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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?"

3 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."

  3. Re:other conflicts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I'm betting your toughest class was English. I really hope it's your second language.