Every high school student works with a graphing calculator. Typically used for math and science, a student cannot get through school without one of these constantly with them.

A graphing calculator is an essential during a student’s journey in school– it becomes their best friend during their time of learning.

Typically, students who cannot afford to buy their own graphing calculator are given one to loan from the school.

The one they receive is usually a TI-83, which is not a recent device, but one that was created 19 years ago. These calculators do not have specific functions that the newer ones do.

For example, the TI-83 does not have the ability to solve matrices which is a large setback for students. Those with the the more up to date calculators are finished with their matrices homework way faster than the other students.

So why do students still need to use this outdated device? With many forms of more advanced and modern technology being used today, the continued use of the old TI-83 graphing calculator in schools brings up the question.

Modern phones are becoming more and more advanced each day. They are even able to update by themselves, regularly and on their own. Every day brings a new improvement to technology.

Given this fact, the reason for the continued use of the TI-83, which existed for half a decade before the iPod, becomes questionable.

Texas Instruments TI-83 graphing calculators were released in 1996. This makes the calculator older than the teenagers who attend high school and are using it today!

Compared to other forms of technology, this is a ridiculous statistic.The students of present-day will be the second generation to use this old gadget.

Roughly 20 years later, students are still forced to use this piece of outmoded technology.

This is not because there are not any better tools that are available; there are plenty, and some of them are even free such as the apps that one can download on their phone.

The reason technology still has not wiped out the reliable and ancient TI-83 is because Texas Instruments, the company that creates them, has an astounding monopoly in the range of high school mathematics.

The American education system is obsessed with Texas Instruments.

The Pearson textbooks almost all students use in their classes include pictures of TI calculators in the margins so that students can use them in the lesson plan.

This device is ingrained in about every page the students use to study and to finish their work.

Switching the students to new technology may be a risky plan because achievement in classes are so connected to the technology currently being used in them.

If the devices were to become more modern, it may affect the student’s success in their courses.

Both teachers and students are very accustomed to the use of the TI calculators.

If a decision was made to be daring and begin to use better equipment, teachers would be pushed back in their progress because they would be in charge of introducing the new devices and adapting students to them.

Bringing up newer and higher instruments can also create an issue with standardized testing.

Companies that carry out the country’s standardized tests have a list of approved calculators that students can use during it. TI gears are omnipresent in this list while mobile apps are nonexistent.

Although the graphing calculators the students of this modern world are using today are antiquated, the process of advancing the devices might be too much of a hassle for the time being.

However, things may be changing for the future.

Last year, schools in Texas became the first to allow students to use iPads with installed graphing calculators on an assessment called STAAR.

This might be serving as the start of advancing technology entering school systems.

With the many changing and progressing technologies in our everyday world, it would be no surprise to have similar advancing machinery come into schools and the education world. It is necessary for the improvement of students’ learning.

The only impediment is tradition. It’s time for change to be made.