and Molly Miron via BlindMath
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2018 7:56 AM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Doug and Molly Miron <mndmrn at hbci.com>
Subject: [BlindMath] For Elise: was average r.o.c. question

Good day Elise,


I'd really like to get back on track with your problem.  You can see 
from the messages that we didn't really understand the state of 
knowledge from which you were starting the problem, what exactly was 
your difficulty.  Please enlighten us.  Thanks.


Regards,

Doug Miron




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