Over the weekend, I submitted a series of interview question to HP about their new multi-touch calculator, the HP Prime. Today, I received a reply from Jason Smith, Product Manager, HP Calculators and Education Solutions. Below, I have shared the entirety of that response. There are several interesting nuggets in Smith’s response, including the exciting news that HP will provide Prime emulator software free to educators.

If it appears that I failed to raise some obvious questions, I must point out that Smith politely sidestepped a fair number of my questions, perhaps because not all of the decisions about the Prime have been finalized yet. That’s understandable, but my biggest question about the Prime was left unanswered. Will the College Board allow the HP Prime to be used on the SAT and AP tests? If so, I think there’s a good chance the Prime could be a hit with students and teachers. I know I’m excited to take this multi-touch device for a test drive, and I’m betting many other students and teachers will feel the same way. However, without College Board approval, the Prime can only go so far, at least in the United States. I’m crossing my fingers that HP has some sort of understanding from the College Board that the Prime will be approved and just isn’t allowed to speak about it yet. They’re trying something really big here, something that has the potential to be a game changer in math classrooms, and I hope it pays off for them.

Lucas Allen, Tech Powered Math: Do you have an MSRP on the Prime?

Jason Smith, HP Calculators: Not at this time.

TPM: Do you have an approximate release schedule for the Prime? Will it be in brick and mortar
stores in time for back to school 2013?

Smith: The product will be available for purchase this Fall, 2013.

TPM: What material is the metal? I noticed the video said brushed metal, but I don’t believe it said if it’s aluminum or some other metal.

Smith:  The metal on the HP Prime is a sleek brushed aluminum.

TPM:  The appearance of the Prime is quite impressive. Can you talk a little bit about the decisions or process that went into the look of the Prime, especially the metal casing?

Smith: Our goal was to marry the traditional design elements of HP calculators with the modern functionality and intuitiveness of touch-based devices, for our gadget-loving fans.

TPM: Were the Prime OS and user experience designed from the ground up (i.e. TI-84 to TI-Nspire), or does it build on a familiar experience for HP users (i.e. Casio fx-9860 GII to Casio Prizm)?

Smith: As HP’s first touch-based calculator, the user experience is unique, even for an HP; however, the familiar keyboard layout and design reflect our prior products and heritage.

TPM: Reverse Polish Notation always seems to be an important feature for HP calculator fans. How is RPN incorporated into the Prime?

Smith:  Reverse Polish Notation, RPN, is an HP calculator hallmark and is selectable as a mode in addition to Algebraic and Textbook entries.

TPM:  Will there be an emulator? If so will the touchscreen portion of the emulator react to touch on interactive whiteboards? i.e. Will the emulated Prime screen react to my touch on a Smart Board or Mimio, or only the emulated buttons? What about other support software or hardware for classroom teachers?

Smith:  Yes, the emulator will be included with the product and will be free to educators. It does support touch on the screen.

TPM:  The killer feature on the Prime is obviously multi-touch. How are you finding that multi-touch enhances the experience of working in a graphing calculator environment?

Smith: As a result of the world they have grown up in, students expect to be able to touch the screen when interacting with many devices. Touch helps them to work intuitively with math concepts and objects in a new way.

TPM:  Besides multi-touch, are there any other features that set the Prime apart from other graphing calculators on the market today?

Smith:  The Advanced Graphing app can graph things other products cannot; some good examples are implicit equations, inequalities and conic sections. The HP Explorer apps allow students to interact with math concepts like linear algebra, quadratics and trigonometry to see how changes affect representations. The HP Solver apps provide the ability to quickly solve single or multiple linear, financial and other equations Exam mode ensures that students are using the correct configuration and provides easy
feedback for proctors

With Texas Instruments and Casio making virtually all of the calculator news since I started Tech Powered Math in the summer of 2010, it’s sometimes been easy to forget that there is still a third major graphing calculator manufacturer, Hewlett Packard. Rumors started circulating a couple of weeks ago on the other side of the pond that HP has been quietly getting ready to play an ace they had up their sleeve. Now, HP has broken their silence in a big way on YouTube with a video showcasing that ace, the new HP Prime.

