I wouldn’t say that it’s total bullshit(most devices that have good TI-83 emulators are hilariously powerful, fully capable of also running the proper computer algebra systems that can do symbolic integration and differentation and just about anything else needed to solve, and provide ‘show your work’ for basically any math you’d see in high school; never mind the effectively unlimited memory space for cheat sheets for other subjects; and the odds that the device has at least a wifi radio, if not a cell connection, and you could easily enough have a collaborator on the outside doing the test for you in real time); network-connected general purpose computers are…a questionable fit…for most testing environments.
What is total bullshit is how tightly some math textbooks are tied to specific calculators. I’ve seen ‘instructions’ that are just a sequence of pictures of TI calculator keys; not an explanation of what you are trying to do. I was perfectly happy to RTFM so that I could rock it RPN-style and use my HP; but when the book simply doesn’t tell you what you are trying to do, just what buttons to press; that gets trickier.
I go to a community college and they said we should get a graphing calculator for the precalculus algebra. they had a bunch that they loan out for the semester and there is a company that rents them out for like $3-$4 a month. I got my ti-83 for $16 from the goodwill. If these things have been produced for 20 years you wold think that there would be enough of them lying around unused to equip every class that needs them.
Yes, this technology is basically obsolete, but the vast majority of high schoolers admit to cheating on tests (last time I checked it was 75 - 90%). Allowing cell phone use only makes it easier. Entire AP tests have been invalidated because students have taken pictures of them and sent them to others who haven’t taken them yet. The time differential between the East and West coasts makes simultaneous administration extremely difficult.
I remember teaching Calculus at University in the early 90’s and calculators weren’t allowed at all. During the final, a student dropped his calculator and ended up being expelled. The following year, TI sponsored a pilot class using the TI-85 (I was given a free calculator to teach it). Most of the older prof’s were skeptical. Now, it seems like most of what they do in math classes requires a calculator.
So what’s the solution? I certainly don’t know, but here’s a couple of interesting observations:
I was in a math class in a Japanese high school once watching a student struggling to find x-axis intercepts for a parabola by hand. I told him there was an easy solution using his graphing calculator but he politely refused, pointing out that he would be held accountable for knowing the solution using the method taught. One girl in that class had spent a large part of her youth being educated in America. She told me that when she visited her friends there, she couldn’t understand anything they were doing in their math classes. I have never once heard any of my Japanese friends say they hate math, although some will say they are not good at it. Yet, most of them seem quite competent when I question them or give them little puzzles.
Many, if not most, American kids will readily say they hate math, as will their parents. When I question them on little things, like multiplication tables, they are stumped. It boggles my mind when a high schooler struggles with simple multiplication when Japanese kids have it down by third grade.
Treat exams like you would work in the real world. Allow cell phones, internet, textbooks…
When was the last time you were 100% isolated from modern technology and had to perform such a task? Exams and examination conditions are out dated and do nothing to test a person’s knowledge of the subject, only how well they can cram for an exam.
I’m with you. I’ve proctored exams that are closed book and no cheat sheets, and exams that are wholly open book; the results are the same. Students either know their stuff, or they don’t.
This is why my finals were open book (allegedly) - teach the understanding, not the cramming, and ask broader questions that teach your understanding, not your ability to memorise formulae. I suspect that getting better results was also at least part of the thinking, since some questions were the same as last year with different numbers, and you could bring in past exam questions and worked solutions.
I don’t think you should be able to bring in an internet connected computer, mind. Why not bring in someone else who’s a subject matter expert to do the exam for you?
In college i was required to buy my HP 32SII RPN calculator. The RPN piece is the real fuck you. I have never been able to use a regular calculator again.
As I understand it, rpn is easier to implement on a calculator than parentheses. And if your calculator doesn’t respect order of operations, it can be a royal pain to use. However, I have not learned rpn.
perhaps it is s a technology that has had its day.
Fountain pens, wind up watches, film cameras, carbureted motorcycles and ideas about a flat earth…
RPN is great if you are working in a stack-based programming language. It is a more efficient way to manage memory, eliminating the need of parenthesis and other order-indicating symbols. It is so different from working a 2+2=4 calculator, the instructions are
2 Enter
2 +
And, if you want students to actually learn some calculus, that probably isn’t such a bad idea.
I defer to those more versed than I in pedagogical theory as to what(and when) various skills that computers also have are valuable learning tools; and when it’s a “never send a human to to a machine’s job” chore; but If you are going to attempt to teach something, handing somebody a machine that will give them the answer and expecting a lot of honest hard work is pretty optimistic.
You’ve got a good point there. It’s not that easy, though. Are any of you people commenting here experienced at teaching Math? Do you do math in the real world? If so, it’s part of a much more complicated process, such as mathematical modeling for an engineering problem.
To do what you are suggesting, we need to rethink the entire educational system. One thing I have found: When someone needs to know how to use math for a problem they want to solve, they are much more motivated to learn it. Of course, this means no more “Pure Math.” It all becomes “Applied Math,” which is anathema to many mathematicians I know.
Brilliant for mathematicians, but we’re not all mathematicians. applied maths is useful for real world settings, pure maths is, by and large, nonsense.
