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Here's an idea: Stop trying force the backwards notion that using tools is cheating. There is 0 reason that any high-stakes test needs a calculator. This simpl

by gowld 7y ago

Here's an idea: Stop trying force the backwards notion that using tools is cheating. There is 0 reason that any high-stakes test needs a calculator. This simple change will improve the quality of education and reduce the cost of calculators.

ddek 7y ago
I understand that there are virtually no tests that _actually_ need a TI calculator. They're mad useful for learning - you can explore maths very effectively, but there's a learning curve to it. I started using GraphNCalc83 on my iPhone (maybe available on Android - I'm sure an alternative is if not), and I question the real need for a £120 calculator.
- jacobolus 7y ago
  The only test I ever took which needed a TI calculator was the AP calculus exam. I borrowed one from the school, and it was a bit of a pain to figure out the UI during the test, but overall it went fine. The calculators are a completely counter-productive and distracting tool for “learning” which have contributed to a watered down curriculum with more mindless button punching and less thinking than before. Anecdotally some students never recover from the mistaken idea that math class is about learning how calculators work. There is no reason to assign problems which require a calculator in high school mathematics courses, and for anything that would benefit, there’s a huge advantage in using a computer with a full-sized keyboard and a general-purpose programming language, or even a smartphone with a web browser. Do your basic plotting at the free desmos.com, with the added bonus that sharing plots with classmates is trivial because you can generate a URL.
vortico 7y ago
You can Google almost any high school math question verbatim and find a QA site with the verbatim answer, perhaps with numbers switched around.
- ben-schaaf 7y ago
  A lot of the time you can also just ask wolfram alpha (or at least once you have a formula) and you'll get the answer.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Which just speaks to the low quality of high school math questions, no an inherent flaw with providing access to technology. Try doing the same with the typical AMC problem…
  - andrepd 7y ago
    No, it speaks that there are hundreds of millions of pupils worldwide learning roughly the same material. Try making a creative new question for each, every year...
    - failrate 7y ago
      Procedural generation of math problems is solved.
      - andrepd 7y ago
        Unless you mean "changing the numbers around" there is no universe where this is remotely true.
        failrate 7y ago
        I don't think you are using your imagination. Madlibs-style templating is one solution. Another would be using a context free grammar. Evolutionary equation generation.

by gowld 7y ago

ddek 7y ago

I understand that there are virtually no tests that _actually_ need a TI calculator. They're mad useful for learning - you can explore maths very effectively, but there's a learning curve to it. I started using GraphNCalc83 on my iPhone (maybe available on Android - I'm sure an alternative is if not), and I question the real need for a £120 calculator.

jacobolus 7y ago
The only test I ever took which needed a TI calculator was the AP calculus exam. I borrowed one from the school, and it was a bit of a pain to figure out the UI during the test, but overall it went fine. The calculators are a completely counter-productive and distracting tool for “learning” which have contributed to a watered down curriculum with more mindless button punching and less thinking than before. Anecdotally some students never recover from the mistaken idea that math class is about learning how calculators work. There is no reason to assign problems which require a calculator in high school mathematics courses, and for anything that would benefit, there’s a huge advantage in using a computer with a full-sized keyboard and a general-purpose programming language, or even a smartphone with a web browser. Do your basic plotting at the free desmos.com, with the added bonus that sharing plots with classmates is trivial because you can generate a URL.

vortico 7y ago

You can Google almost any high school math question verbatim and find a QA site with the verbatim answer, perhaps with numbers switched around.

ben-schaaf 7y ago
A lot of the time you can also just ask wolfram alpha (or at least once you have a formula) and you'll get the answer.
saagarjha 7y ago
Which just speaks to the low quality of high school math questions, no an inherent flaw with providing access to technology. Try doing the same with the typical AMC problem…
- andrepd 7y ago
  No, it speaks that there are hundreds of millions of pupils worldwide learning roughly the same material. Try making a creative new question for each, every year...
  - failrate 7y ago
    Procedural generation of math problems is solved.
    - andrepd 7y ago
      Unless you mean "changing the numbers around" there is no universe where this is remotely true.
      - failrate 7y ago
        I don't think you are using your imagination. Madlibs-style templating is one solution. Another would be using a context free grammar. Evolutionary equation generation.