Re: Is the TI-92 worth the cost?


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Re: Is the TI-92 worth the cost?



Gary Wardal writes:

> In a few weeks I have to recommend a calculator to be used in
> Algebra-Trigonometry courses for next year at our college. (A
> small university setting.) Currently we require the TI-85. We
> have had good experiences using the TI-85 for the past four years.
> No other calculator is required in any other class. Students
> in other classes often buy the TI-85 and use it their other classes.
>
> The TI-86 seems a natural choice but the TI-92, with its symbolic
> calculations is so compelling. I have had a TI-92 for about two years
> and I am convinced these kinds of calculators are the calculators of the
> future.
                  (snip)

You don't say whether you yourself, with your two years of experience
with the TI-92, will be teaching the courses.  Anyone who teaches with the
TI-92 these days must be prepared to rethink the instructional program
and the expectations associated with the course and will have to be very
comfortable with the mechanics of the TI-92, in order to avoid it being
intimidating to the students.  It is easy to slip into a mode of "how do I
get this gadget to do _this_?", which naturally is not what a course in
algebra or trigonometry is all about.

Still, it is important for students to become aware of the power of
computer technology to manipulate formal expressions, and to realize
that this kind of power (like the power we exercise today over numerical
computation) has essentially become _cheap_, and will be the standard
way of performing symbolic computations in the future.  What one
has to understand and practice in order to appropriately manage such
calculations needs to be made the point of basic mathematical
instruction.  It is certainly tempting to try to move the instructional
agenda along by working with students with the TI-92 (the only
current representation on the market of this stage of technology).

The problem is likely to be the textbook.  No matter what book you use,
the power of the TI-92 is likely to invalidate the instructional program
of the author.  When the students can see that it is silly to go through
traditionally-prescribed work just to reach the simple results obtained
(e.g. in solving a linear equation) then they lose respect for the book,
the course (and maybe the instructor).  If students are asked to purchase
a TI-92 then they should be expected to _use_ it in appropriate ways,
which might mean exploring calculational patterns that one could not
approach with mental and written computation in order to make a
vital mathematical point.  The instructor is probably going to have to
come up with the exercises or lab work him- or herself.  Unless you
(and your college) are willing to accept this challenge then perhaps you
would be better sticking with the TI-86.  There are still plenty of things
you can do with a good graphing calculator that "push the envelope"
of what mathematics instruction should be.

          RWW Taylor
          National Technical Institute for the Deaf
          Rochester Institute of Technology
          Rochester NY 14623

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