T.C. Roekle is a highly respected educator who has solid leadership experience with a focus on innovative strategies to raise student and staff performance at the building and district level. T.C. is a member of the National Speakers Association; she has addressed thousands of educators at State and National Education Conferences, Technology Conferences and school communities.
Have you ever “mixed your metaphors” or “confused your cliché” and wanted to instantly correct the error before someone heard the words come out of your mouth?
I was not able to stop silly phrases like, "It's not rocket science!” or "I'm looking for it like cats and dogs!" from escaping my lips, but using Texas Instruments new wireless calculator, teachers can now correct student errors midstream, even before the final calculation of a math problem.
The new Texas Instruments calculator sends wireless signals from pupils' handheld calculators to a desktop PC that lets teachers analyze and correct student errors before they can even complete the problem. According to the Texas Instruments Web site, the TI-Navigator system also lets instructors "get answers from every student, not just the vocal ones,"
USA Today interviewed TI Chief Executive Rich Templeton on May 15, 2007 at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York.
“Texas Instruments, whose calculators helped make the company a household name, has found a way to help teachers quickly identify students who may be failing math”. "The teacher can understand who's not getting it" by assessing which functions students keyed into their calculators, Templeton said.
The so-called TI-Navigator sends wireless signals from pupils' handheld calculators to a personal-computer screen that lets instructors correct and analyze errors in real time.
“But calculators, a long time fixture in college mathematics and engineering classrooms, are more profitable than the semiconductors and cell phone chips we produce, and the company sees them as a core part of the business”, Templeton said.
With TI-Navigator, even shy students get a say in the classroom as teachers can review their calculations streamed wirelessly, and quietly, to the instructor's monitor, according to the company's website.
The system lets teachers "get answers from every student, not just the vocal ones," says TI's website. Instructors also can identify and correct common mistakes as they occur and, if necessary, adjust lessons as they go along.
Templeton was quick to note that the system, introduced about two years ago, is not designed to spy on students, but is meant to be used as a learning tool.
"It's about helping teachers understand the effectiveness of how they are teaching lessons and how their students are following along," Templeton said.
www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/2007-05-15-calculator-teachers_N.htm
I don’t often comment about a specific product, but this reminds me of the individual student chalkboards we used (very effective, I might add) in the 1970’s. Students would hold up their boards for the teacher to see, and after four or five math problems we knew which students could continue with independent practice and which ones needed to “move to the round table” and receive different or additional instruction. I liked the idea then and I like it now that it has grown, through technology, to leverage teacher time and accommodate higher-level calculations.
Ask Yourself:
Do you believe wireless calculators can help teachers identify and help struggling math students more quickly?
Would you like to use them?
Do you have any really good Cliché “goof up” to share with us?
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