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Calculators vs. PDAs in the Classroom

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the crutches-for-the-weak-minded dept.

TheMatt writes "CNN.com is reporting about a new conflict perhaps emerging in classrooms: calculators v. PDAs. The article talks about how TI seems to be making their latest calculator more PDA-like, while PDAs are gaining TI-like functionality. A comment on current math education is this quote from the article: "When you have circles and ellipses, there is no way you'd be able to do this without a calculator," Jarvis said. "It helps us visualize what we're doing." Were the compass and geometry uninvented?"

2 of 534 comments (clear)

  1. Ignorama Americana by Cheesewhiz · · Score: 0, Troll

    Welcome to America, where even our best students are utterly incapable of conceptualizing an ellipse!

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    "Cogito Eggo Sum: I think, therefore, waffle."
  2. Re:"It helps us visualize what we're doing." by civilizedINTENSITY · · Score: 0, Troll

    Oh yes, lets make the learning curve as steep as possible! A kid can visualize vector operations, geometric properties, etc...? Hell, make sure he chokes on his multiplication tables first so that we don't have to compete later. Math is *supposed* to be hard and anal, right? Why even let them know there are math concepts until after they begin a master's thesis? More rigour! Formalize to the point that kids are out of Highschool before they realize math even involves numbers. Like, "I got my PhD, lets see you get yours."