zlacker

>>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.

>>dwohni+Ic
I mean, a quick google search shows that there are Ti-83 emulator apps on the market:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Revsoft.Wa...

>>umvi+Af
This isn't enough because it's not a dedicated emulator that can do nothing else. I would guess you need the inability for the hardware platform to do nothing else except be an emulator for schools to even begin to trust it.

>>dwohni+gm
iPads can use GraphNCalc83[1] and Apple Classroom on a teacher iPad/Mac to restrict students to the app[2]. I'm not sure if there's an android equivalent.

I still find using a touch screen much more frustrating than a calculator with physical buttons, but this is a legit alternative.

[1] https://acornaircraft.com/graphncalc83.html

[2] https://support.apple.com/guide/classroom/manage-app-usage-a...