The Prime is a stylish new color graphing calculator that looks ready to compete with the likes of other color calculators like the Casio Prizm and ClassPad 400 and the TI-Nspire CX and TI-84+C. However it offers an absolutely killer feature that no other graphing calculator ever has had, a multitouch display. The closest thing we’ve seen to multitouch from one of the “big 3” is the new TI-Nspire iPad app from Texas Instruments, and that’s obviously not on a standalone device.

I’m left with a number of questions at this point. The biggest, of course, is what the status of the HP Prime will be with the College Board. Will it be legal for the SAT and AP tests? As I reported last month, I’ve got a reputable source that says the Casio ClassPad 400 is on the verge of acceptance from the College Board. That story seems more likely now, since it seems all but certain that HP has been petitioning their new device for standardized testing acceptance as well. If HP and Casio do, in fact, have touch screen devices on the verge of testing acceptance, then perhaps all the calculator manufacturers have been receiving assurances from the College Board that changes are coming to their antiquated calculator rules when the current season of testing wraps up. If that’s the case, then it would seem highly likely that the TI-Nspire iPad app is simply a warmup to a standalone touch screen version of the device.

But for now, the story is not the other players but the possible reemergence of HP as a power player in the graphing calculator game. As an engineering student at the University of Illinois in the mid 1990’s, my graphing calculator of choice was an HP-48GX. The build of that device had a feel of quality and the performance went beyond what I saw from Texas Instruments calculators at the time. On the contrary, in recent years, I’ve found HP devices to be adequate but without the build quality I knew in my HP-48GX and dated given the recent releases from Texas Instruments and Casio. I hope the Prime will be the calculator that sets a standard for top level quality that I remember from HP. The build looks excellent in the promotional video released, with a metal casing that we’ve never seen in the TI-Nspire or Casio Prizm.

Just a couple of years after HP was on the verge of eliminating their calculator division (and all consumer products), I’m not sure what the current identity of HP Calculators is. For years, Texas Instruments has focused on being the leader for teachers, offering them the professional development, resources, and hardware add-ons to make their products a force in the classroom, a strategy that has paid big dividends. Casio has been positioning themselves as the TI alternative in recent years, focusing on the affordability and ease of use of their products. HP? Well, they have a cult like following with their financial calculators, but I don’t feel like their graphers have much momentum with educators. It’ll be interesting to see if the HP Prime can better establish their identity with educators and make inroads in the American classroom. It sounds like I’ll have more information on the HP Prime soon, and I’ll share it with you as soon as I do.

It appears that the crew in Dallas is having a busy week. Yesterday, Texas Instruments issued their first update of their new iPad app. The update purports to fix one of the specific problems I experienced during my initial TI-Nspire iPad app review, which was a crash during the use of the camera feature. I have tried to recreate that crash since updating the app, and I haven’t been able to, so it looks like they were successful in fixing the problem.

Of course, this is a big week not just for Texas Instruments but many other math education companies because this week is the annual NCTM convention in Denver. TI will be showing off their latest products and innovations along with other calculator manufacturers like Casio and just about major math education company. They’ll all be trying to appeal to the flood of teachers and administrators there to catch up on the latest innovations in math education.

Texas Instruments sent there NCTM press release over to me a day early. If you’re headed to Denver, here’s a sneak peak at what they have to offer:

Actress Mayim Bialik and Texas Instruments Join Educators to Encourage Strong STEM Education
at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) 2013 Annual Meeting in Denver

Bialik will share her unique journey from child actress to neuroscientist and show how math and science come to life with real-world applications and technology

Interact with TI’s latest math and science education technology at booth #217; 

join the discussion @TICalculators #MathNspired

 DENVER (April 17, 2013) – Texas Instruments (TI) and its brand ambassador – actress and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik – are joining thousands of math educators at the NCTM 2013 Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, to share innovative new classroom technology including TI-Nspire^TM Apps for  iPad® and the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, as well as educator resources  to increase student engagement and achievement in critical STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects.

Bialik, who plays the loveably geeky neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on the hit TV comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” will give the opening keynote about her real-life role as a scientist and teacher tonight at 5:30 p.m. at the Bellco Theatre at the Colorado Convention Center. On Thursday, April 18, Bialik will join an experienced T³ Teachers Teaching with Technology instructor to teach an interactive math lesson with TI-Nspire CX technology at 9:30 a.m. in Four Seasons Room 2/3 at the Colorado Convention Center.  She also will make a surprise appearance at the TI booth #217 sometime on Thursday.

