For Education, Why TI-83 > iPad 340
theodp writes "Writing in The Atlantic, Phil Nichols makes a convincing case for why educational technologies should be more like graphing calculators and less like iPads. Just messing around with TI-BASIC on a TI-83 Plus, Nichols recalls, 'helped me cultivate many of the overt and discrete habits of mind necessary for autonomous, self-directed learning.' So, with all those fancy iPads at their schools, today's kids must really be programming up a storm, right? Wrong. Nichols, who's currently pursuing a PhD in education, laments, 'The iPad is among the recent panaceas being peddled to schools, but like those that came before, its ostensibly subversive shell houses a fairly conventional approach to learning. Where Texas Instruments graphing calculators include a programming framework accessible even to amateurs, writing code for an iPad is restricted to those who purchase an Apple developer account, create programs that align with Apple standards, and submit their finished products for Apple's approval prior to distribution.'"
Well, there is Codea (Score:4, Informative)
Nope (Score:2, Informative)
The average student would never program their calculator.
Re:If TI-83's were made by Apple... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I beg to differ, sir (Score:5, Informative)
You can't run interpreted code on iStuff.
IOS SDK TOS 3.3.2
"3.3.2 An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any
means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other
frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in
an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple's Published APIs and builtin interpreter(s)."
No mention of Android anywhere in the article? (Score:3, Informative)
Still halfway to reading the article, but I did a quick browser search. There are several instances of "ipad" in the article but no mention of the terms "Android" or even just "tablet". Why does Apple have such a lock on the educational system that it's effectively created a duopoly with Microsoft? Macs and now iPads for the rich or talented kids, Windows PCs for everybody else.
Re:I beg to differ, sir (Score:2, Informative)
> You can't run interpreted code on iStuff.
You can indeed run interpreted stuff on iOS. You just can't downloadand run interpreted code. There is, for example, and excellent HP42 simulation for iOS (Free42) that allows you to program it, just as you would an HP42. Presumably, the only way to share code on an iOS interpreter would be to share listings. Which is what we did back in the 80s anyway.
Pythonista (Score:5, Informative)
Sounds like someone needs to take a look at Pythonista [omz-software.com] - a full featured development environment, including code editor with syntax highlighting and code completion, interactive prompt, support for graphics and a touch interface, with full featured libraries including math and text processing; runs on iOS (iPhone and iPad) you can even export the app you've developed and have running on your iPad to Xcode so that you can build it for submission to Apple's App Store.
It's a staple on my iPad and has been for a year or so.
Sounds like a bit more useful than a graphing calculator.
rob.
Re:The trouble is Apple bans programming apps (Score:5, Informative)
Shhhh! Don't tell these guys [apple.com] because they don't know that-- they went ahead and wrote a BASIC interpreter for iPad in 2010 and it's now up to version 3.5.
There are also Ruby [apple.com] and Python [apple.com] interpreters available too and Pythonista is also a fully featured development environment.
rob.
Re:If TI-83's were made by Apple... (Score:4, Informative)
That's probably the first time that joke works.