TI showcases interactive Math Tools at 'Destination ImagiNation'

KNOXVILLE, USA: As tens of thousands of high school students gather here this week at Destination ImagiNation, they're getting a chance to compete head-to-head in a fun challenge of speed and trivia, while seeing first-hand the future of interactive math education.

Texas Instruments is organizing a competition at its Destination ImagiNation exhibit, pitting some of the country's brightest students against each other – and their teachers and parents - with Tom Reardon, a leading math educator and Texas Instruments Teachers Teaching with Technology (T3) instructor from Youngstown, Ohio, as moderator.

Participants will test their knowledge of education-related trivia in a game show-like contest using the latest TI-Nspire with Touchpad handheld learning device.

"These are some of the most talented and creative students from across the country, so it will be fun and more than challenging to see how well they do in these challenges," said Reardon. "More importantly, these students, their parents and teachers will see the latest trend in education, key technology tools that foster greater teacher/student interactivity in the math classroom."

The interactive and dynamic math classroom technology shown at this conference demonstrates how students' graphing calculator handhelds are networked in a classroom, using the TI-Nspire Navigator wireless classroom network system, to create a shared, real-time learning experience.

Teachers, for example, can send an exercise to each student's device while the entire class works on solutions together via projected screen images. Teachers can track student's individual progress, and replace pencil-and-paper quizzes with quizzes graded in real-time to make sure concepts are understood by the entire class, before moving onto the next part of the lesson. Students can also work in groups, via this in-class network, to foster shared learning.

The new TI-Nspire graphing calculator handheld is available through instructional dealers now and will be available at retail in time for back to school.