Demise of TI and the Rise of Desmos

[jedishrfu]

Better stock up now as graphing calculators are becoming antiques just as slide rules did in the late 1970's.

https://qz.com/977987/thanks-to-the...hing-calculator-in-schools-is-finally-ending/

 

[DrClaude]

I don't like the use of the word "finally" in the title.

 

[mfb]

So what are they going to do, let every student use their phone? What could possibly go wrong?
Have a special device that can only access the online calculator tool? That costs money.

 

[Fred Wright]

Teaching mathematics with a fancy calculator results in idiocracy. The teacher does no work and the students do no work, learning nothing; everybody is happy.

 

[mfb]

Teaching mathematics with a fancy calculator results in idiocracy. The teacher does no work and the students do no work, learning nothing; everybody is happy.

Did you learn or teach with a graphical calculator or where does that opinion come from?

At least in Germany, the same things that have been done without the calculator are still done - without the calculator. In addition, the calculator is used for some problems where calculating integrals or derivatives is not the point of the question.

 

[Fred Wright]

Did you learn or teach with a graphical calculator or where does that opinion come from?

At least in Germany, the same things that have been done without the calculator are still done - without the calculator. In addition, the calculator is used for some problems where calculating integrals or derivatives is not the point of the question.

I have to admit that I learned and taught math before the advent of fancy calculators (I'm an old man). When I was a student of, say algebra, I took pencil to paper and solved numerous equations. This developed my intuition for algebraic problems. The same held true for trig and calculus. This intuition I developed through putting pencil to paper, having to physically expand each step of the calculation, served me well in my undergraduate and graduate training in physics. It's the way people have learned math for over a thousand years and it's worked pretty well so far. My point is that by short circuiting the steps of a calculation with a fancy calculator you induce blindness for mathematical comprehension and intuition. But as I said, I'm old; "kids these days!"

 

[Drakkith]

My point is that by short circuiting the steps of a calculation with a fancy calculator you induce blindness for mathematical comprehension and intuition.

Don't discount the advantages of having a calculator. Especially a graphing calculator. You can quickly look at how functions behave when you change variables, compare different functions, and many other things that are tedious and error-prone when doing them by hand. They relieve you of much of the "manual labor" when it comes to calculations, freeing you to focus on comprehending the problem instead of worrying about whether your long division was correct or if you remembered what sin(π/3) was correctly.

 

[mfb]

When I was a student of, say algebra, I took pencil to paper and solved numerous equations. This developed my intuition for algebraic problems. The same held true for trig and calculus. This intuition I developed through putting pencil to paper, having to physically expand each step of the calculation, served me well in my undergraduate and graduate training in physics. It's the way people have learned math for over a thousand years and it's worked pretty well so far.

That is still done! At least in Germany.

What is done with graphical calculators is something in addition. It doesn't replace the pen and paper calculations.

 

[pixel]

“We think students shouldn’t have to buy this old, underpowered device anymore,” Desmos CEO Eli Luberoff tells Quartz. “It’s a huge source of inequity, and it’s just not the best way to learn.”

So instead of a calculator for a college algebra class, you'll be required to have a smartphone?

 

[Mark44]

Thread reopened following some pruning.