Can anybody answer me this, why do people buy 100$+ calculators and do not know a single thing about it even after years of owning it besides some of what a scientific calculator can do and how to graph? I am still in high school and almost everybody I talk to doesn't know much about their calculator, even some of the simplest of tasks like storing and recalling variables get a "What is that" out of them or "That takes too long" which makes no sense as storing a constant and recalling it with the x variable hot key is faster than rewriting it a bunch of times. Nor do they know that pressing the E button substitutes the *10^ that they would usually type out. My least favorite are those who have the python edition and yet do not even know how to even access the python menu! Are these people just devoid of curiosity, experimentation or what? They also think that I am some sort of tech wizard as I have Duck Hunt and Wordle on mine and that I can program some quick formula programs as I hate doing tedious math work.

Also they always comment about getting ads on some TI84+CE mobile emulator even when they have an actual CE sitting in their bag (This emulator removed the all powerful prgm key for some search key WHICH IS USELESS AS THERE ALREADY IS A CATALOG!)
People think technology is magic. People think science is magic, for that matter. They do not think there is anything mere muggles like them can understand about it. Classes in schools reinforce this by presenting science as a bunch of things to memorize so you can answer test questions mechanically later on (& then, in the case of most people, apparently promptly forget it) as if they were magic incantations. They also are not there to learn or to explore...they are there to do their time in what amounts to little more than "prison for kids" &/or somewhere to put kids until they grow docile enough & learn the right social lessons to be allowed to be cogs in some corporate machine. Kids tend to be curious to start with, but school tends to teach it out of them. By the time they are exposed to a graphing calculator, most of them have no interest in exploring it because they are already spending all their school time doing homework & would rather play in some other socially-approved way when they do get a chance.

So, yes, they think you are a wizard if you show any understanding of technology beyond the level normal people are allowed (by implicit social convention) to understand.
There is sometimes an inversely proportional relationship to a user's knowledge of how a technology works vs it's ease of use.

Also it has more capability than what you'll find in a text book for most HS classes (not all).

MAINLY - Teachers don't know either, so they can't upskill their students.
I would also point out that it's usually parents spending $100+ on the calculator, and only because its "required" for whatever class. And in that class, its use will be far shy of its total capabilities, so there's so much you would simply never see nor care about as a student and a user that didn't spend their own money on it.
kg583 wrote:
I would also point out that it's usually parents spending $100+ on the calculator, and only because its "required" for whatever class. And in that class, its use will be far shy of its total capabilities, so there's so much you would simply never see nor care about as a student and a user that didn't spend their own money on it.

Good point. I'm horrified by how many times students drop their 100+ calculators in the hallways. Since they don't pay for it, they don't care about it. I bought all my graphing calculators so my ti 84 ce is almost as good as new 6 years after I bought it.
Calculatordream wrote:
I'm horrified by how many times students drop their 100+ calculators in the hallways. Since they don't pay for it, they don't care about it. I bought all my graphing calculators so my ti 84 ce is almost as good as new 6 years after I bought it.


That is a testament to the durability of the (probably cheap) plastic in these calculators. When I had my first TI-84 Plus CE, I dropped it many times. It survived my birds and it even has minor scratch marks on the back of the calculator, and on the slide case. My cousin has it now, and it still works perfectly! These calculators are more rugged than modern smartphones...well, except for their water resistance, but people aren't going to take their calculators to the swimming pool, anyway.

Keep in mind that calculators are just tools to do math. Most students aren't likely to do more than that on these calculators, and not everyone is interested in programming it. It is perfectly fine if you don't intend to do more than simple math and graphing. What matters is that students are able to take full advantage of what the calculator offers. Students aren't shown the full capabilities, but I believe they should be shown where they can look to learn the full capabilities. This isn't calculator class, this is math class.
TI has done a very good job at making their calculators durable. The only ones that seemed to break faster from misuse were TI-80 units.

As for usage in high school we mostly learned how to use drawing, graphing and to a lesser extent programming, while also giving us small TI-BASIC math programs that another teacher used to sell for $1 to his students. I'd say we used about 10-12% of the calculator's functionalities in high school at best. If I wasn't interested in programming then I'd have wished we could have used the $30 Casio graphing model that Staples sold back in the days so I could have saved $100.

