> As far as you know, what is the latest technology being used to
> teach math?
This would seem to be the wrong question. Surely somewhere, someone is
experimenting with a Virtual Reality experience of Platonic solids, etc.
If I knew about it, it would become the answer here. But is this likely
to be _significant_ to me as an individual concerned with the future of
mathematics instruction?
In terms of significance, the major "unexploded bomb" on our collective plate
is still, to me, the promise of the TI-92. It's been out for a whole year,
and we are still just nibbling at it. Given that improvements in the quality
of the display need to (and will) happen, and that the price needs to (and
will) come down a bit, the 92 really represents the driving engine of our
changing expectations about what a "calculator" should do for us, and with us,
as we explore mathematical pathways. Just yesterday I saw an E-mail message
from a high school student who wondered why his older graphing calculator
wouldn't add 2x and 3x to get 5x.
Of course, our expectations probably should not become that a problem of this
sort should appropriately be handled by a calculator. However, is it not
appropriate to think that a calculator (one that most people can afford and can
carry around with them) should be able to help us factor a polynomial such as
x4 + x2 + 1 ? Or, more likely perhaps, fit a quadratic polynomial to a given
set of five data points (using quadratic regression, of course).
We were glad indeed 25 or so years ago to be able to take square roots and have
one memory available for intermediate storage, at a cost of only a few hundred
dollars. Since then there have been two significant "plateaus" reached with
regard to calculator technology, expectations of certain clusters of
functionality that should be there at a given (constantly-dropping) price
level. The TI-92 takes off like a rocket from the second of these, and it is
not clear where this is headed.
RWW Taylor
National Technical Institute for the Deaf
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester NY 14623
>>>> The plural of mongoose begins with p. <<<<