Talk:Free Math Software
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Comment by David Moursund 1/28/08
The math education community has long been constrained by the feeling that new technology cannot be adopted unless it is made readily available to every student.
The cost of solar powered hand held 6-function calculators has become so low that schools can readily provide them to students and/or partnet can provide them for their children. In essence, this is also true for scientific calculators.
However, graphing and equation-solving calculators, and computers are still relatively costly. Many schools have made the decision to provide students with such tools for use in school (and perhaps to take home), and many parents provide such tools for their children to have available at home.
In terms of computers, the initial outlay for the hardware tends to be a modest part of the total cost of ownership. Other significant costs include maintenance and repair, connectivity, and software.
There is a growing worldwide movement to develop software that is free or very inexpensive. This is an important change that will gradually make a significant contribution to improving education.
