Engineering Institutes expect universities to deliver a specific curriculum in the first semester, but what actually happens is a levelling out, making sure people are comfortable with basic algebra, know what calculus is, can start modelling. A problem-centred approach encourages students to try different approaches, compare and validate them. A course must provide support for experimentation by the student instead of just received knowledge. Sheffield Hallam tell all students at the time of accepting a place that they will have to buy a particular calculator, and that this will save some money on book buying. Handing out machines at the beginning of the lesson will make all the difference.
Calculators are an individual and personal tool.
Students with access to TI-85 and Derive prefer the former, and people who have used Mathplus feel that its intuitive learning interface is better than Derive. Open University courses will be using Mathcad. Technology can be used as a problem solver or as a learning tool. For example simultaneous equations can be looked at in several different ways. With a calculator you can look at more realistic examples, explore things like ill-conditioning, and can plug answers into the original equations to give more of a check.