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TI-Nspire for iPad Updates
Posted by Ryan on 20 February 2013, 20:10 GMT
After a brief app store hiccup, the TI-Nspire apps for the iPad (standard and CAS versions alike) are now fully
up and at 'em. The software can most certainly perform all of the features that you would expect from your
Nspire, including graphing, functions, statistics, and so on. Texas Instruments is definitely gearing this
application towards educational settings, offering instructors free, one-year licenses of both the standard and CAS desktop software with their iPad app, which they have designed with 7th grade up through college level courses in mind. The official press release from Texas Instruments lists some intriguing features that appear to be aligned with their
educational integration goal, those being (quoted from press release):
- All-in-one functionality for performing calculations in proper math notation; graphing and exploring
functions, equations and inequalities; constructing and exploring geometric figures; creating, plotting and
analyzing data in lists and spreadsheets.
- Interactive keyboard that toggles between math notation and QWERTY configurations for placing notes and
instructions alongside problems.
- Dynamically linked multiple representations of problems that encourage students to make crucial connections
by observing how equations change as they touch and interact with shapes, graphs and objects on the
screen.
- Familiar operations for creating and saving documents and sharing them using email, iTunes, and other file
sharing options.
- Interaction with the built-in iPad camera interface that enables students to take photos, import them into
the app and overlay graphs and equations on them to illustrate abstract math principles in the physical
world.
The camera support and mode of document sharing seem to be the most interesting of features, as these are conceptually
new to the growing NSpire series family. Further support of the software itself includes a full two days of
workshops being held at their conference next month, which is encouraging hope that the software will remain supported in the long run. There is no general word yet on the app's performance speed (relative the the desktop software versus the handheld device).
There is currently no support for interfacing measurement instrumention with the TI-NSpire
for iPad app, as adaptors do not seem to exist for these purposes as of the moment. This will likely limit the
app's generalizability to field work and laboratory settings. A laurel (and hardy handshake) to anyone who is up for surmounting this challenge!
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