Re: TI-89 virtue email needed

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Re: TI-89 virtue email needed

you say learn the teachers method and forget them to learn the calculators method.  are you saying on the 89, the calculator actually acts as a teacher and SHOWS you how it does it's calculations.  for some reason, i'm thinking not. 

so how exactly does the calculator teach you a newer, better method?

At 12:50 AM 9/2/98, you wrote:
>Should the TI-89 or TI-92+ be used in mathematics classes?
>
>About 20 years ago I was teaching a pre-calculus course to high school seniors.
>One of my students, the second smartest person I ever met on this planet,
>stopped
>me between classes. He said to me something like the following: "That
>method for solving exponential equations you showed us today I will never,
>and I mean NEVER EVER use. If you have a moment I will show you how you a
>better way." He did show me a better way and I told him I will never and I
>mean NEVER EVER use that old method again either. That old method involved
>working with the characteristic and the mantissa of logarithms. His method
>used a calculator. This new method with its' speed, accuracy, and pure
>elegance compared to the slowness, the yielding of only four or five
>digits, and quite frankly uninspiring older  method gave no doubt to me
>that things were a changing for the better. He told me that if I wished he
>would do the old method for any test or quiz I choose to give. But come a
>day when he needed to solve exponential equations out in an applied area he
>would use his calculator not my old method.
>
>Going back even further. About 40 years ago when was in 7th grade I was
>taught to compute square roots by a method that looked kind of like a
>protracted long division problem. I believe it was called Hohner's Method.
>I learned it well enough to do the problems on the tests that year but when
>it came to 8th grade I forgot it and I had to relearn it.  Over the next
>summer I forgot it and sure enough in 9th grade we got it again in class. I
>relearned again and forgot it again. In 10th grade we didn't have it but in
>11th grade we did. I had to relearn it again and forgot it again. My dad
>had some math books that had better methods. One method was the "divide and
>average" method the other was using a slide rule. I learned those methods
>and I haven't forgotten those either.
>
>So what does this have to do with using TI-89 or TI-92+ calculators? The
>Key Number method for factoring polynomials, completing the square for
>solving quadratic equations, and synthetic division tableaus in polynomial
>theory are these the Hohner and characteristic and  mantissa methods of
>tomorrow?  Many of the things we math teachers make you students do will be
>a waste of time in light of what can be done with a  TI-89 or TI-92+
>calculator today. In all fairness to the past, present, and future math
>teachers how are they to know what will be important for the future and
>what will not be. Personally I don't care if a student uses a calculator or
>not or which calculator he/she chooses to use in any of my math classes. If
>speed and accuracy are important then by all means use a calculator, the
>best calculator you can afford. Today that would be a TI-89 or TI-92+. Why
>settle for any thing less?
>
>If I were a student and the teacher would not allow me to use my TI-89 or
>TI-92+ in math class I would look for a new teacher. If that's not possible
>I guess I would learn his/her methods for the tests and forget them later
>and learn the calculator methods for myself and remember them. Does using
>one of these calculators give you an advantage over someone who does not? I
>think so. That's why I use them. I make alot fewer mistakes when doing work
>with them than without them.
>
>Good Luck
>
>Gary Wardall
>UWGB Mathematics Dept.
>Green Bay, WI
>
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>>At 10:07 AM 09/01/98 -0500, GARY WARDALL wrote:
>>>From an old mathematics teachers point of view the TI-89 will lead the way
>>>how mathematics will be taught/learned in the future.
>>
>>Would you (or any other mathematics teacher/professor) be willing to write
>>a comprehensive e-mail to my AP Calculus teacher extolling the virtues of
>>the 89?  Despite all of my reasoning she still refuses to allow it even on
>>classwork as she says it is "too powerful".  Me and a few other students
>>have 89's (and/or 92(+/II)'s) and were quite disappointed when we brought
>>our 'great new calculator' to school just to find that it was totally
>>useless to us (except for the 92's which most of us type class notes on in
>>other subjects, but thats beside the point).  I sincerely hope that she
>>will regard the opinion of another learned mathematics educator more highly
>>than she does ours.
>>
>>--
>>Bill Risher        Sparr      UIN:1952775    ._, . . .
>>Lorenai #44        Makra      FON:9316484164 |_) o | |
>>Overlord n7hq      Decius                    |_) | | |
>>mailto://billr1@midsouth.net FAX:9315526807 ^ ` ^ ^ ^
>
{-kimo-}

Summers never live up to your expectations . . .
-kimo
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