Why can't I use a calculator?

Since we have been focusing on my current graduate class on technology and since I am a math teacher, I thought I would connect the two in another way. I have two elementary school children and one middle school child and they frequently get homework (more on that topic's irrelevance at another time). Often, their assignments ask for long, complicated multiplication and division procedures that have no connection to any other context. So why do this? Well some would say that there is a need for procedural fluency, and I understand that point. But if the focus is on when to perform certain operations in a context and not how to do them, then isn't knowing when enough? Don't we all, in this day and age, carry with us a device that has a built-in calculator? Remember that the calculator is only as smart as its operator. If the student performs the incorrect operation for the context, the error should be easy to determine based on the problem's context. Wouldn't we have the answer to "do the students understand" based on their calculator answers?

Fast forward to my middle school student. Think about skills like percent of a number and proportional reasoning. How many of us carried tip cards or use cell phones in order to save time (and our tired brains) to compute tips? As long as we know what to do with the calculator, it makes sense to use it as a helpful tool. Now, he had very little math homework as a 5th grader (especially in math) and he attends and 5/6 middle school, so maybe it will be in high school that he will again be responsible for math homework. But for now, if a student asks can they use a calculator (in a non-procedural fluency context), or if they are carrying their smart device, why should they be prohibited from using it? We know they are carrying phones, why not let them use them? If they are incorporated in the lessons, students will be much less likely to "play" with them. We would be teaching them a lesson in social ethics for technology as well as mathematics. We want to model appropriate behavior with technology as well as to allow students to incorporate the mathematical practices into their daily lives. Like their phones...


About calculators in elementary classrooms - from Vanderbilt University - Nashville, TN
http://bit.ly/158a6iX
About calculators in an eighth grade class - from University of Nebraska - Lincoln
http://bit.ly/1dbxhfn
Math Apps for iPads - from edtechteacher.org
http://bit.ly/11wssNJ

Comics
http://www.oaknorton.com/comics/1-calculator.jpg
http://bit.ly/12TCPJK
http://bit.ly/11wtY2x