Teaching concepts rather than conventions

The computer's potential to improve the teaching of data analysis is now a well-known litany (Jones, 1997; Snell & Peterson, 1992; Velleman & Moore, 1998). It includes its power to illuminate key concepts through simulations and multiple-linked representations. It also includes its ability to free students up, at the appropriate time, from time-intensive tasks - from what NCTM's (1989) Standards referred to as the "narrow aspects of statistics" (p. 113). This potentially allows instruction to focus more attention on the processes of data analysis - exploring substantive questions of interest, searching for and interpreting patterns and trends in data, and communicating findings.