Bialik is part of an exciting line-up from TI that showcases technology, online content and T³ professional development that improves math and science teaching and learning. At its booth and in conference sessions, TI will offer hands-on opportunities for teachers to experience the power of the TI-Nspire CX family of math and science technology including graphing handhelds, software and new TI-Nspire Apps for iPad, plus data collection tools for science and hundreds of free Math Nspired and Science Nspired classroom-ready activities. TI will also feature its latest  color-screen graphing calculator, the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition.

In addition, TI will share strategies and best practices from leading math teachers, as well as technology, professional development and free classroom resources for implementing Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in Mathematics. Educators can learn more at the TI CCSS Solutions Booth, which is directly across from the TI booth #217.

“Every year we look forward to NCTM and the unique opportunity to interact with and learn from leading math educators throughout this conference,” said Melendy Lovett, president of Texas Instruments Education Technology. “This year we are excited to introduce new professional development and curricular support for implementing Common Core State Standards and Mathematical Practices.  Educators will also have the opportunity to get hands-on experience with our newest innovations for math and science teaching and learning. Additionally, we are excited to bring our brand ambassador Mayim Bialik to share her incredible journey and passion for inspiring all students to pursue a strong STEM education – a passion that she shares with TI.”

Mayim and TI’s NCTM Highlights at a Glance:

• ·         Mayim Bialik’s Opening Keynote: April 17, 5:30 p.m., Bellco Theatre at the Colorado Convention Center
• ·         Mayim’s Hands-On TI-Nspire CX Technology Session: April 18, 9:30 a.m., Four Seasons Room 2/3 at the Colorado Convention Center
• ·         Mayim’s Surprise TI Booth Visit: April 18, TI booth #217
• ·         Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Booth Showcasing Technology, Tools and Support to Help Districts Meet the Needs of the Common Core Standards and Mathematical Practices:  April 18, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., April 19, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., April 20, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. CCSS booth is located directly across from TI booth #217
• ·         TI-Nspire Apps for iPad Play Area: April 18, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., April 19, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., April 20, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. TI booth #217

For more information about Texas Instruments:

• ·         Online: education.ti.com

• Twitter: www.twitter.com/TICalculators, @TICalculators, #MathNspired
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/TICalculators
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/TexasInstrumentsCalc

For more information about the NCTM Annual Meeting:

• ·         Visit nctm.org/Denver
• ·         Follow NCTM on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nctm and use #NCTMDenver

About Texas Instruments

Education Technology, a business of Texas Instruments, provides a wide range of tools connecting the classroom experience with real-world applications, helping students and teachers to explore mathematics and science interactively. TI’s products and services are tested vigorously against recognized third-party research, which shows that the effective use of graphing calculators improves the mathematical skills of students and their attitudes toward mathematics. For more information, visit www.education.ti.com.

Texas Instruments semiconductor innovations help 90,000 customers unlock the possibilities of the world as it could be – smarter, safer, greener, healthier and more fun.  Our commitment to building a better future is ingrained in everything we do – from the responsible manufacturing of our semiconductors, to caring for our employees, to giving back inside our communities.  This is just the beginning of our story.  Learn more at www.ti.com.

Apple, the Apple logo, iPad, iTunes and Mac are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.

TI-Nspire™ Technology supports images in .jpg, .jpeg, bmp and .png formats.

With so much of the attention from Texas Instruments on the TI-Nspire line over the last 5 years or so, it was exciting news to learn that the TI-84+ family of calculators was getting a much needed face lift with addition of color. The new TI-84+C is latest in a long line of graphing calculators that have dominated the market for over 20 years, a line that includes the TI-81, TI-82, TI-83, TI-83+, and TI-84+. Despite a number of enhancements along the way, they’ve all featured a very similar user interface. With the announcement from Texas Instruments that the TI-84+C will not receive TI-Navigator WIFI support, unlike other recent TI models, it seems likely that the TI-84+C will be the last new model in this iconic family.

But how does the new TI-84+C stack up against other popular TI models, including the black and white TI-84+ and TI-Nspire CX? Frankly, I was expecting nothing more than the addition of color to the new model, but what I found was that there have been some important changes that give it a fresher, modern feel that is sorely lacking in the previous TI-84+ models.

What’s the same about the TI-84+C?

