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Net Access From your TI-85

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the and-you-thought-it-was-just-for-cheating-at-stats dept.

BlueCalx- writes "Affinix has just recently released an interesting program called Wireless TI - a set of utilities that lets you access a UNIX shell, IRC, or chat with another computer: all from your Texas Instruments-brand graphing calculator. You can download the utilities from ticalc.org. "

2 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Calculators dull minds: throw them out! by mattorb · · Score: 5
    I'd agree that you have to be careful using calculators for pedagogical purposes, but I think it's absurd to suggest we throw them out of schools entirely. What do you think the point of mathematical education is? If it's just mechanics -- ie, learning to be really quick at long division -- then sure, calculators aren't very helpful. But I'd argue that math, at least from the upper-high-school level on, is about a way of thinking, about being able to argue symbolically in a way that is precise and beautiful. You need a solid grounding in some mechanics to be able to do that -- to understand what's going on, to see the elegance of later things -- but the mechanics aren't really the point.

    So let our students be mediocre at long division. I couldn't care less. (When I need to do a complicated long division problem, I reach for the calculator -- why waste my time doing otherwise?) As long as they have been exposed to the mechanics, and (more fundamentally) how those mechanics can be applied in math and in life, who cares?

    There are obvious caveats to my comments above, and this is why I partially agree with you -- teachers do need to make sure that students receive enough grounding in simple technique that they're not dependent on calculators for everything; for trivial calculations, nothing beats pen and paper. I think one ultimate goal is for the students to be able to solve any problem in the manner that is most appropriate -- clearly sometimes that will be in their heads, and just as clearly, sometimes a calculator is the way to go. Coupled with this, as I said above, is the goal of teaching the students to think in a mathematical way. Calculators obviously aren't a catch-all for accomplishing both goals, but I see no reason why they can't help you along the way.

  2. Re:Calculators dull minds: throw them out! by YoJ · · Score: 5

    This is a common sentiment. It is also wrong.

    Math is not about being able to perform long division. Memorizing arbitrary rules for dividing numbers is not math. Punching numbers into a calculator is not math. Math is a way of thinking about problems. It is a formal system of abstraction. What are numbers? Abstractions of groups of everyday things. Three apples, three houses, three people, etc. What are variables? An abstraction of numbers.

    Learning mathematics is learning how to think abstractly. There is some advantage to knowing how to do arithmetic, for example when you are shopping and need to figure out how much something will cost when it is on sale for 30% off. But arithmetic should not be the focus of math courses. Calculators take the focus away from arithmetic and put it at a higher conceptual level.

    Does learning every command of x86 assembly make you a better programmer? Well, sometimes it's useful. But nowadays we have things called compilers that do all that for you. Tools don't make you dumber; they let you tackle more complicated problems. Of course calculators can be misused in the classroom, but used correctly they force the student to spend more time actually thinking.

    -Nathan Whitehead