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[return to "Big Calculator: How Texas Instruments Monopolized Math Class"]
1. dwohni+Ic[view] [source] 2019-11-26 16:31:06
>>lewisf+(OP)
As far as I can tell the TI graphing calculators are riding entirely off of mind share/familiarity, both among students and teachers, and teaching materials, which reinforces the former. Specifically textbooks and teacher training all use TI graphing calculators. Presumably tests are therefore made with the capabilities of a TI graphing calculator in mind.

CollegeBoard actually has a wide range of calculators it allows for the SAT (https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/taking-the-tes...), but very few test takers take advantage of this.

TI graphing calculators are based on sufficiently old hardware that it is probably faster to emulate a TI calculator on something with the power of a Raspberry Pi. Indeed an open source third party emulator already exists (https://github.com/CE-Programming/CEmu). Does anyone know what the legality of selling a calculator that is a dedicated emulator of a TI graphing calculator (not just an online one like Desmos, but a purpose-made physical calculator that does nothing else)? I'm curious why this hasn't already been done before.

EDIT: I mean a dedicated emulator that can do nothing else but be a graphing calculator, e.g. not something on a smartphone.

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2. avgDev+On[view] [source] 2019-11-26 17:30:44
>>dwohni+Ic
I ran an emulator on my phone but I was not allowed to use it during tests. I had to write complex programs on the TI to solve the math problems on tests(I wanted to be a programmer not a math wiz). I once had a teacher who made you show him that you deleted all the programs, well there was a program for that. :)

I don't recommend using aides during tests.

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