A lot. Just as when making the move from the TI-83 to the TI-83+ or the TI-83+ to the TI-84+, many of the changes to the user interface will not be immediately obvious to current users of the TI-84+, assuming you’ve kept your operating system up to date. If you are a long time user of the TI-84+, you will be able to make the change to the TI-84+C without missing a beat. The menu system and options are very, very similar to older models. The button layout is identical. If you are a student and your teacher teaches with the TI-84+, you could bring a TI-84+C to class and follow along without ever having to worry about whether you’ll be able to perform the same calculator functions your teacher is using.

What’s new about the TI-84+C?

As similar as it is to older models, the TI-84+C does feature some important new upgrades. Obviously, the first change you’ll notice as soon as you pick up the device and turn it on is the full color screen. You’ll also immediately notice that it is as light as a feather. In fact, you may wonder if it’s missing something inside. It is. The TI-84+C doesn’t rely on the AAA batteries that its predecessors needed, instead using an internal battery that is rechargeable via mini-USB, just like most modern phones. I haven’t measured my exact usage time, but I’ve played with mine for at least a few minutes every day for the last few weeks, and I’ve hardly put a dent in the first charge. My guess is that even with heavy usage the average student could go at least a week on a single charge.

The display is what allows the new TI-84+C to run circles around the older black and white models. While the obvious difference is the that the display is in color and backlit, I actually found the much higher pixel resolution to be just as important if not more important than the addition of color. With the older TI-84 models, the screen pixels are so big that you feel like you’re working with an early 1990′s dot matrix printer. Of course, this means everything the TI-84+C displays has a sharper look to it (a lot sharper), but the 84+C’s higher resolution offers several additional advantages.

First, menus are much nicer to work with. The higher resolution allows for more menu options on the screen at the same time, meaning you don’t have to scroll down so many times to see your options.

Second, the screen layout is slightly different with the TI-84+C. You’ll now find all of the modes displayed across the top of the screen, a feature I wouldn’t mind seeing on the TI-Nspire. That means you won’t accidentally find out at the end of a trigonometry problem that you’ve solved it in degrees mode instead of radians. It’s displayed right at the top, and also includes your decimal settings and fraction settings, among others. The new screen layout is even more obvious in graphing mode. The TI-84+C shrinks the graph area down a bit compared to the older TI-84+, leaving an border around the graph where information such as trace coordinates and equations are displayed. If found it to be much easier to read and a big improvement.

Speaking of graphing, just like the TI-Nspire CX, the TI-84+C now offers the ability to graph on color photographs. While the TI-84+C can’t directly read image files like .jpg or .png, the free TI-Connect software can convert common image files into a format known as .8ca which the TI-84+C does recognize. I gave the process a try myself, and it was a really simple drag and drop interface with TI-Connect. It worked perfectly for the .jpg I tried. There was some distortion when I tried a .png with the parts of the image that were supposed to be transparent. You can store up to 10 images at a time on the device and graph on any of them. Once you’ve got the image on the screen, you can select points on the screen and perform a regression on them to find an equation that fits your picture.

There are a few other minor differences with the TI-84+C vs. TI-84+. The TI-84+C “VARS” menu now offers an additional “COLOR” submenu, helpful when using the “DRAW” features. The equation solver has also been tweaked to make it a little easier to use, but I’m not sure the average user will find it has changed the learning curve that much.

In the end, color is still the big draw here, and it’s the direction that both Texas Instruments and Casio seem to be going right now with their handhelds. We’ve had the Casio Prizm, the TI-Nspire CX, now the TI-84+C, and soon the Casio ClassPad 400. While color is not a necessity in a graphing calculator, it is really beneficial to students, particularly in graphing mode, where it helps them distinguish between the functions they are graphing. As much as anything, the higher resolution display that seems to come with all of these color calculators like the TI-84+C may be the biggest benefit. It really did allow TI to organize more information on the 84+C screen in a manner that is easier to read and understand way.

Bottom Line TI-84+C Review

The TI-84+C is a substantial upgrade to the TI-84+ family of calculators. It’s hard to imagine that the TI-82 I remember as a teenager has evolved into a device with “mathprint” input, a full color screen, and the ability to graph on photographs. There are going to be two groups of people that look at the TI-84+C and evaluate whether it’s right for them.

