Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would they care about a calculator?
They presumably didn't want people using a TI-83/85 effectively as a gameboy.
Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?
191–200 of 460 posts
Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?
#192> The company established partnerships with big textbook companies that integrated TI-specific exercises (complete with screenshots of buttons) into classroom curricula. It sought approval for standardized test use from administrators like the College Board. And every time a competing tech innovation came along, it lobbied to maintain its perch atop the parabola. Absolutely disgusting
I am shocked, shocked to find that monopolies are colluding to support each other.
Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Opposite story here... I still use my TI-89 (or my even older TI-86) from time to time, even when sitting in front of a PC that has R, Maxima, Gnuplot, Axiom, Sage, etc. installed. There is something about the format of those old TI calculators that I find oddly appealing for whatever reason. That said, when I don't have a hand-held calculator handy, I usually just fire up bc or R when I need to do some quick calcula…
What is bc?
If you're using bc for the first time, be aware that you almost certainly want to run bc -l -- otherwise no decimals will be displayed and you'll get whole number answers to everything.
The -l flag changes that behavior to instead use 20 decimal points.
Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is an argument against allowing phone apps. But doesn't excuse requiring students to pay $100+ for antiquated technology.
Have we considered the radical option of, you know, not allowing calculators on tests? And not writing tests that rely on the use of a calculator?
That would only be unfair to the calculator manufacturers:) TI makes a lot of money so do book publishers.
Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes most of my engineering classes back in college allowed you to use a cheat-sheet. Cheat sheets are way faster than thumbing through a book or notes in a calculator. And most problems required you to show your work. Maybe you could cross-check your results and fix something. The funny thing is to an extent, the performance of the student seems to be inversely proportional to the density of the cheat-sheet. The wors…
Cheat-sheets are also far more "real world" than the fake environment many schools cling to. I don't know a single practicing engineer that doesn't have a note scribbled somewhere. My engineering school recognized this decades ago and adjusted accordingly. Now the math department? They were a different story. No calculators. Period. Ever. Made higher-level calculus... interesting. Thankfully I'd already had it in hig…
I don't remember a math course I college anything but a ti89 or one of the other few capable of handling symbolic expressions would have even remotely helped with. The arithmetic was usually small or just non-existent.
Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?
#196> it wasn’t until 1990, when Texas Instruments released the TI-81, that graphing calculators really began to hit the mainstream.
Casio FX-7000G was well established before TI came onto the scene.
Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?
#197Get used to it, kids. Wait until you see the price tags on those required college textbooks.
Buy the international editions, buy used from graduating seniors who are trying to get rid of their stuff ASAP, or buy the ebook versions.
Oppenheim and Wilsky's Signals and Systems is $100+ in stores in the US, <$30 on eBay, $5 for Kindle.
Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Now if Apple/Android made a simple way for a test proctor to put your phone into a single app only that you couldn't easily break out of, maybe things will change. Apple actually supports this: "When you give a test to your students, you can lock their iPad in to an assessment app and turn off features that you don't want them to use." https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204775 I tried it just now with desmos testing…
The device has to be under Apple's management software. It's basically like a corporate IT management platform but for schools and teachers to use with their class set of iPads. But it doesn't work on personal devices.
You could probably use Guided Access mode for the same effect. Locks you into one app until you enter the right four-digit PIN.
Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?
#199In regards to the rest of the posts stating its because of lack of functionality rather than functionality, why not design and write tests (math tests specifically) so that no calculator is required. Core Calculus, Stats, etc. concepts are testable without exact numerical precision. Substitute variables if needed, or have end results allowable in non reduced formats.
Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
The device has to be under Apple's management software. It's basically like a corporate IT management platform but for schools and teachers to use with their class set of iPads. But it doesn't work on personal devices.
Look up the self app lock. That's the feature I just tested on my personal device that worked fine
It’s called “Guided Access”. See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202612. Works fine, AFAIK, but may be a bit of a hassle to set up for an entire class.