Teaching Math with Technology: My Journey from Ti to Mathcad

[DanMarotta]

New Mathcad blog post. The journey from the Ti-81 graphing calculator in the 1990's to the Mathcad of today.

http://bit.ly/TItoMathcad

I definitely remember my days of using the Ti in my trigonometry class in high school and then upgrade to the latest in my business statistics class in college. What was your journey like? For those in the academic world, have you struggled with when to introduce technology into the classroom?

-Dan

[MikeArmstrong]

Luckily enough being a "young engineer" I have been brought up from college onwards using computers with CAD and Mathematical software. The software has advanced as I progressed through university, right up to the level I am now at.

Engineering companies in particular want employees with a wealth of experience with various pieces of software, so it can only be a good thing that Schools, Colleges and University's are introducing work related software into their course criteria.

Mike

[IRstuff]

Jeez, you young whippersnappers have it so easy

> HP-25C through junior year

> HP-15C late junior year -- this is still the calculator of choice when I'm too lazy to fire up Mathcad

> HP-41CV through senior year and first few years of work, but the 15C was more portable, and adequate for what I needed

> Graphing; don't actually remember HOW, but it was on a Tektronics 4014 vector display terminal during college and first job.

> 2nd job, we had Excel on a 286 by then.

As a side note, the TI nSpire is by far a better calculator, whether the CAS model or not, than any other TI calculator. Graphics display is VERY nice. If they had a mind to, their PC-based emulation of the nSpire would probably blow Mathcad away, particularly if they added units handling to the basic system, since it sells for $49

TTFN

[f.kohlhepp]

Eden Mei wrote:

Jeez, you young whippersnappers have it so easy

Yup!!

How about an HP45 nine months after graduation (with a four month wait after I sent my check.) But, WOW, 20 memory slots.

My boss told me it would never replace the slide rule! Two years later he bought TI's for everybody.

[IRstuff]

OK, you got me beat. The HP45 came out ~my sophomore year in high school. But, I did use slide rules in junior year, but bought a TI SR51 my senior year, after spendnig $150!!! for a 4-banger prior to senior year. The SR51 also cost $150 at the Emporium, a now defunct department store in downtown SF.

So, my history with TI calculators goes pretty far back as well, although, oddly, no one in our family has ever owned any of the 8x series from TI.

TTFN

[AlanStevens]

Eden Mei wrote:

Jeez, you young whippersnappers have it so easy

> HP-25C through junior year

> HP-15C late junior year -- this is still the calculator of choice when I'm too lazy to fire up Mathcad

> HP-41CV through senior year and first few years of work, but the 15C was more portable, and adequate for what I needed

> Graphing; don't actually remember HOW, but it was on a Tektronics 4014 vector display terminal during college and first job.

> 2nd job, we had Excel on a 286 by then.

As a side note, the TI nSpire is by far a better calculator, whether the CAS model or not, than any other TI calculator. Graphics display is VERY nice. If they had a mind to, their PC-based emulation of the nSpire would probably blow Mathcad away, particularly if they added units handling to the basic system, since it sells for $49

TTFN

Who had it easy?

- Log tables until I left University (I must have been the very last person to complete a physics PhD without using a computer!)

- First calculator was something created by Clive Sinclair - just four functions, not even a square root key.

- In first job we used a Wang desktop calculator - massive device wheeled around the office on a trolley.

- First computer - Commodore Pet (with a massive 4K RAM) - software: BASIC.

- First real calculator TI59 - loved it - I still have it today (not in working order though unfortunately!). Didn't like the RPN of the HPs.

- Used BASIC and Pascal on various home and work computers until I discovered MATLAB. Used that mainly until I discovered Mathcad. Now use both - Mathcad look/feel is better than MATLAB but the latter is more powerful and Mathcad's graphics let it down - they're a decade behind the competition.

Alan

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