The first group is those who have stayed loyal to the TI-84+ family, either because school budgets haven’t allowed a change to the Nspire family or because they just love the way the family has evolved over the last couple of decades and they can’t imagine using anything else. If you are a loyal TI-82, 83, or 84 user, you owe it to yourself to upgrade to the TI-84+C. Its display is a heck of a lot easier on the eyes, it’s much lighter, and it now has graphing capabilities the black and white 84+ will never have.

The second group is those who are trying to decide between buying a TI-84+C or a TI-Nspire CX. Maybe you are buying a graphing calculator for the first time, or maybe you’ve been trying to decide about the jump to the Nspire platform. For students and educators, I still have to give the nod TI-Nspire CX, and it’s not really that close. It’s graphing, dynamic geometry, menu system are among the many features where the Nspire CX is still vastly superior to the 84+C. At some point, I’ll probably do a side by side comparison of the two color handhelds from TI, but in the meantime, you may want to check out my review of the TI-Nspire CX vs. TI-84+. Even with the upgrade to the TI-84+C, much of that comparison is still relevant.

The TI-84+C kind of feels like a victory lap for the TI-84 family, and it’s an admirable one.  As the platform that has dominated math classrooms across America for so long, it deserves it. From what Texas Instruments has told me, you can expect to see it at retailers in late Spring or early Summer of 2013.

In honor of one of my favorite sports bloggers, Robert of alioneye.com, I’m doing a “stream of conciousness” post to wrap up my thoughts on last weekend’s T³ conference. There’s no method or plan to this. I’ve just had a lot of random thoughts about my time in Philadelphia, none of which would make a satisfying post in and of itself. Here goes nothing.

–As tough as Philadelphia sports fans can be, I was expecting the locals in Philly to be a little rough around the edges. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, check out this video of Eagles fans welcoming 49′er fans to town. Fortunately, where I was, nothing could have been further from the truth. They were the most helpful and friendly bunch I’ve come across at one of these conventions. My brief time at the Reading Terminal Market was also made all the more memorable by the people I encountered there.

–Kudos to TI for making the conference program available in app form. I referred to the iPad version of the program dozens of times, and to the paper version once, to see what vendors were at the conference. I know more conference programs are going this direction, and that’s a good thing. It’s great to be able to search for sessions by time or technology used as well as have an easy to use planner right in the app.

–I am really ready for the next generation of batteries for smart devices that I occasionally read stories about. I felt like my Galaxy S2 and iPad 2 were on life support by the end of each afternoon. I know I was pushing them a lot with constant use of social media, texting, the conference program, and the Nspire app, but it still feels like I ought to be able to make it a solid 12 hours before I start to worry about my batteries, and I didn’t. I haven’t had a chance to read up on the Galaxy S4 event yet, but I’m hoping one of the enhancements is battery life.

–While there was definitely serious interest at the conference in both the TI-Nspire iPad app and the TI-84+C, the TI-Nspire iPad sessions definitely seemed a lot more “juiced.” I’m sure TI is going to sell a significant number of TI-84+C’s. Even without color, the TI-84+ is still very popular, but it only takes a little time time at one of these conferences to realize that the leaders in math education have gone “all in” on the Nspire platform. The platform can do so much more, and it’s much more versatile (handheld, computer software, iPad app, document player), so it’s not hard to see why. Even with a renewed focus on the TI-84+ platform at T³ this year, there were more than three times as many Nspire sessions than all other technologies combined. Here’s the breakdown on sessions at T³ that specified a technology.

• TI-15, 2 sessions (I actually had to look up what a TI-15 was)
• TI-34 Multiview, 1 session
• TI-73 Explorer, 8 sessions
• TI-83+, 1 session
• TI-84+ and TI-84+C, 64 sessions
• TI-89 Titanium, 2 sessions
• TI-Nspire (all versions including iPad app), 286 sessions

–That said, the TI-84+C is a significant upgrade to the TI-84+ line, much more than I was expecting when it was announced. For the first time in a long time, I can hold a TI-84 family calculator in my hand and not feel like I’m being transported back to a time when I listened to Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots (and yeah, there may have been some Hootie and the Blowfish mixed in there). Look for my review on the 84+C sometime early next week. In the meantime, check out what Adrien Bertrand of tiplanet.org has to say about it. Adrien’s post is part French, part English.

