I'm the maintainer of KnightOS [1], an open source effort to build an operating system that runs on the TI-84+ (and other TI calculators). I've been tossing around the idea of also building open source calculator hardware for far cheaper than TI calculators (which are way more expensive than reasonable). In this dream I would also spend some time lobbying professors and teachers to break the monopoly and educating them on why open source is great. Is that something I should pursue? Would a kickstarter or something to raise funds for hardware be a worthwhile effort?
It's really hard to get a teacher to change platforms (or textbooks or whatever) when they've got years of expertise and teaching materials built up on their current system. This isn't just laziness: you really are a less effective teacher in classes where you're making a big change like this. (You'd think "but calculators are all the same!" would make that moot, but the trouble is that the kids aren't experienced enough to get that yet, and as an instructor you're suddenly rewriting every single worksheet and hint sheet you have so the instructions match the new system.)
Mind you, I'd love to see the TI monopoly get broken! But this is what you're up against. And even if you have a great product and a teacher might be willing to make the change, they'll be really cautious about the risk that your product won't survive and they'll need to switch back to something else two years later.
It's also an issue of which calculators are allowed to be used in standardized testing environments. If you can't use the calculator on the AP exam, why did you learn it's quirks?
> for far cheaper than TI calculators (which are way more expensive than reasonable).
They are. And TI makes tons of profit on each one. But that also means that if they got any serious competitor, they could drop their prices like a rock, and still make money. Certainly they don't want to do that, but I'm sure they would if they had to.
The hard part isn't the hardware, the hard parts are the software and the politics.
I'm pretty sure that I've used every single feature of the TI-83+ software during my 9+ years of education (grades 7-12 and undergraduate). If your new software is missing just 1 feature that the original software has, it won't fly with educators.
Also, even if it's a massively successful kickstarter, TI can still spend more on lobbying to protect its monopoly ;)
That being said, please try it! I'd love to see an open source alternative!
I can only offer an emphatic YES. I think that there are enough geeks out there that would like to see this monopoly broken that I predict a Kickstarter would be a rousing success.
Even if you build a decent clone, it will be hard to break the monopoly due to one key feature: reliable factory reset. Teachers will require a device that can be reliably reset of all user data to prevent cheating. If the student can hide or mask the factory reset, it will never be approved for testing, and thus will never be approved for classroom use.
I think I would explain that it's a placebo and instead suggest verbally banning students from using their calculators for evil, then discipline them when they do so.
It won't be for a while (KnightOS can't even do math right now, but it is a passable unix system), but I will continue the research and perhaps work towards that goal. The biggest concern I have is that I am only an amateur EE and I don't know if I could take people's money for something I may not succeed at.
[1] http://knightos.org