Hi Mike, it seems to me that teachers can allow students to have a phone in their pocket (for safety reasons) and disallow them on tests (for security reasons). “Just keep it in your pocket on tests,” seems like it would fit both needs.

I am from the University of Illinois and I am preparing to begin my student teaching semester. One of the graphics in the article showed that most teachers that you interview are against phones in the classrooms because of test security. In what ways can you combat this if a student tells you they need their phone for safety reasons? For example, a student comes up to you and says my parents want me to have my phone on me at all time. How would you make a consistent Cell Phone policy to all students that could possibly eliminate cheating on tests?

Thanks,
Mike

There is not a phone version of the TI-83/84 and I assume it is something called wabbit which is a copyright infringement and violates the licensing agreement

Does it justify the price of a TI-83 or the disallowance of phones? Certainly not. But it might explain some of the reticence. Relatedly, see Cathy’s post from a little while back re: student preference.

http://www.mathycathy.com/blog/2015/04/using-desmos-on-ipads-for-the-staar-test-really/

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSF.IF.C.7
Graph functions expressed symbolically and show key features of the graph, by hand in simple cases and using technology for more complicated cases.*
http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/HSF/IF/

It seems to me that you can’t assess this standard without, at different moments, asking students to graph a function both *without* technology (to see if they can do it “by hand in simple cases” AND *with* technology in other cases (“for more complicated cases”)

That is, I propose that our calculator use policy be varied–sometimes insist that it be disallowed, and other times insist that it be required, and yet other times allow it to be optional.

This happens on the AP Calc test, for example. Notice that the calculator section of the AP test says “Calculator Required.” I think this is an important distinction. We should give students problems that are so messy that they really must reach for technology (notice that the SAT and ACT do not make this demand–these are really ‘calculator optional’ tests). And we should also give students problems where we disallow a calculator, so that we can see if we’ve met standards like the one above.

I do realize there’s a way to test students on the “by hand in simple cases” part of the standard while they still have calculator access. The classic example would be giving them a graph and asking them to come up with the equation. Students can still guess and check, but they at least have to know *something* about how to generate the graph shown. While this is a good work-around, I still think it’s less than ideal.

We should be allowed to ask our students to graph y=3cos(2x)-1 *without* a calculator.

We should be allowed to ask our students to graph y=3.8xcos(2.3x)-250 *with* a calculator (probably on the way to a higher demand).

It seems like there are a lot of people that are hardcore on the left or right of this debate. Either they say, “in the real world you’ll never be without technology, so we should never ask questions ever that don’t allow our students to use technology, collaborate, look things up, etc” OR they say “I’m old school and you never get to use a calculator because skills are important and directly impact conceptual understanding.”

Can we allow for some middle ground on this debate and call for varied instruction?

Recent example – when my 8th graders learned about finding the Mean Absolute Deviation of a set of data, I didn’t want to teach an algorithm, or a way to program/use a graphing calculator (handheld or otherwise) to find this “mysterious number”. I searched the web for ideas to help students develop an understanding of variability, and truly experience the MAD to the point that they “discovered” and needed it. I found great ideas from MTBoS-ers and created a Desmos Activity to help them develop the concept.

Fast-forward to right now. Our state test is this week. According to our standards, students will most likely be asked to find the MAD of a short set of data, probably on one problem. For the record, my students didn’t wait for me to share that the MAD can be found super-easily on Desmos and not-as-easily-but-still-feasibly on a handheld graphing calculator. They’d already “Googled” and/or taught themselves.

On the high-stakes test, I’d bet money that students will simply be asked if they can apply a MAD algorithm to get an answer. I wonder… do students actually REGRESS in their understanding of MAD or (fill in the blank with another topic), because too little is being asked of them on the big ol’ state test?

The core of my view on assessments, well said. Drawing a hard line on test security makes you more vulnerable to these problems I think.