–Moving from where the TI-84+C sessions were held (the Marriott)  to where the TI-Nspire sessions were held (the far end of the convention center) required a nearly one mile walk through a part of the building that was hosting a gigantic flower show. You can say what you want about math people, but know this:  flower people walk s o  m u c h  s l o w e r than math people.

–So rumor has it that Casio is on the verge of getting College Board approval for their new touchscreen color Classpad. That would mean the calculator would be allowed on the SAT and AP exams. If true, and my source has been right in the past, this won’t just revolutionize Casio and the Classpad, it will open the door for Texas Instruments to create their own touchscreen devices. What would we see next, a touch screen Nspire? Perhaps a new 7-inch tablet from TI, the hypothetical device my students have long asked for and nicknamed, the “TI Tablet”? Is there a chance that TI’s been anticipating this and the Nspire iPad app is the warm-up to such a device, a way to see what works for the Nspire OS and what doesn’t in a touch screen environment? It’s not the first time I’ve daydreamed about a test-friendly tablet.

–If there’s anything that the developments of the last 6 months have taught me, it’s that I’m not very good at predicting what comes next. We are really in a time of amazing innovations. I am only willing to predict that what comes next will be fun.

I decided not to write my own Pi Day post this year, but instead share some of the interesting stories from major news outlets. After all, I’m not likely to beat the quality of a story from USA Today, CNN, or the Huffington Post, so here are 10 of the best that I found.

1. White House Wishes Twitter a “Happy Pi Day” With Photo of Kid Stuffing Face With Pie–Huffington Post
The aforementioned picture is at the top of this article. Simple and amusing.

2. On Pi Day, Finding Strength in Number–CNN
Interesting article on how master memorizers demonstrate their skills by reciting tens of thousands of digits of pi.

3. 3.1415926 Reasons to Celebrate Pi Day–Wired
This one actually has a little more mathematical content than most of the others on this list.

4. Happy Pi Day: 10 YouTube Videos for Math Geeks–Mashable
For those of you that want to celebrate by getting your YouTube on.

5. Sports Stats to Celebrate on 3/14 (or Pi Day!)–USA Today
I like the sports angle, so I’m willing to forgive fact that one of the stats shown is given to four significant digits and the fourth one doesn’t match pi (apparently, 3.147 is Bob Essensa’s goals against average, which obviously doesn’t even round to 3.14).

6. Pi Day Tribute Paid By Calculating Pi With Pies–CBS News
Seems like a great tribute to me.

7. Happy Pi Day! Here’s Some of the Wackiest Celebrations around the World–Time
Who knew that MIT posted its acceptance letters on pi day?

8. Geeking Out on Pi Day: For the Love of Pi and the Tao of Tau–PBS
The Newhour team examines why we are so fascinated by pi.

9. Pi day: Caltech Students Celebrate With Late-Night Pie Party–LA Times
Of course they did. I would expect nothing less from Caltech students.

10. The Weather Angle on Pi Day–Accuweather
Honestly, I only included this one because I thought it was funny that the author confused the formula for area of a circle with that of circumference. Oops.

On the verge of College Board approval?

It’s certainly a stretch to call what I do on Tech Powered Math journalism. However, whatever journalistic instincts that have developed in me in nearly three years of writing at Tech Powered Math have taught me that a great place to look for stories at conferences is among the exhibitors. On the exhibit floor, you can find new products, new textbooks, and interesting rumors.

This was the case again this year when I spoke to representatives of the Bach Company, a calculator distributor at T³. In the process of discussing what kind of interest the Bach Company is getting from buyers on the new TI-84+C (lukewarm so far), I asked about the new color Casio Classpad 400. Haven’t heard of the ClassPad? That’s no surprise, as it hardly makes a dent in the American market due to the College Board and ACT’s prohibition of touch screen calculators on their standardized tests. While it’s wildly popular in a few countries like Australia, you aren’t going to sell many calculators in America unless they’re cleared for usage on the SAT and/or ACT.

The Bach reps told me they’re expecting a big uptick in ClassPad 400 interest over the summer. That’s because Casio representatives have assured them that Casio is on the verge of obtaining clearance from the College Board for the new ClassPad to be used on their tests. The College Board, which is behind the SAT and AP tests, has banned touch screen calculators from the beginning of touch screen devices. I was told the announcement about the ClassPad would come in the next 30-60 days.

