Calculus... did I learn anything?

In short - no, no I did not learn a single thing in Calculus 1 the fall semester of my freshman year of college. While I have never been stellar at math, I have always been able to grasp at least the basics of the various courses I have taken and complete the homework assignments. Not calculus. I can seriously not tell you a single thing that we did the entire semester. I can define an integral as the under a curve, but, for the life of me, I cannot tell you how to find one - nor could I have told you at any point in my educational career. Do I blame myself for my terrible calc experience? Not really. I know that I tried as hard as I could by reading the book, attempting the homework, and going to office hours at least once a week. But, when your professor can only see and teach in one way, and it's not the same way as you, then you are likely doomed. Such way my calculus experience.

I stated in my learning style post that I am typically a verbal learner over a visual one, and calculus was an example of that. Drawing one graph on the board and giving one sentence about it just isn't going to do it for me. Instead, I need a full explanation with lots of examples, when it comes to math. If I could go back to calc 1, I think that the use of multimedia may have really enhanced my learning experience. I mean, seriously, the only way to go was up.

The use of graphing programs and animations would definitely have helped me to better understand the concepts that my professor was trying to get across, and would have also provided me with the explanation and examples that I needed. In the thread about open source software, Will talked about a program called KTurtle, and that seems to be a great example of the type of program that would have helped me. A computer program that would allow me to the go through the math equations step by step, and also give me instant graphical feedback would have allowed me to see and better understand the relationship between the two components of the problems. Of course, a program like the one I am talking about would have to be assessed by the professor/teacher as to its application abilities to the lesson at hand, and that may take time on the teacher's part (to find relevant programs, to weed out the best and most useful ones, and to learn how to use them - at least in the most basic sense), but isn't that part of the job? To find and provide the best ways for your students to learn? My calc professor didn't really look for a way to truly help me gain something from his course, but I would hope that if I were him I would research ways to help my students learn through many ports, both paper-based and multimedia.