http://durealeyes.com/planimeter.html

http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/area-irregular-polygons.html

Also of interest is what people did (not very long ago) before google earth and ARCGIS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planimeter

We don’t want to graph vertical lines? Other relations that are not functions?

The Casio Prizm is a step in the right direction. But a full-featured internet connected device (iOS? Android?) is clearly the best answer for a learning tool. Test security is the obstacle.

David: Having organized the Ontario Association for Mathematics Education annual conference this year (see you at next year’s version) and trying to infuse a lot of Web 2.0 and social media, I was a bit disappointed at the lack of traction it got.

Regardless of current uptake, it will be important for new teachers to feel like their professional organizations take seriously how they interact with information and each other. Aside from that, if we believe that tool [x] can make a better conference-going experience for everybody (not just early adopters) it’s on us, then, to make that experience as easy, fun, and free as possible. For example, if we believe a Twitter hashtag can enrich the conference-going experience for everybody, then we shouldn’t stop at advertising the hashtag in the program. We should have a dedicated projector streaming those tweets somewhere for everybody to see. And so on.

I had two questions/observations:

1) #SignageFAIL (epic) *OR* #ActualCellPhoneBan?
Having run giant conferences myself in my checkered past, my first thought when I saw the “No Cell Phone” picture was #SignageFAIL, not #totalcellphoneban .

Do you think they were trying to enforce a total ban on cell phones in sessions (i.e., you must check your phone at the door) or did they simply communicate poorly what they were trying to request (i.e., please turn your cell phone ringer OFF before you sit down)?

2) State-of-the-Art Technologies, Meet Lagging School/District Policies
One of my biggest frustrations as a middle school math teacher is this inherently self-defeating confluence of factors:

a) EVERY kid in our school has an iPhone or an Android and enough cash flow to purchase a graphing calculator app (≥$5),

b) FEW kids own a graphing calculator, and even fewer parents want to spend money on a single-purpose device that (let’s face it) their student is likely to lose, yet…

c) NOBODY is permitted to use an iPhone, Android, or iPod Touch in the classroom — not even if I confirm that they have put them into Airplane/Flight mode!!!!

This is a lose-lose-lose situation, but it’s more common than most of us would think.

And it’s one reason why — along with their dominance over the “approved standardized testing devices” market — TI is able to maintain their stranglehold in the classroom.

I don’t know what the solution is; I’m still just trying to effectively document the problem (and not sure if I’ve even gotten that far yet).

Ack.

– Elizabeth (aka @cheesemonkeysf on Twitter)