Skeptical? I can’t blame you because this would be a major change in a longstanding policy. However, I’ve got to tell you that this isn’t the first time I’ve heard a story from Bach reps that seemed unlikely but turned out to be spot on. Back in 2011, the very same source tipped me that HP would be reissuing the HP-12C, a financial calculator with a fanatical following that had been discontinued decades earlier. A few months after I posted the story, HP publicly confirmed it.

If the College Board does, in fact, change their touch screen policy, I will applaud them for changing it and Casio for convincing them to do so. It’s an archaic policy, and I’ve never heard a rational defense of why touchscreens should automatically be banned in the year 2013, probably a holdover policy from the early Palm Pilot days. Hopefully, the ACT would respond in turn, assuming a non-CAS touchscreen calculator were released by Casio or a competitor. ACT has a longstanding policy of banning CAS calculators, and the ClassPad is a CAS calculator.

As big a feather as this would be in Casio’s cap, the Texas Instruments response would be just as interesting. The color TI-Nspire CX was announced less than 6 months after the Casio Prizm became the world’s first full color graphing calculator. One would have to think that TI would respond rapidly if touch screen calculators became legal, possibly with a new iteration of the TI-Nspire or an entirely new piece of hardware running the Nspire OS.

So I hope it’s true, because the places this news could take us would really be something to see.

My day 3 roundup has been delayed by travel back home and the news that my basement was rapidly taking on water from the flooding that has hit central Illinois the while I was gone. So as I write this, I’m comfortably in my living room, making the occasional uncomfortable trip down to my basement office to vacuum water out of my office carpet. Such is the glamorous life of an educational technology blogger. As far as the actual conference went yesterday, the final day was a short one, with only power sessions in the morning and the closing address from actress and TI spokesperson Mayim Bialik.

The power session I attended was on implementing the Common Core State Standards. I must admit to being a little late to the party on CCSS. My school really only started the implementation phase in earnest this year, although I feel like our classroom use of TI technology allowed us to start weaving CCSS themes into our instruction a couple of years ago.

The panelists were Ray Barton, Linda Griffith, and Jennifer Wilson. The panel did a great job providing concrete examples of CCSS implementation via samples of student work, screen captures of Navigator activities and video of classrooms in action. The most interesting part of the panel was the Q&A time at the end. There were a number of questions that revealed frustration or anxiety on the part of teachers trying to implement CCSS. The issues ranged from parents complaining about the “non-traditional” instruction to students that didn’t like being pushed outside of the comfort zone they’d developed over many years of “traditional” instruction. The panel didn’t claim to have all the answers but offered suggestions like using class time for activities that pushed students out of their comfort zone but sending students home with activities or assignments that would build confidence.

The closing session followed, and the TI team did a really nice job making it memorable. Prior to the start of the session, there was a scrolling “photo wall” that featured pictures of the people and events of T³, including many photos that attendees had posted to their Twitter feeds. Once the session got going, there was also a very amusing video set to “Move Like Jagger” that kept cutting between teachers at T³ creating functions with their bodies and the TI-Nspire graphing those very same functions.

With all due respect to Mayim Bialik, I felt that Nick Lombardo, a high school senior from Connecticut, stole the closing session. Lombardo was the winner of a TI contest that brought Mayim Bialik to his high school, along with a lot of TI-Nspire technology that his school got to keep. Nick did a fantastic job speaking about the importance of education, and why he wanted to win the contest for his teacher, his classmates, and the students that followed him. Nick will find out if he gets into MIT next week, and I wish him the best of luck with that news.

Of course, Bialik wrapped T³ up as its final speaker. As always, she was an eloquent and entertaining spokesperson for STEM education and the role that Texas Instruments products have to play. My favorite Bialik line of the conference was when she described the TI-Nspire handheld as “your black dress” and the Nspire iPad app as “the great pair of flats that go with it.” She also took questions from the audience, some of which had little to do with education. I was really taken by her answer to a question about her hopes and dreams for the next 10 years of her life. She spoke frankly about how fickle Hollywood can be. Even though she’d like to do movies, she said it can be a challenge to find those opportunities as “a character actor,” as she described herself. But above all, when she thinks about the upcoming years, she’s still most focused on her two boys and her role as their mom.