As for now, I am guilty of using less than 1% of some graphing calculator capabilities because I got 22 of them and barely used some of them. Razz
The simple fact is, there is little reason to learn most of these functions. In today's society, the vast vast majority of students have access to a tablet, PC, smartphone, or other computer with internet access. Outside of a few niche use cases (maybe storing things for tests?), it is simply easier to just use your phone, something almost everyone can use with ease, to do anything. With all the tools available online like Photomath, Symbolab, and just google search in general, many students don't see the point in learning what their calculator can do.

Not to mention that even if they do want to learn all the functions of their calculator, most things are unclear on the device itself. Learning how to write TI-BASIC without online resources is pretty difficult, as well as tedious. Of course, downloading files is also an option, but even then this is something that you would need at least some technological literacy to know how to do. Downloading the software, finding the files to download, and doing so.

Believe it or not, many students these days just couldn't be bothered to go through all that work, especially if they aren't used to working with their computer. Even the ones who will go to this extent may quit if something doesn't work (eg. not having the right driver for the usb connection to computer). It doesn't help that some (ok most) of the websites where you get the programs from look like they're from the 2000s.

Overall, I think the biggest roadblock to this sort of thing is that not that many people really care. To most, the calculator is just a tool to add, subtract, multiply, divide, graph, and anything else the class really calls for. Usually the only people who care enough to dive deeper than that are: a) smart enough to care about school, b) technology literate enough to learn about their calculator, and c) interested enough about it as a hobby to pursue these kinds of things.

That's just my two cents on the conversation anyways.
I feel like programming on the calculator does need some interest, but if every class had one student that did this, it would encourage more people. People just don't care, and it sucks, but most people would rather play games than make them or jump through hoops just to play a Mario clone on a calculator. To me, it is really about expanding the boundaries of what's possible and just messing around. Giving up really isn't an option for me except when I have no direction to go in, and that's when I switch projects.
Class: Hey Ryan help me with this on my calculator
Teacher: Why don't you ask me
Class: Because you don't know anything about calculators compared to Ryan
Me: [LOL XDDDDDDD]

Not based on a true story because it *is* a true story.
reptile23 wrote:
Overall, I think the biggest roadblock to this sort of thing is that not that many people really care. To most, the calculator is just a tool to add, subtract, multiply, divide, graph, and anything else the class really calls for. Usually the only people who care enough to dive deeper than that are: a) smart enough to care about school, b) technology literate enough to learn about their calculator, and c) interested enough about it as a hobby to pursue these kinds of things.


I identify as a c/) person.
Ryanconmartions, it is not good netiquette on this site to purposefully double post within 24hrs of a post in a single forum, many people do not like that.
Potatoman1234 wrote:
Ryanconmartions, it is not good netiquette on this site to purposefully double post within 24hrs of a post in a single forum, many people do not like that.

It is perfectly acceptable to post twice.
Potatoman1234 wrote:
Ryanconmartions, it is not good netiquette on this site to purposefully double post within 24hrs of a post in a single forum, many people do not like that.

I've posted three times in a row in one day before. :facepalm:
Especially when it's a conversation, it's fine to double post. What's the problem is when you double post right after you just posted(I've done that).
Taken from the site rules (just to clear up why some people will have an issue with double-posting):

Quote:
Avoid “double-posting” on the forum: making multiple posts in one thread in a short time without anybody else replying. It’s likely nobody has seen your first post yet, so editing your original post instead of making a small change by adding another post will make things easier to read for everybody. If it’s been a while (a typical guideline being around a day) since you last posted, creating a new post rather than editing is usually acceptable.

Consider whether you’re adding new information, and how much: if the answer to those is “no” or “only a little”, it’s usually best to avoid creating a new post.
Back to the topic at hand...
I'm one of those wizards at my school, too. Haven't seen anyone drop their calculators yet (other than me because the desks are so small in Geometry class Razz) but I do try to take good care of my CE.
I am more or less the only one at school with a graphic calc (with my two buddies). It's not needed in math or science classes, I got one because it's cool, automating math stuff is cool and tetris is really cool. But yes, I am probably the only one who cares.

No normal ppl will read a calc's manual or inform himself about its capacities. Why would they lol.
And yes I try to take good care of my CE, even if I got it used pretty cheap (was lucky on that one).

I guess as I continue my progress in school more and more people around me will have programmable/graphic calculators.
  
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