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Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

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Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#171

Post by ocdtrekkie »

snrji wrote: post #41
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #22

Back in the Android 2.0 days, a guy had a set of TI emulators which, when loaded with the ROM downloadable directly off of TI's website, perfectly replicated several well-known TI calculator models. Think the one I used got shut down, but there's a number of newer ones: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Bisha.TI89... I already owned a TI calculator at the time, it was just nice not to carry it around.…

For studying it would be fine, but for taking exams no way the instructors can let you in with your phone.

I know this is a crazy thought: But why should every student need to buy their own calculator for testing? In a given class period, what, 10% of a school's population is in a math class? The school should be providing adequate calculators for test-taking, but of course, that would cut TI's income by a factor of 10.

(It's worth noting that "an X for every student" mentality really only is beneficial to whoever is selling X.)

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#172

Post by seanalltogether »

This article reminds me of that famous video of Steve Jobs talking about how sales & marketing guys take over a tech company and engineering gets pushed out. TI has no monetary incentive to make these calculators better, the only way for them to make more money is to aggressively sell to schools and lobby for more favorable legislation around their product.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#173

Post by Ishmaeli »

bsder wrote: post #165
4gotunameagain wrote: post #160

> 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

And absolutely killed the absolute best engineering calculator to ever exist--the HP48SX. I still use all my HP calculators from the 80's and early 90's. It's all about the keyboard. I can enter enormous streams of numbers and operators and never miss .

RPN FTW.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#174

Post by gonehome »

singron wrote: post #146
jerf wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There are programs that even dictate which TI model is accepted." At this point in 2019, with such cheap computation, the school calculator lines are being sold as much on what they don't do as what they do. Around 1994 or 1995, I had an HP-48G calculator, a real scientific programmable calculator meant for engineers and scientists, where the rest of the class had the TI line of school calculators. The HP-48G could…

I used a TI-89 (which has a CAS) on the AP Calculus exam. I maybe used it to double check an answer, but I don't remember it being more useful than a TI-83 on that exam. You can only use calculators on part of the exam. On the calculator portion, I remember formulating each problem to be the hard part and the actual differentiation/integration was straightforward. The SAT math is so rudimentary that it's difficult to…

I find the 89 to be a huge leap over the 83 entirely because of the screen UX.

On the 89 it would draw the actual fractions and show exponents in superscript rather than only using parenthesis. You could also scroll up to previous entries and bring them back to the editor (or get previous answers).

The mistakes you avoid from not having to count parenthesis and being able to easily access previously typed equations was really helpful.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#176

Post by make3 »

clamprecht wrote: post #141
russfink wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would they care about a calculator?

Non-programmable calculators were fine - computers were not. A programmable calculator is basically a computer. In a computer you could store data that they couldn't access (encryption, even if it's very basic). Could be a list of gambling debts, escape plans, or other horrors. Most prison rules are "written in blood", so to speak.

I mean you could store some dumbly ciphered information on a sheet too, but I guess it's not as convenient

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#177

Post by thaumasiotes »

monocasa wrote: post #80
echelon wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a better solution is to have the school purchase all of the calculators and give them to students at the time of the exam. This also would align with driving costs down since schools will not want to pay $100 per calculator for their student body.

> This also would align with driving costs down since schools will not want to pay $100 per calculator for their student body. Lol, I don't think I've seen that argument made before. They already pay near college prices for the text books.

When the quality of a school is rhetorically judged on its per-pupil spending, obviously administrators will want to pay more, not less, for whatever they happen to purchase.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#178

Post by boomlinde »

jerf wrote: post #25
5trokerac3 wrote: post #4

TI calculators are the biggest technology racket in education. The fact alone that most schools won't allow the use of Casio equivalents deserves an anti-trust investigation. There are programs that even dictate which TI model is accepted.

"There are programs that even dictate which TI model is accepted." At this point in 2019, with such cheap computation, the school calculator lines are being sold as much on what they don't do as what they do. Around 1994 or 1995, I had an HP-48G calculator, a real scientific programmable calculator meant for engineers and scientists, where the rest of the class had the TI line of school calculators. The HP-48G could…

> At this point in 2019, with such cheap computation, the school calculator lines are being sold as much on what they don't do as what they do.

Yes, but what is it that a TI-84 can't do that a TI-83 can?

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#179

Post by icebraining »

mandevil wrote: post #70
ineedasername wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> doesn't excuse..." At least for widespread standardized tests that allow or require a calculator, the obvious solution would seem to be providing students with one at the beginning of the exam. In addition to preventing cheating with unauthorized programs when students bring their own, it ensures there's a level playing field for poorer students who might not be able to afford one. Add an extra $1 to the cost of th…

The SAT II Math exam is administered 6 times during the 2019-2020 school year. To be used 100 times, it would have to last over 15 years. For IB/AP Calc it's even worse, that is literally given on one day to the entire country (modulo a very small number of makeup exams), so would get two days of use per year (one for AP, one for IB). If you used the same set of calculators for both, we're talking about the hardware…

12 years for a well treated, very lightly used TI calculator seems perfectly reasonable. My high school had a few loaners that were used throughout the year (and not always under supervision) and the only sign of their age (about 9 years old) were a few faded button labels.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#180

Post by netmonk »

All thoses peoples talking about TI or Casio as real calculators, while real fun was hp48. TI or Casio were real piece of shit, Reverse polish is the true path. Many of my generation (+40) learnt assembly, language machine and coding with this model (not even talking about hp41C or hp28S for the oldest of us). Long live to Saturn, and sysinternal. I often buy refurbished one on ebay or other site, i actually own 6 hp48s, i hope it will be enough for my offspring.
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