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Full Version: [OT] TI Calculators tell teachers which pupils need help
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I found this interesting:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070514/tc_nm/summit_calculators_dc_1

From the article:

Quote:
But calculators, long a fixture in college mathematics and
engineering classrooms, are more profitable than semiconductors

Somebody tell HP! :-)

There will always be a difference between "Marketing People" and people who know how to market ...

Best regards

"...wireless signals from pupils' handheld calculators to a personal-computer screen ... lets instructors correct and analyze errors in real time. The teacher can understand who's not getting it by assessing which functions students keyed into their calculators..."

This is over-reliance on technology. What's obviously needed, especially in the critical early years, is good old-fashioned 3R teaching. Seems like most of the teachers nowadays are just button-pushers teaching more button-pushing instead of real math skills.

If this is what's being currently taught, how the heck are we as a nation going to compete with India, China, and so on? I fear for the future...

"I fear for the future" has been around for many many years and cuts across all boundries. Just did a quick search for the phase and came up with:

I fear for the future when it is placed in the hands of the children of today.
I fear for the future of women in the new Iraq.
I fear for the future of our country
I fear for the future of my daughter in the present life
I fear for the future if we were to withdraw
I fear for the future of Israel
I fear for the future of Apple
I fear for the future of the United Kingdom
I fear for the future if this is allowed to continue
I fear for the future of my beloved ThinkPads
I fear for the future of my company and the whole industry
I fear for the future generations who are growing up
I FEAR FOR THE FUTURE OF MY CHILDREN
I fear for the future of content creators
I fear for the future of the PC
I fear for the future of my marriage
I fear for the future of humanity
I fear for the future of our kids and our schools
I fear for the future of the horror genre
I fear for the future of a watered down specialty
I fear for the future of the human race
I fear for the future of the next generation
I fear for the future of my medical colleagues
I fear for the future of the Middle East
I fear for the future of our press corp
I fear for the future of both our sport and our industry
I fear for the future of music
I fear for the future of the Western way of life
I fear for the future of analysis
I fear for the future of my sex life.
I fear for the future of traveling
I fear for the future of the world
I fear for the future of old homes
I fear for the future of academic dentistry
I fear for the future of this vital tool
I fear for the future of the Sportsman
I fear for the future of employment in the city
I fear for the future in ten or twenty years
I FEAR FOR the future of environmental history
I fear for the future of TV
I fear for the future of books
I fear for the future of the FOCUS line
I fear for the future of the internet
I fear for the future of community theatre
I fear for the future of this plucky fish
I fear for the future of the NHS
I fear for the future of iriver
I fear for the future well-being of Malaysia
I fear for the future of our nation's highest court
I fear for the future of the show I love
I fear for the future of gaming
I fear for the future of many of our football clubs
I fear for the future of film-based photography
I fear for the future of Irish song writing
I fear for the future of Scottish winter climbing
I fear for the future of my ability
I fear for the future happiness of Grant and Hepburn
I fear for the future of girls like this
I fear for the future of a global disarmament agenda
i fear for the future of boxing
I fear for the future of the English language
i fear for the future of MF digital
I fear for the future of my four-year-old
I fear for the future as a result
I fear for the future of the archipelago's natural resources
I fear for the future they will inherit
I fear for the future of radio against the monster of television
I fear for the future of our species
I fear for the future of ColdFusion
I fear for the future of naturism
I fear for the future of the small-scale composting industry
I fear for the future of the Army
I fear for the future of science in schools
I fear for the future of SUSE, and KDE
I fear for the future of Pan Fish employees in Scotland
I fear for the future until the next reboot
I fear for the future of the all-too-easy-to-snap Arachnid legs
I fear for the future of our health
I fear for the future of that poor debauched squishy cow
I fear for the future of redheads
I fear for the future of Banana
I fear for the future of the band
I fear for the future of C++
I fear for the future if this is a sample
I fear for the future of haiku
I fear for the future of information exchange
I fear for the future of personal freedom
I fear for the future of "normal unhappiness"
I fear for the future today
I fear for the future of this opinion
I fear for the future with the disastrous
I fear for the future, I really do.

I fear for the future of my collection

Fearing for the future seems fairly common.

Bill


Edited: 15 May 2007, 11:27 a.m.

[OT] Feeling fear doesn't avoid danger, but it can help.

Don't fear fear !

"If this is what's being currently taught, how the heck are we as a nation going to compete with India, China, and so on?"

No we are not competing with them. We gave them our business.

Or as FDR said back in the 30's, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself".

tm

Quote:
"...wireless signals from pupils' handheld calculators to a personal-computer screen ... lets instructors correct and analyze errors in real time. The teacher can understand who's not getting it by assessing which functions students keyed into their calculators..."

This is over-reliance on technology. What's obviously needed, especially in the critical early years, is good old-fashioned 3R teaching. Seems like most of the teachers nowadays are just button-pushers teaching more button-pushing instead of real math skills.


Two things: a) Just because the technology is there, it doesn't mean that teachers have to use it; and b) it sounds like a brilliant way of deterring pupils from playing Tetris instead of working. :-)

Calculators are not necessary to learning math, and aside from proficiency, have no place in the classroom until well into college. Only a handful of majors require studies beyond entry level calculus, and I know from experience that you don't need a calculator to make it through differential equations.

The United States was once the home of perhaps the finest engineering-based company in the world. Today that company sells ink.