PDAs and graphing calculators in the classroom?

[Martin]

article

What do you think?


I think they both make great compliments, but fundamentals should always be taught first. I had calculus last semester (I'm last year HS) and I know how to sketch graphs of polynomials and various functions, along with the usual parabolas, hyperbolas, ellipses etc. I used my Palm with EasyCalc to check answers and make more accurate graphs (whereas I had to find max/min, asymptotes etc and make a sketch using pen and paper and normal calculator).

But as one guy on /. said, if these kinds of devices are allowed, will students really be able to understand math?

 

[Beau]

All I have to say is if we have the technology, let's use it, otherwise we are stuck in a lower level.

 

[im2smrt4u]

All I know is that my Visor Platinum + Stowaway keyboard and my TI-89 have been invaluble tools in school.

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: Beau6183
All I have to say is if we have the technology, let's use it, otherwise we are stuck in a lower level.

BUt shouldn't people understand the concepts behind the technology? how will anything new ever be invented if one doesnt know the concepts?

 

[vi edit]

I prefer the appraoch that my math teacher took in highschool.

He would first teach us the long and difficult method of doing the problem - example - standard deviation. We'd work with it for a few days, get a feel for it, and then be tested on it doing it long form. If we understood the principal, and passed the test, we were allowed to use calculators on the next test that required us to use standard deviation.

He did this for most things that could be long long hand, and then very simply with a calculator. His idealology was that calculators weren't evil if we understood what they were doing. He let us prove that we knew what they were doing by doing it long hand first.

I thought it was a very logical approach.

 

[im2smrt4u]

Originally posted by: MartyTheManiak

BUt shouldn't people understand the concepts behind the technology? how will anything new ever be invented if one doesnt know the concepts?

Yes, they should. My Calc teacher solved that problem by allowing calculators on every other test. That way, when we had new material, we had to do it by hand.

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
I prefer the appraoch that my math teacher took in highschool.

He would first teach us the long and difficult method of doing the problem - example - standard deviation. We'd work with it for a few days, get a feel for it, and then be tested on it doing it long form. If we understood the principal, and passed the test, we were allowed to use calculators on the next test that required us to use standard deviation.

He did this for most things that could be long long hand, and then very simply with a calculator. His idealology was that calculators weren't evil if we understood what they were doing. He let us prove that we knew what they were doing by doing it long hand first.

I thought it was a very logical approach.

That's how both my calc and algebra & geomtry teachers taught, and I think its the best way. We had to find the derivative of various functions using the formula (lim h->0 f(x+h)-f(x)/h) for about a week before we learned all the other rules so we could do it the short way.