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Teach
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FAQ
Sales & Licenses
How can I order the programs?
How
do the programs come?
How
many copies of the programs can I make?
What
Is Curriculum Online and what are eLearning Credits?
Teaching
What are the advantages to using calculator programs over
other teaching methods?
How can I set up my school to make best use of graphic calculators?
Do I need to know how the calculator works in order to use
the programs?
Can
I get a program written to do something specific?
Hardware &
Software
How are
programs different from Applications?
How do I get the programs onto the calculator?
I have TI-Connect and a cable, now how do I install a program
group from a PC/Mac to the TI83+/83+SE/84+/84+SE?
How do I ungroup programs?
How do I run a program?
How do I group programs?
How can I put the programs on a class set of calculators?
Do the programs run on TI Smartview?
What is the difference between RAM and ARCHIVE memory?
What are the differences between the TI83+/83+SE and the
TI84+/84+SE?
Do the programs run any differently on different calculators?
How can I order the programs?
You can use the online shop to
order on this website. It will NOT ask you for credit or debit card details.
Upon receipt of your order, you, your school or your authority are sent
an invoice by email, or by post. Once payment has been cleared, the programs
are sent either by email attachment or on CD by post. Alternatively, you
can place an order by normal email or by posting one of your institution’s
standard order forms.
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How do the programs come?
The programs can come as individual pieces of software to be installed
separately on the calculator, or they can come in a GROUP of programs.
You can GROUP programs together on a TI83+, TI83+SE, TI84+ and TI84+SE
and store them in Archive memory (see below for more on this). This is
a safe and efficient way of keeping them out of RAM memory when they are
not being used.
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How
many copies of the programs can I make?
The programs are purchased with a site licence and thus can be distributed
freely to the staff and students in purchasing institution. Distribution
of the programs or teacher notes outwith the institution is prohibited.
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What
is Curriculum Online and what are eLearning Credits?
Curriculum Online is a web portal of educational resources set up by the
UK Government. Grant-maintained schools in England and Wales can purchase
items listed on it using their allocation of eLearning Credits (a form
of electronic money). All of the programs from CalculatorSoftware.co.uk
are available for purchase with eLearning
Credits.
For further details, visit the Curriculum
Online website, or contact us.
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What
are the advantages to using calculator programs over other teaching methods?
There are many. The programs allow individual students to work at their
own speed through a set sequence of stages, problems or challenges. Where
a student is consistently successful, the program can progress to the
next level of difficulty. This "responsiveness" of the exercise is something
that cannot easily be emulated with a textbook. The programs typically
generate problems with randomly selected numbers. As a result of this
students can't copy answers from their neighbour, but rather they spend
time discussing how to do questions and identifying methods that work.
The motivational aspect of use of IT in the teaching and learning process
cannot be undervalued - especially with the weaker, or younger, mathematician.
Students typically enjoy lessons that are based around calculator programs
- the desire to obtain a faster time, or a higher score, often adds an
additional competitive element to the chosen exercise.
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How
can I set up my school to make best use of graphic calculators?
Here’s a selection of tips that I often give out to other teachers.
[If you know of any other tips, then pass them to me and I’ll add
them into the reply, giving you credit where it is due!]
1. If you have to convince those who are responsible for budgets of the
worth of graphic calculators, you might want to point out how much it
might cost to equip a classroom with a set of computers, then show that
calculators are MUCH cheaper and much more effective for the purpose of
maths teaching and learning!
2. It’s best if everyone in a school uses the same make of graphic
calculator - having two different makes in a classroom is not beneficial
to anyone’s stress levels!
3. Ensure that every maths teacher has either a Viewpanel or (when using
Data Projector, or Interactive Whiteboard) a Calculator Emulator permanently
set up in the room, so that it is “ready to go” in any lesson.
If anything’s in a cupboard, then it’ll probably stay there
and never get used.
4. Where you can, project the calculator screen image onto a surface that
you can also write on - this will allow you to annotate information on
its screen in a way that a normal projector screen would hinder you from
doing.
5. If you have class sets of calculators, remember to budget for batteries
to keep them going! I’ve found that Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation
seem to sell the cheapest Duracell Procell AAA batteries (see links
page).
6.
When you buy class sets of calculators, remember to save the barcodes,
or the sales invoices, as you can use them to get FREE calculators and
other kit from TI under their Volume Purchase Programme (see
links page).
7. If your students want to buy their own calculators, then the maths
dept should obtain them from the major suppliers at much cheaper cost
than the students would on the high street. Again, this helps the department
control which makes of calculators end up being used in lessons. Remember
to get the students to give you the barcodes in return.
8. Start running a second-hand market for graphic calculators - offer
to buy them back from students when they leave school and no longer wish
to keep them. Re-sell these on to students in lower years on a “no-profit”
basis. This strategy gets the most calculators into as many people’s
hands for the least initial outlay, or the least net cost to them over
several years.
9. As the number of graphic calculators in school increases, keep an electronic
database/spreadsheet of the serial number of each calculator against each
student’s name. This will help return lost calculators to their
true owners, as well as ensuring that you only ever buy back a second
hand calculator from its real owner, rather than another student who “found
it”!
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Do I need to know how the calculator works in order
to use the programs?
No. Once the program is running, all options in the programs are menu
driven and the calculator becomes essentially a small computer running
a piece of software that's been designed to be used by young and old students
alike!
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Can
I get a program written to do something specific?
Yes. If you have an idea for a program to help with the teaching and learning
of maths topics then contact us.
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How are programs different from Applications?
