Re: sophisticated calculators

[LUDWIK KOWALSKI <KOWALSKIL@alpha.montclair.edu>]

This is what I e-mailed today. Will post the answer when it comes.
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TO TEXAS INSTRUMENT  ( -->  ti-cares@ti.com)
                            From kowalskiL@alpha.montclair.edu

Thanks for asking for comments about guidebooks. I am a physics
teacher who wants to learn how to use CBL and TI-83. I have the
gadgets and the guidebooks. In my opinion the guidebooks are not
suitable for novices like me. They are probably good references for 
those already know how to work with the equipment.

I also have several laboratory activities books (from Vernier). These 
publications focus on teaching mathematics and science and not on the 
delivery tools themselves. I want to learn about tools (from the
point of view of a user). Can you recommend a book suitable for that 
purpose? Here is a message which was recently posted on the phys-L list. 
Nobody was able to quote a good reference. Several people confirmed 
that this is a problem for many teachers.

> Can somebody recommend a good textbook for a teacher who wants 
> to be comfortable with CBL and with Ti83? The guide books supplied 
> with these devices are not suitable for a novice  who wants to 
> learn independently at home, and who believes that learning should 
> be a pleasing activity.
>
> I did explore the Texas Instrument web site but found nothing useful.
> And I do have several student activities guides. They all assume that
> the equipment is working perfectly and focus on mathematics (or on
> physics) rather than on problems which a novice user encounters. For
> example when a strange error message appears or when a program does
> not work as expected, etc.

Here is one example (from a longer reply):

> ... But, I agree with you that when something goes wrong the manuals 
> don't help much. As I said in an earlier post, my breakthrough came at 
> a week-long institute last summer--the one T^3 calls CMS (Connecting 
> Math and Science). There were 18 of us with two experienced users as 
> teachers. In 35 contact hours one learns a lot. Yet, when I got back 
> to school on the fall, I had no one to work with ....

> ... I still do a lot of restarting the program and making multiple 
> trials. The advantage is that you can make LOTS of trials in a short 
> time. This is not true of other equipment--like tape timers for example. 
> I feel for you. It is tough to get started! ....