Interview 4
01 Jul 2004. Exeter, NH.
Teacher 1: Mathematics and graphing calculator expert
Background
-Studied Engineering + Business, not indoctrinated w/ traditional math teaching
-Dyslexic, slow reader, is extremely a right-brain person (like a grasshopper; left brain people are like inch worms), highly attracted to graphing calculator
-Had 16 years of teaching experience, director of IT for 5 years, has made 1 year worth of curriculum
Teaching environment
-All the students have laptops, replacing ti83 somewhat
-Private high school
-Uses TI-83, likes that emulator came out
-Uses ‘Sympodium’ (smart board on tablet b/c he can face the students when he is writing; like a projector)
-Uses Camtasia: always do simulation before you introduce the theory. Uses pack & show which turns avi to exe. It’s easy to demonstrate it on the laptop and make avi available to students all the time. Demonstrates solution with audio.
Dislikes about Calculator (TI83+)
-Monochrome
-Tiny Display
-Does not have scroll bars
-Split screen is so tiny that it’s not worth it. TI92 is better but it didn’t hit off. Partly because it uses CAS (which teachers are afraid of because they have to learn it), maybe QWERTY keyboard
-Key stroke skills are transient – the skills of using ti83 is temporal because you have to memorize the sequences of buttons
-Lousy recursion – e.g. you need to type “10” + “enter” + “+2” + “enter” + “+2” + “enter” + “+2” + “enter” + “+2”, instead of having a clean recursion like in excel. In TI83, you need to use “ANS” to do recursion, Excel supports conditional formatting under “format” menu
-Examples of recursion used in class: car loan, number sequences
-Naming variables is restrictive
-“3 -> store b” or “3 ->store b”?
Why do you use TI 83?
-Fast turn on. Boot up time almost 0
-TI83 network, standard in US => powerful for networking
-TI is “user friendly” in sense that teachers know it already
-Easier to present a vision (it’s cheaper!)
Any time, anywhere learning
-Teachers can get laptops through programs like this if they want to
What other applications do you use?
-Fathom (for statistics) – by Key Curriculum Press, which also has geometer sketchpad
-Autograph – by TI Interactive “Butler”
Comments on our prototype
-“Math” can be relabeled “Home”
-Why is table under graph? That doesn’t make sense.
-Alphabet layout seems bad, but he changed his mind when he learned it’s a cell phone layout
-Likes syntax help. TI85 also has better help than TI83
Multiple representation
-Good for right brainers & bad for left brainers
-List, table, graph, equation
-He typically has several representations at front simultaneously
-Numerical, algebraic, graphical
-Algebraic expressions can be represented in graphical form & numerical form
What is the difference between list & table?
-Table (“list” in TI83) -> scatter plot (graphical representation of data) -> regressions or curve fitting -> algebraic model -> graph or table
-He supports curve fitting, and regression sucks
-Believes in “writing in the form that shows transformation”
-Drawing inverse forms of graph. y=2^x vs. x = 2^y