Interactive Whiteboards and Virtual Calculators

Teaching with an interactive whiteboard which is connected to a computer is a new way of involving the students.  SMARTboard and  ACTIVboard are some of the brand names for these products.  Many times there is a need for a virtual calculator on the whiteboard.

• TI-SmartView™ emulator software is a new product by Texas Instruments which meets this challenge for a cost of about $135 US. http://education.ti.com/us/product/accessory/vs/features/smartview.html

• Virtual TI is a free beta version of an emulator which also can be used.

Two versions of Virtual TI are available. 

1. Version 2.5 beta 5 Written by Rusty Wagner  http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/84/8442.html

2. Version 3.0 prerelease copyright 2001 Texas Instruments 
   http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/261/26120.html

Differences with the two versions:

1. Vs 2.5 only works with TI-83+ calculators with an OS 1.12 or less. This version does not seem to load apps, only programs.  Will load programs but not load Flash apps.

2. Vs 3.0 works with OS version higher than 1.12.  Runs apps.  I have had problems with the Rom dump wizard.  Will load flash apps.

Step One

You need either a TI-83 (or TI-83+ calculator with OS 1.12 or less) to create a ROM image of that calculator.

Step Two

You need a TI Connectivity Cable Serial for Windows® (black)  for the connection to the COM1 port or a computer and the Calculator. http://education.ti.com/us/product/accessory/connectivity/features/cables.html#serialwin
The ROM Dump programs are not setup to use the more modern USB cables.

Step Three

Download the Virtual TI and run the program on the Computer.  The program searches for a ROM image file from on the Computer in the same folder as Virtual TI.  When finding none, it will start the wizard to download a ROM image from your calculator.

A ROM image is not sent with the application originally because it is illegal to redistribute the ROM image of a calculator. 

Problems with Dumping the ROM image…

The most common problem is after the wizard loads a dump program to your calculator, the person tries to run the Dump program from the calculator and gets an error message.  You must enter Asm(then the program name)
  Asm( is found in the calculator catalogue…   2^nd 0 on a TI-83 calculator.

For more help on this see… http://detachedsolutions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2162&sid=0ad874f4fe0d39d67c7cabe7f0844f22

or

http://www.ticalc.org/programming/emulators/romdump.html

or

http://www.technicalc.org/tifaq/?p1.htm#2.2.1

John Beach Oct 3, 2005