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.'"
They shouldn't be using IPad or TI (Score:5, Insightful)
Give them something that will actually be useful in the real world--a netbook with octave. It's certainly a heck of alot easier to learn then TI Basic for doing anything useful.
Also you could give the python with numpy if they need a programming language that extends beyond math.
Hell, even give them mathematica (Although it wouldn't be free like octave or python..)
...and why bother? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why bother trying to type up some hodgepodge calculator games when you can download Angry Birds for 99 cents?
Re:I beg to differ, sir (Score:4, Insightful)
Aren't emulators against Apple's policy? I mean, think about it, if you could download C64 games that are on par or superior to the average 99 cent Apple Store game...
Another "journalist" (Score:5, Insightful)
Another "journalist" who can't be arsed to do a trivial google search to check the facts behind the thesis of his article. You can program in python, ruby, octave, or several other languages on an iPad. Even one of several variants of basic, if you want. If you really love the TI-83 you can even emulate that.
Plus read textbooks, scientific papers, manuals, etc.
Kudos to the slashdot editors and the submitter for their incredulity as well.
Re: I beg to differ, sir (Score:3, Insightful)
No because apple is quickly becoming the gatekeeper of what our kids can see and learn.
Programmers gonna program (Score:5, Insightful)
I teach college physics: my students use both iPads and TI calculators. But almost none of them use the programming features on either the calculator or the iPad. It's a rare student who has a creative spirit that's strong enough to bother learning to program on any device, and those that have that drive to make things will find a way to do it on any device they can get their hands on.
And while *you* might have learned to program on a TI, you're a Slashdot reader, you were that rare student. And let's be honest: as a programming interface, the TI is hideously awful.
Re:Nope (Score:5, Insightful)
The average student would never program their calculator.
That's some very good "No Child Left Behind" logic you've got there. Next up: the average student does not play football.
Re:not that kind of device (Score:5, Insightful)
I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer—should learn a computer language, because it teaches you how to think. -Steve Jobs
-Creates the most closed-walled operating system, and charges to program for it.
-Uses obscure and illogical languages for his walled garden's standard
-Perpetually disrespects other platforms and options which are open-source and available to 'teach people to think'.
Re:They shouldn't be using IPad or TI (Score:4, Insightful)
I know you will trot out tired arguments that learning the tools they will use in the future is important, blah blah, but I have taught a lot of whiz bang programmers who got through high school and college without learning geometry, trigonometry, or anything beyond simple algebra. They all used CAS and math systems in their studies, and never learned the underlying principles.
The fact that you pretty much must have one of the approved TI calculators, and the texts all have button by button recipes for solving problems is just insanity.
Re:But neverletheless... (Score:3, Insightful)
Free users are redirected to the Unauthorized page (Score:4, Insightful)
a free Apple developer account wasn't enough to view the Guidelines.
Well, you could sign into apple's developer website with your free account and read the latest ones.
I did that. It didn't work.
Five minutes ago, I visited the Guidelines index [apple.com], clicked the link "App Store Review Guidelines", was prompted to log in with my Apple ID, and was redirected to the unauthorized [apple.com] page: "Sorry, you cannot access this page."
Re:But neverletheless... (Score:3, Insightful)
If programming is desired, then a tablet is the wrong tool anyway. A laptop is the right tool for that job. Typing on a tablet is bad enough, where lots of punctuations symbols and cursor movements are required its terrible.
But the vast majority of students and indeed people do not have any need to do any programming. Ever.
On Slashdot, we all reminisce about the early programming experiences we had, and how rewarding they were. But we're a self selecting niche. If this was a music site, the assumption would be that any computing device would have to be good for creating music. Likewise if this was an art or design site, the emphasis would be on devices that get students doing those things. In both those cases, tablets are rather better.
Tablets have uses for which they excel, but programming isn't one of them.