So the 25th birthday party for T³ has wrapped up, and there won’t be another like it until next year in Las Vegas. But I’ve still got a little leftover cake to serve up here at Tech Powered Math, so keep an eye on Facebook and Twitter for updates. Over the next week or two, I’ll have a couple of more posts on my thoughts out of the conference as well as my hands on review of the TI-84+ C.

My day two here in Philadelphia was jam packed with sessions, so much so that it feels really good to just hunker down in my room long enough to get a post up. The day kicked off with a session from the always entertaining TI-Nspire expert Tom Reardon. TI spokesperson and Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik was active throughout the conference today, and she made a “surprise” appearance at this session to present with Reardon. I’ve seen the two of them present together before, and they always have great chemistry together and are quite funny. Today they focused their efforts on showing off some of the features of the new TI-Nspire iPad app. Towards the end of this session, Reardon fielded some questions about the mechanics of how he was using the iPad to present. He shared a couple of great solutions. For controlling the computer with the iPad, he uses Splashtop 2, which by is a free download on iTunes, although it appears to require a subscription to use. For presenting his iPad on a PC, he uses Reflector.

Next up, I headed from the convention center back to the Marriott to see Judy Hicks present on the TI-84+ C. There is a certain irony in the fact that the locations of most of the TI-Nspire sessions and that of the TI-84+C sessions are separated by a 10 minute walk through an enormous flower show convention. They feel, almost literally, miles apart. Hicks walked us through what is probably the most celebrated feature of the TI-84+C, the ability to graph onto color photographs. I also learned in this session that while the new TI-Connect software is not out for PC, it has already been released for Mac and is ready for download at the TI website.

After the lunch break, I attended a panel discussion about the new TI-Nspire iPad app moderated by Mayim Bialik. The other panel members were  Sheri Abel and Stephanie Ogden, who were two of the teachers who piloted the app with their students. They were quick to point to the successes they’ve already experienced with their students. Like most of the teachers I’ve talked to, they also admitted that they are still wading through the issue of how to balance standardized test prep on the handheld while still taking advantage of all the iPad app has to offer. Abel had the quote of the day when responding to a teacher that said her school wouldn’t pay for TI-Nspires until every last TI-84 was broken. Said Abel, “I was once in a school where we had to wait for all of our 84′s to die before getting Nspires. We helped kill some of them.”

It was then time to make the hike back to the Marriott to hear from John LaMaster on the TI-84+C. LaMaster had an unusual but high energy delivery that kept me engaged throughout this session. He did a great job highlighting all of the new features that set the TI-84+C apart from the old TI-84+. He went into great detail, touching on features such as the new color choices tucked away inside the vars menu. the new equation solver, and built in help features.

Finally, I went to a session on “active math boxes” with Philip Magner. This is one of those features I’ve been aware of on the Nspire for a long time but never really got around to using. Active math boxes give you the ability to have the Nspire dynamically evaluate expressions, the truthfulness of of expressions, and execute code snippets. It’s very helpful for teachers looking to design activities and note sets for students on the Nspire. I went into this session with only a vague idea of how to set up active math boxes and came out confident that I could implement them into my documents.

Unrelated to any of today’s sessions, I have to say that if you are here at the conference and haven’t headed over to Reading Station Market yet, you must do so before you leave. It’s literally across the street from the conference center and is an amazing market filled with locally owned business. One of the owners told me it is the oldest continuously operational market in the United States.

The day concluded with a couple of receptions featuring Mayim Bialik. I have heard that one was originally planned, but there was so much interest that they had to add a second one. In the midst of cocktails and deserts, there was a third party group showing off the most unusual and potentially useful attachments I’ve ever see for the TI-84+. They’ve developed a device to make the TI-84+ accessible to the visually impaired. It snaps onto the top of the 84 and functions via an extra set of buttons and the ability to output speech. Just as I was hoping to get a picture of it, it was gone. However, Adrien Bertrand (TI-Planet) and Kerm Martian (Cemetech) were also both at the reception, and I think they snapped a few pictures of the device. If they post those pictures at a later date, I’ll be sure to share their posts via Facebook and Twitter.

The conference wraps tomorrow. I’m not sure I’ll be able to post my day 3 writeup tomorrow due to all of the time I’ll need to travel back to Illinois, but I’ll try. Otherwise, look for it around Monday night.

Mayim sessions