Honestly its pretty easy buy a cheap smartphone and install desmos into it then disable wifi in that smartphone my guess it would be $50.00 for a cheap smart phone at least its cheaper than the ti-84
There may be more to it. Feel free to add to my idea

Kaitlynn, how did they use it on the state test? Did they bring their own iPad/Chromebook?

We’re happy to support your work, John. If you ever need any help with our calculator or have any feature requests, don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

Hi Kaitlynn!
My I ask how you lock down the iPad and Chromebooks on test day? This year our students acquired laptops throughout the district and I’m trying to figure out how to lock down Desmos for security during tests being that my department is also wanting that security. Please share Thanks!

Honesty is number one students should learn. Cheating is at last hurt themselves. Trust them. If they don’t understand,any tools won’t help anyway

I think your second question (re: parents and teachers continuing to purchase and leverage TI products) doesn’t address the full issue in that it suggests that the only “benefits” to using these tools are more security and fewer distractions.

I didn’t suggest those benefits, though. Peter Balyta did. That’s all I’m responding to here. TI’s many proponents may have wished he talked about geometry or stats support or other areas where TI has a clear feature advantage over Desmos (for now) but that wasn’t his argument.

Since this post, Balyta wrote a longer piece expanding on the case for hardware graphing calculators. It makes a brief argument about features that TI calculators have that Desmos doesn’t currently. But, again, notice how little attention he gives those features.

His primary argument is that internet-connected devices are a liability in the classroom – both for reasons of distraction and security. (Look at the quote Balyta pulls out of the article from Jennifer Mueller.)

All I am saying here, again, is that I think this is a very interesting argument for an edtech company to make, especially in 2017, and I’m curious whether or not it is sustainable.

I think your second question (re: parents and teachers continuing to purchase and leverage TI products) doesn’t address the full issue in that it suggests that the only “benefits” to using these tools are more security and fewer distractions.

I agree with parts of this statement from your post: “When students take their year-end assessment in 15 states, they’ll see the same free calculator they’ve been using at school and at home the rest of the year. That assessment will more closely reflect what they know, rather than what they were able to express through unfamiliar or costly technology.”

This resonated with me — but through the lens of the TI products that many/most of our students are currently using in the classroom. For example, this statement could have read: “When students take their year-end assessment in __ states [not sure of the number here, but maybe 50?], they’ll see the same ___ calculator they’ve been using at school and at home the rest of the year. That assessment will more closely reflect what they know, rather than what they were able to express through unfamiliar ___ technology.” [I deleted the word “free” and “costly” — using TI calculators and using Desmos both have costs. The costs associated with laptops/Chromebooks and WiFi are not trivial for many of the schools I work with.]

My point is that many students already DO take these assessments with the technology that they have been using and learning with all year — both TI-84s and TI-Nspires — not a “foreign” piece of technology that they are having to learn “for the test.” One reason for this continued integration of TI technology may well be the full suite of mathematical options these devices bring to the math classroom. They provide a “one-stop shop” for so many different areas of mathematical and statistical inquiry — dynamic graphing, dynamic geometry, statistical analysis, programming, data collection, etc. — all in one device. This full suite of inquiry tools is one reason why these devices are so powerful and so useful at the classroom level — and since teachers and students are learning with these devices all year, it follows that they are an “aligned” tool for testing with, as well.

I think my big idea here is to suggest that many teachers / schools are not buying TI products solely (or mainly?) for “more test security and fewer distractions” — but because of the powerful role these tools play in supporting inquiry and learning in the mathematics classroom.