zlacker

>>lewisf+(OP)
I love how the answer given to this problem is more funding. Such an indication of what's wrong with modern education. This entire article is exposing the TI monopoly on calculators, getting 85-90% profit margins, and our solution is to strike to get taxpayer money to keep paying for the things? We should encourage competition.

Consider - an app that replicates this functionality on the phone, but tracks if the user at any point closes the app. This then is reported to the teacher so the teacher knows if there was any cheating.

>>julien+t21
> I love how the answer given to this problem is more funding. Such an indication of what's wrong with modern education. This entire article is exposing the TI monopoly on calculators, getting 85-90% profit margins, and our solution is to strike to get taxpayer money to keep paying for the things? We should encourage competition.

I love how the first answer that HN proposes to a social problem is 'more capitalism'.

Why not... Just not use graphing calculators in high schools? What's wrong with pencil and graph paper? Not a single one of my algebra or calculus courses ever used the TI-83 for anything that I couldn't do by hand, or with an $8 calculator.

There is zero reason for why high school test questions should ever require a smartphone, app, calculator, or any other electronic device.

>>vkou+ky1
Not using calculators is a good solution, using apps on computers or smartphones to teach children how to use the tools the scientists use is even better. It would allow to reduce the amount of boring tasks performed in math class and increase the amount of real math.

More capitalism (or better to say market) is always good answer because it helps to solve situations where people are stuck with inefficient and useless products. If children and parents could choose between schools with different programs, and teaching apps, this expensive and outdated calculator would not exist now.

>>chr1+7K1
> Not using calculators is a good solution, using apps on computers or smartphones to teach children how to use the tools the scientists use is even better. It would allow to reduce the amount of boring tasks performed in math class and increase the amount of real math.

Scientists don't use apps on computers or smartphones.

Scientists use Jupyter and Matlab. For high school courses, you could even get away with something like Excel or Sheets, or LibreCalc.

> More capitalism (or better to say market) is always good answer because it helps to solve situations where people are stuck with inefficient and useless products.

The best product in this case, is no product.

> If children and parents could choose between schools with different programs, and teaching apps, this expensive and outdated calculator would not exist now.

This is the last thing on people's minds when choosing schools.

>>vkou+EM1
Jupyter, Matlab, Mathematica are all apps on computers aren't they?

> The best product in this case, is no product.

Pen and paper is a product too, which eventually will be replaced by tablet and stylus eventually.

> This is the last thing on people's minds when choosing schools.

Deciding something is unimportant, is a valid choice too, and in that case market helps to not waste resources on unimportant things, and focus on important things instead.

But then it's not required for this to be a top priority for all parents, the decision of parents who are specifically interested in mathematics would be enough to create the right incentives for the market to solve the issue.