Re: TI-92

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Re: TI-92

>....
> And there's a heck of a lot more stuff that can be gotten at when
> you have a good calculator in hand that you would never touch if
> you only had pencil and paper -- I believe that we are just
> discovering some of this terrritory as people push the limits of
> calculator use.  It doesn't bother me that the average person has
> no idea how you would perform a long division or extract a square
> root with an abacus (yes, it _can_ be done), and I don't think in a
> few more years that anyone will be seriously bothered that the
> average person does not get taught the p&p methods to perform
> these calculations.  It's time to move up to new levels of
> understanding.  Nowadays, for example,  it is perfectly feasible to
> teach ideas about functions and limits and manipulation of arrays
> at what would once have been considered a ridiculously early age...
>
> RWW Taylor
> National Technical Institute for the Deaf
> Rochester Institute of Technology
> Rochester NY 14623
>
> >>>> The plural of mongoose begins with p. <<<<

--
        I didn't say anything about how far you can go with good calculators or
better technology.  Frankly I really don't care about that. What I do
care about however is that kids do get the UNDERSTANDING AND PROBLEM
SOLVING mind that they are supposed to get.  If you start 7th or 8th
grade with a calculator that already does algebra, what the hell is the
point in having the class.  The point of teaching students algebra isn't
just so they can crunch x's and y's but so they can build certain skills
they can't get from pushing keys.
        What do you suppose would happen to the poor kid who loses his TI-92 in
a world you're proposing?  He wouldn't even know what the hell x^2
equals if x=2.  Maybe that's a bit drastic, but damn.. you have to see
the point here.
Jerome Hanson
jhanson@csci.csusb.edu
Blackster@juno.com
References: