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The Reign of the $100 Graphing Calculator Required By Every US Math Class Is Finally Ending (engadget.com)
If you took a math class at some point in the US, there is likely a bulky $100 calculator gathering dust somewhere in your closet. Fast forward to today, and the Texas Instruments 84 -- or the TI 84-Plus, or the TI-89 or any of the other even more expensive hardware variants -- is quickly losing relevance. Engadget adds: Thanks to a new deal, they'll soon get a free option. Starting this spring, pupils in 14 US states will be able to use the TI-like Desmos online calculator during standardized testing run by the Smarter Balanced consortium. "We think students shouldn't have to buy this old, underpowered device anymore," Desmos CEO Eli Luberoff said. The Desmos calculator will be embedded directly into the assessments, meaning students will have access during tests with no need for an external device. It'll also be available to students in grades 6 through 8 and high school throughout the year. The calculator is free to use, and the company makes money by charging organizations to use it, according to Bloomberg.
Really? Why a calculator? No problems in math apart from specialized areas should require a calculator.
Based on your UID (plus I know you've been hanging around these parts for a long while) I would wager you are not a student in a US math class.
Wow. Just WOW!
Well, certainly I have been a math student, and its possible my children, who possibly vet their education expenses through me could be math students. It's even possible I'm in a MS or PhD program...
And whoop-de-do to you! If you want, you can use a graphing calculator, but just as an analogy, I learned to drive on a stick, and I can drive anything.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.