Using the History of Calculator Use to speculate on the Future of AI Use in Classrooms

As some of you know, I was a middle school teacher for 20+ years. What you may not know is while I primarily taught social studies my whole career, I taught at least one math class almost every year as well (being middle school, typically pre-algebra or algebra level). Beyond that, my wife has been a secondary math teacher for 35 years - just started her final year a couple of weeks ago! So I have always been drawn toward ways to combine the two subjects - financial literacy is an obvious topic that fits well into both math and social studies classrooms. Or in this case, looking at the history of something more typically found in a math classroom.

I'm going to divide this into two portions - a focus in the first part on the article and some links related to history/math, then further down I will include a quick piece on the History News Network in case you are not familiar with their work.

"Solve for AI" - What the history of the pocket calculator reveals about the future of AI in classrooms

Let me start with a link to the article itself - https://www.hnn.us/article/solve-for-ai

As I mentioned above, this article was originally posted by History News Network on April 30th of this year. It is written by Bronwen Everill, who is now at Princeton after teaching previously at Cambridge. It is an interesting topic change for her - most of her previous work (and books) focus on African studies, and particularly (where I had seen her name before) focusing on historical comparisons between African and Western economics. I'm still waiting to get an ILL copy of her latest book, "Africonomics: A History of Western Ignorance", which focuses on why Western countries and NGOs have ignored African history and tried to impose Western ideas about economics with little success.

Her website - https://www.bronweneverill.com/

Her LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwen-everill-97995596/

The book I'm waiting on - https://www.amazon.com/Africonomics-History-Ignorance-Bronwen-Everill-ebook/dp/B0CXNB59MZ

In this article, I was particularly struck by her discussion (near the end) of the role of Texas Instruments in limiting calculator use in schools to the TI-84plus (rather than continuing to constantly adapt to the newest technology) as a sort of compromise between the need for basic skills in math and the focus on a future use of those skills. I had heard this quote before from an NCTM President almost 50 years ago, but it fits nicely into our own time - “You need the basics to make the calculator do what you want it to.”

I also want to include a few of the resources on this debate Professor Everill uses in her article - you can see much more in the original article linked above:

"The Evolution Of Education: From Calculators To Generative AI", Forbes, Nov 2024, https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2024/11/04/the-evolution-of-education-from-calculators-to-generative-ai/

"AI Can Transform the Classroom Just Like the Calculator", Scientific American, Apr 2024, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-can-transform-the-classroom-just-like-the-calculator/

"TI’s Calculator Monopoly Offers Lessons for Educators in the Age of Generative AI", ProMarket (from the Stigler Center at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business), Apr 2024, https://www.promarket.org/2024/04/08/tis-calculator-monopoly-offers-lessons-for-educators-in-the-age-of-generative-ai/

"The AI Influencers Selling Students Learning Shortcuts", Rhetorica (Professor Marc Watkins/OldMiss, from his AI blog), Feb 2024, https://marcwatkins.substack.com/p/the-ai-influencers-selling-students

One more from me - in case you are into the history of calculating machines:

"History of the Office and Office Equipment: A Resource Guide to Machines that Add", Library of Congress Research Guides, https://guides.loc.gov/office-history/copiers-calculators/machines-that-add

And two more from Marc that I found particularly interesting - a little tangential from this immediate topic, but topics I have heard many teachers speculating on in the past year:

"AI Is Unavoidable, Not Inevitable", Rhetorica (Professor Marc Watkins/OldMiss, from his AI blog), Jan 2025, https://marcwatkins.substack.com/p/ai-is-unavoidable-not-inevitable

"Why Are We In a Rush To Replace Teachers With AI?", Rhetorica (Professor Marc Watkins/OldMiss, from his AI blog), May 2025, https://marcwatkins.substack.com/p/why-are-we-in-a-rush-to-replace-teachers

And then a little bit on the History News Network in general:

History News Network is one of MANY groups I receive e-mail newsletters and posts from on a daily basis. As listed on their website, their original mandate 25 years ago was to "create a space for historians to offer deeper context for the stories flitting across American newspapers and TV screens."

In my experience, they tend to lean slightly to the left (probably because their articles are written by professors all over the U.S. and Europe - some let their ideology show more than others!) but I always learn something from their articles whether I agree with them or not. It's pretty high-level writing, so if I was using it with students they would have to be ready for a challenge - otherwise I see it as professional development for history (and other) teachers.

A couple of quick links:

History News Network website - https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/

The newsletter I received with their "greatest hits" for the 1st eight months of 2025 - https://mailchi.mp/historynewsnetwork/history-that-matters-now?e=d0f1b01c97