Applications run from pressing the blue APPS key on a TI83+ or TI83+SE.
On the TI84+ and TI84+SE, the Apps keys are coloured black like all the
other keys, but the letters APPS on the button are coloured pale magenta.
These applications are stored in Flash ROM (Read Only Memory) on the calculator
and typically have a unique validation code that prevents them from being
distributed to another calculator. However, there are various shareware
Applications available which do not have this restriction. All Applications
are typically written in Z80 Assembly Code. The programs available on
this website have no validation code and are mainly written in TI-Basic.
They are run by pressing the PRGM key on a TI83, TI83+, TI83+SE, TI84+
or TI84+SE.
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How
do I get the programs onto the calculator?
The easiest way is to use Texas Instruments' software called "TI-Connect"
along with a link cable (either USB or Serial). Newly bought calculators
now come with both of these items, but they can be obtained separately
- the cable can be bought from most retailers, whilst the TI-Connect software
can be downloaded free from TI's website.
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I have TI-Connect and a cable, now how do I install a
program group from a PC/Mac to the TI83+/83+SE/84+/84+SE?
First, start up TI Connect Software and click the icon for Device Explorer.
This gives a tree structure diagram of the calculator's memory that is
connected to the computer. At the bottom of this tree structure is the
category "* Flash / Archive". Now open up another window of the folder
containing the group to be installed (eg PROGS.8XG). This can be done
through clicking on the My Computer icon on your desktop and locating
the folder and file required. Now drag'n'drop the file PROGS.8XG from
the window that it's in into the window in Device Explorer and onto the
branch of the tree called "* Flash / Archive". Copying across from the
computer folder to the Archive memory of your calculator will then commence.
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How do I ungroup programs?
First it is worth clearing the RAM memory on the calculator, to make room
for the programs that are about to be ungrouped from the Archive memory.
To clear the RAM, press 2nd, press +, press 7, press 1, press 2. After
a short time, the message "RAM cleared" will then appear on the screen.
To ungroup press 2nd, press +, press 8, press RIGHT ARROW to highlight
the word UNGROUP and then use the UP and DOWN arrow keys to select the
group that you wish to ungroup. Note that when a collection of files are
ungrouped, they are NOT removed from Archive memory. A COPY of the files
are made and put in RAM - the original grouped files in Archive memory
remain untouched.
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How do I run a program?
Press PRGM and ensure that the words EXEC are highlighted at the top of
the screen - this stands for EXECute. Using the UP and DOWN arrow keys,
move the highlighter until it is next to the program that you wish to
run. Press ENTER to select. On the home screen appears "prgmPROG". Pressing
ENTER one more time will execute this command and thus run the program.
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How do I group programs?
First have all the programs and data files that you wish to group together
in normal RAM. You must want to group more than one file, else you will
incur an error.
Press 2nd, press +, press 8 (for option 8:Group…) and press 1: to Create
a New Group.
Type in the name of your group (max 8 letters) eg NUMBER, SHAPE, ALGEBRA,
etc.
From the next menu, select option 2:All-…
You are then presented with a full list of the calculator's memory. Using
the arrow keys and ENTER, go down the list marking all of the programs
that you wish to have placed in the group. Pressing ENTER marks each file
with a dot, whilst pressing ENTER again removes the dot.
When you have completed your selection, press the RIGHT ARROW key to highlight
the word DONE and press ENTER.
After a short time, your GROUP will have been created in Archive memory
- wait for the "Done" statement to appear.
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How can I put the programs on a class set of calculators?
Once you have the programs on a single calculator, it is simply a matter
of sending the programs - via a normal link cable - to all the other calculators.
This is done by the means of the LINK menu - see the section in your calculator's
manual called "Communication Link" for more instructions on this.
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Do
the Programs run on TI Smartview?
Yes. You need to initially treat the TI Smartview software as another
calculator and install the programs into its "memory" in groups.
Then save the state of the calculator emulator. Each time you wish to
run the Smartview emulator as one of the class set of calculators, just
load up the saved state and it will operate just as a student's calculator
would.
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What
is the difference between RAM and ARCHIVE memory?
RAM (standing for Random Access Memory) memory is about 24 kilobytes in
size and is where programs that you want to run need to be. Also stored
in RAM are lists, matrices, functions, etc. ARCHIVE memory is separate
from RAM and is where programs and applications are stored when they are
not being used. If any data is in Archive memory, then typically it cannot
be used, only stored there - it always has to be unarchived first to use
it. GROUPS are always stored in archive memory.
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What
are the differences between the TI83+/83+SE and the TI84+/84+SE?
There are various cosmetic differences between the different models, but
they all operate in exactly the same way The TI84+ and TI84+SE each have
a USB port for extra connectivity. The TI83+ has a processor speed of
6Mhz whilst the TI83+SE, TI84+ and TI84+SE all have a faster speed of
15Mhz. The TI83+ has 160K of archive memory, the TI84+ has 480K whilst
both the TI83+SE and TI84+SE each have 1540K.
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Do the programs run any differently
on different calculators?
Some programs only run on the TI83+, TI83+SE, TI84+ and TI84+SE. The reason
for this is that the TI83 does not support display of lower case characters.
Where programs are run on a TI83+SE, they go faster (up to two and a half
times faster!) Where programs have timers built in to measure speed of
completion of exercise, the opening screen asks whether the program is
being run on a TI83+ or a TI83+SE/84+/84+SE. The program's clock counter
is adjusted accordingly. Aside from the speed issues described above,
there is no difference in the programs' functionality.
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