I would strongly suggest that you use a software package that is common in industry. Minitab, JMP and Design Expert are some of the mainstays in industry. If you try to include R in your curriculum, you will spend a lot of valuable time teaching a software package that they will have a hard time using in industry. Spend your time dealing with the ideas in the class not how to get the answers with R.
As someone that spent about a decade working in industry, trying to get a program that the company has not already decided will be in a standard image will be an issue. Most companies don't let employees downlaod software, no matter how valuable, without a lot of paperwork.
Think about it this way. An IT person will need ot come into your office and borrow your computer to download and install a new piece of software. That takes time and money. To get that software installed, you need ot justify, to the liking of the IT department, why you need that software. So, you need to justify getting that software. Can you justify adding R to your computer given you already have JMP/Minitab and MatLab? What makes R so special that MatLab or JMP/Minitab can't do it? Claiming, "I learned how to use R, not Matlab" is not sufficient. "R does ....." will lead to the next question from IT, "So does..... What makes R special?"
You also have to deal with sending files to co-workers. If you have R, and they don't, you need to change your format to meet their software.
R is a fine product. For most of the stats most people do, it is overkill.
Spend your time wisely teaching the ideas of stats, not the lexicon of R.
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Andrew Ekstrom
Statistician, Chemist, HPC Abuser;-)
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-19-2017 09:15
From: Shawn Capser
Subject: Time to end TI-84 calculator?
I am going to teach Engineer Statistics this Fall. A large part of the curriculum that I am planning will include an introduction to R. R has a large learning curve, and I hope to help them over come a large part of that curve before they begin their full time position as entry level engineers.
Part of my curriculum include explaining why the should stay away from Excel for statistical analysis.
The commercials software packages are great but can sometimes be an up hill battle with your employer to buy them due to the cost and any possible IT issues.
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Shawn Capser
Student, University of Toledo
Consultant in Reliability Engineering
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-15-2017 09:54
From: Flora Quevedo
Subject: Time to end TI-84 calculator?
I appreciate the debate about what the ideal solution is because it helps me to be able to better prepare my students for their next steps in education/employment.
Dealing with the reality is another matter all together. Programs like Excel or R or TI-84 calculators are great but the reality is schools and classrooms are not equitably resourced at the high school level. Some neighboring schools have bring your own devices or provide laptops while my school is wholly underfunded when it comes to resources like these. At least some sources say my district is the most underfunded in America. Check out these 2 articles: Reading, Pa., retains title as America's most poorly funded school district - Education Votes
'These Kids Are Just Pawns': The Rising Toll of Inequitable School Funding - NEA Today
If tech is required to be prepared for the course then budgets need to be written to allow for that.
Here's a look inside our school statistics program from my perspective:
The AP statistics teacher has a small class - around 20 students - and they all are signed out a school provided TI-84 calculator for the year to allow them to prepare for the exam and complete homework assignments. Other AP courses like Calculus have TI-84 calculators as well. Any left over TI-84 calculators go to the honors level classes. Last year was my first year teaching honors statistics - the AP Stats teacher suggested that I teach the class with a TI-30 since I wouldn't have enough TI-84's. I had about 50 honors statistics students (34 in one class) and was able to get 25 old TI-84 calculators to teach Honors statistics. I had to figure out how to move through the material with partial Ti-84 calculator access in the classroom and no TI-84 at home, or resort to using hand calculations with only a TI-30 (which everyone would have in the classroom and most would have an equivalent version at home). During the year this meant we spent an exorbitant amount of time learning how to do hand calculations so that students could at least do the problems. As seniors, most had never used a TI-84 prior to this year and as a result some students preferred doing the calculations by hand because they said they felt like they had more understanding of what was happening with the numbers. It was extremely frustrating trying to teach a course so critical to their future and that I know opens so many career opportunities with resources that put them in the dark ages compared to students who would be competing with them for jobs down the road.
Cell phones are the most wide spread resource my students have - though not even all have this. As the course progressed about 5 students were able to download free Wabbitemu versions of the TI-84 on their android devices, which did help. They were doing their 1-2 calculation heavy homework problems in under 5 minutes while the remainder of the class still needed about 40 minutes. My Apple cell phone users were annoyed that they couldn't find an equivalent app. We had developed a level of honesty by the end of the year that during testing android students were permitted to use their cell phone to take the test as long as they kept the device flat on their desk so that all students had access to a TI-84 or equivalent during tests. If Apple hasn't already, I hope they do come up with a free version of the TI-84 that functions the same as the actual calculator. My students that intend to pursue statistical careers certainly learned the value of the TI-84 and stated they plan to make it their priority purchase for college... so if they don't need it in college PLEASE let them know asap.
I was fortunate to get regular access to a lap top cart with 30 laptops however they took anywhere from 5-30 minutes to just log in during a 47 minute class period and the version of Excel available on the computer did not permit students to do tasks like making histograms. Only tech administrators can download any needed software. We did use the computers some but not as much as I had hoped. Too many of the students don't have access to computers at all at home. Some share computers with the entire family or have extremely old virus ridden computers. A few used the course as a way to convince their parents to invest in a computer. I learned as the year went on that a handful of my students relied 100% on their cell phone to complete any computer tasks - including writing their research papers for English class. Can you imagine typing even a 2 page paper on a cell phone screen! Still others didn't even have a cell phone so even that wasn't an option.
If you are blessed to work with any of my students in the future, know that they had to work very hard and overcome many obstacles to reach you.
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Flora Quevedo
Math Teacher
Reading High School
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-14-2017 10:49
From: Beverly Wood
Subject: Time to end TI-84 calculator?
I imagine that you are preaching to the choir here. The lingering appeal of the calculator comes down to the cost. There's a non-trivial part of the high school population who can't afford a computer much less software beyond Excel. School districts and some colleges can't afford labs or site licenses. The latest GAISE College Report (which applies to AP classes as well) once again addresses the disservice we do to students who see nothing but the calculator. The type of technology used to crunch numbers hardly matters if it is in service of understanding the big ideas of statistics.
I would argue that there's a certain flexibility of thinking that we cultivate if students see output from multiple software packages. The high school classroom is not the place to be learning multiple programs or programming R but a rigid expectation that the p-value should be at the far right of the table or at the bottom of the screen (or even the only thing you are looking for) does not do anything for their workplace/life skills. My non-traditional students use StatCrunch in the first semester and Excel in the second. I'm working to include output from JMP, SPSS, and Minitab (because I have access, not because they are popular/best/easiest/etc) into assignments and exams for exactly this purpose. Maybe someday we'll have a third course that teaches the use of software and programming and recruit some budding statisticians.
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Beverly Wood
Assistant Professor
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-13-2017 08:32
From: Thomas Ilvento
Subject: Time to end TI-84 calculator?
The Ti84 Calculator seems to have a lock on high school AP statistics classes, and the exam. We don't use them in our college classes. Isn't it time that high schools use Excel more for statistics? Excel has all the probability distributions – t-,z F, chi-square – and it far more practical.
Thomas W. Ilvento
Department of Applied Economics and Statistics
Professor, Chair and StatLab Coordinator