If they’re going to do this, then they better be supplying scientific calculators to students.
Still remember my family not bothering to get me one since we were “tight on funds” (ie, we don’t want to sacrifice alcohol and smoke money), and I used an emulator by the name of WabbiteMu in order to follow in my math class.
Not all students use their phones to slack off, and if they can’t access the resources they need to succeed on their phone, it damn well should be the case the schools provides those resources for them.
Nope, the wabbit emu is for replacing a TI graphing calculator which is north of ~$150 in the US. Still cheaper than a phone, but only a third or so the price of my daily driver at the time of purchase.
It’s a pretty standard tool to assist with learning any math beyond algebra, and was a requirement in both my uni and high school classes. I’m fortunate enough to have gone to a high school where there were plenty of calculators provided by the school, but the major exams like the SAT and whatnot did not provide one and would also not have allowed phones.
It’s a bit puzzling to me that we are worrying about replacing a very expensive thing that (some) students own with a very cheap thing. Like, yes of course, give everyone a damn calculator, but really, now you guys feel the sudden urge to advocate for that? If someone can’t afford a 9$ calculator, they also didn’t afford it last week, when phones were not banned. Where was all the concern about students who can’t afford calculators last week? It’s silly.
Why now? Because that is what is being discussed in this thread.
I believe that education should be a 100% free, down to the material used in class. But we are talking about phones replacing calculators, not how we think the education should be.
Graphing calculators are 100% necessary, we used them regularly for sine wave and logarithmic functions to pinpoint specific plot values on a graph. A $9 calculator doesn’t cover that.
EDIT: Getting downvoted for this is crazy work, they literally would list the Ti-85 in our school supplies list.
Quebec, no, but in Alberta. I’d be surprised if the curriculum there didn’t touch on topics requiring graphing calculators though since it was just about all we did in 11th and 12th grade math class. It was quite literally a necessity to have the Ti ones specifically too since everything was taught using inputs for the things.
You don’t need a graphing calculator. I did all my scholarship with a sharp writeview that costs 20$.
It does integrals, derivatives, matrices, complex algebra, vector algebra and everything else you could possibly need.
They said “scientific” calculator, not “graphing”. As in their parents weren’t willing to spend that $20 (or less) for what I’d consider the most basic useful calculator.
If all they needed was the features of a scientific calculator they would have used their calculator app, it’s pretty clear based on context they’re saying they needed access to a graphing calculator for coursework.
You’ve never been tempted to get the most extreme version of something when you only need a simple one when the inertia to get either was similar? Or ended up with a tool far more powerful than you needed because you weren’t sure about the difference when you first got it and by the time you realized, you were already used to the advanced tool and just kept using it?
Plus, I’ve found the free calculator apps to be a bit disappointing when I’ve tried them, though I haven’t looked in a while.
If they’re going to do this, then they better be supplying scientific calculators to students.
Still remember my family not bothering to get me one since we were “tight on funds” (ie, we don’t want to sacrifice alcohol and smoke money), and I used an emulator by the name of WabbiteMu in order to follow in my math class.
Not all students use their phones to slack off, and if they can’t access the resources they need to succeed on their phone, it damn well should be the case the schools provides those resources for them.
A calculator is a couple of orders of magnitude cheaper than a phone. Single vs triple digits.
Nope, the wabbit emu is for replacing a TI graphing calculator which is north of ~$150 in the US. Still cheaper than a phone, but only a third or so the price of my daily driver at the time of purchase.
This is an article about Quebec. Do students in Quebec need this kind of tool?
It’s a pretty standard tool to assist with learning any math beyond algebra, and was a requirement in both my uni and high school classes. I’m fortunate enough to have gone to a high school where there were plenty of calculators provided by the school, but the major exams like the SAT and whatnot did not provide one and would also not have allowed phones.
More reason to provide it to students that can’t afford them then.
It’s a bit puzzling to me that we are worrying about replacing a very expensive thing that (some) students own with a very cheap thing. Like, yes of course, give everyone a damn calculator, but really, now you guys feel the sudden urge to advocate for that? If someone can’t afford a 9$ calculator, they also didn’t afford it last week, when phones were not banned. Where was all the concern about students who can’t afford calculators last week? It’s silly.
Why now? Because that is what is being discussed in this thread.
I believe that education should be a 100% free, down to the material used in class. But we are talking about phones replacing calculators, not how we think the education should be.
So yeah, give everyone a damn calculator.
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Graphing calculators are 100% necessary, we used them regularly for sine wave and logarithmic functions to pinpoint specific plot values on a graph. A $9 calculator doesn’t cover that.
EDIT: Getting downvoted for this is crazy work, they literally would list the Ti-85 in our school supplies list.
Question, were you a student in Quebec?
(Not downvoting you.)
Quebec, no, but in Alberta. I’d be surprised if the curriculum there didn’t touch on topics requiring graphing calculators though since it was just about all we did in 11th and 12th grade math class. It was quite literally a necessity to have the Ti ones specifically too since everything was taught using inputs for the things.
You don’t need a graphing calculator. I did all my scholarship with a sharp writeview that costs 20$. It does integrals, derivatives, matrices, complex algebra, vector algebra and everything else you could possibly need.
They said “scientific” calculator, not “graphing”. As in their parents weren’t willing to spend that $20 (or less) for what I’d consider the most basic useful calculator.
Wabbitemu is an emulator for ti84 and similar graphing calculators
Yes, but they used it because their parents wouldn’t get them a scientific calculator. At least that’s the impression I got.
If all they needed was the features of a scientific calculator they would have used their calculator app, it’s pretty clear based on context they’re saying they needed access to a graphing calculator for coursework.
You’ve never been tempted to get the most extreme version of something when you only need a simple one when the inertia to get either was similar? Or ended up with a tool far more powerful than you needed because you weren’t sure about the difference when you first got it and by the time you realized, you were already used to the advanced tool and just kept using it?
Plus, I’ve found the free calculator apps to be a bit disappointing when I’ve tried them, though I haven’t looked in a while.
I needed one to play doom, like a normal person