Re:TI and the Calculus Scam (Score 1)

I agree that calculators _can_ make people lazy, but when used properly they can make learning Calculus much more intuitive and less stressful. I learned Calculus a couple years ago as a Sophomore and found the constant use of TI83+ to be incredibly useful, while not hindering my learning of the material in any way. I happen to have a natural skill for Calculus, so maybe I'm an exception, but I don't see any reason to discontinue the practice calculator use... but as you said, the instructor just needs to be trained properly. And I think nowadays, most HS teachers are trained with TI83's because they're so damned common. As to why TI83's are so popular, I hardly think it's some conspiracy or monopoly -- I think it comes down to HP and Casio making inferior products. I have used HP and Casio calculators before and not only did I find the construction of them poor in comparison to TI's, but also the screen quality and ease of use is much less. Of course, I haven't used them extensively so I really don't want to say anything definitive on the matter -- But I will say that I love my TI83+ and my TI89 so much that I have no _reason_ to switch. As for the TI89 being able to do ANYTHING as some in other threads have said -- bullshit! There are tons of differential equations that it will just gawk at stupidly, unable to solve them. And that's just a tiny portion of higher-level functions that it can't do (but if you need to solve those types of equations you shouldn't need your calculator for the most part anyways)