Calculator blog

Finally we have the wireless kit for the HP Prime. This is a device intended only for a professor to run his class - it really does not have any other application that I can think of now.

But, oh my, is it useful for its intended use!

Let’s picture some of the things you can do with it:

• From a single computer, you can see the screens of all your pupils on your screen. Don’t allow any of them to wander around or switch the calculator off.
• You can download exercises and apps to their computers - very much like you can do now with your HP Prime and the supplied emulator, but not having to be linked by USB.
• You can track how they are performing with the exercises that you have sent to them.
• You can send polls and exams to their Primes, to be answered and returned back to you.
• You can set the exam mode of their calculators: what they can and the can’t do in this particular exam with their Primes (if you look to the settings page, you get the idea of what you can allow and what you can forbid - and the grain is quite thin!

The wireless kit is composed of a PC antenna, that is connected through USB to the professor computer, and 30 dongles to be connected to each students’ Prime. A special software for the computer is required (connectivity kit or HP Classroom Manager) This is the intended way of working: the wireless kits are not intended to communicate between Primes (no, they cannot share the results of the tests you’ve just sent to them!). The price of the kit is 699, but there are discounts available for more classes than one (i.e., a full school or just a year of three classes)

The HP Prime is beginning to reach cruise speed. If you want to see the kind of software, tutorials and documentation that it is being produced, here is a link you should visit:

http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-818.html

(HP-Prime: Math Tutorials!)

This page is in the ubiquitous hpmuseum.org website. While the museum as such was created for the HP calculators of the past, the new HP Prime is getting a lot of attention by the residents, and it has a forum of its own. The one above is the top thread of the forum. It includes tutorials, videos, etc., with a strong focus on educational resources - not that the writer puts the focus there, but due to the fact that most of the material available is educational.

(for any calculator lover, hpmuseum.org is a must-see site. The wealth and depth of information there is enormous. And if you don’t find what you were looking for, you will securely find there a link to it.)

hpcalc.org is another very interesting site. It is a mandatory site for anyone with interest in the hp48/49/50 family of calculators - you will find there most of the software even developed for it. It also has a department for the HP Prime. You can find it here, at the beginning of the page:

http://www.hpcalc.org/

The software there is educational too. At this point in time there is not so much of it, and you can find there the early efforts of community members, exploring the possibilities of programming in HP Basic. So you can’t expect a general theory of relativity yet.

HP’s own site is including a lot of dedicated mathematical tutorials, so that educators can integrate the HP Prime in their teachings. There are all the manuals and guides as well:

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/prime-graphing-calculator/overview.html?jumpid=va_a5cqf1p9xi

For the Spanish readers, there is a series of videos in YouTube introducing and explaining the HP Prime (in Spanish!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9yQ9Jp0RDg&list=PLE8anolkg3RtwsODXI2kzfZllSivStr55

If you’re English speaker, you can see David Hays's "Technology in College Algebra" learning videos. There are currently 42 of them, already addressing quite complicated issues (compared with the above, that is)

Finally, there are a couple of videos about the new wireless feature. (Yes, it was intended to be available from the beginning, but it will work only with Prime hardware Revision C, corresponding to calculator model G8X92AA. All Primes sold by us are G8X92AA models)