The Calculator Dilemma?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about The Technology "Crutch".  Today, I am looking at the use of calculators specifically.

It seems that most teachers are either advocates of calculator use in the classroom, or they are very much against it.  I have met very few math teachers who don't have a real opinion on the matter. 

The teachers that are against the use of calculators in the classroom usually are of the opinion that it hinders their learning of basic mathematical skills or it is a "crutch" (NCTM, 2014).  

However, if you look at all the research that has been done on the use of calculators in the mathematics classroom, all of it points to the idea that calculators do NOT hinder a student's learning in the mathematics classroom.  

In a research brief on calculators put out by NCTM in 2011, they examined 3 articles that synthesized research on calculators from 3 different periods along with an additional 50 studies. All of this spanned 40 years of research (Ronau et all, 2011).  They found that students who used calculators performed better and had a better attitude towards mathematics than those who did not (Ronau et all, 2011).  All of these studies pointed in this direction, however, people are still against the use of calculators.  Here is what the authors of the brief had to say on this point: "Few areas in mathematics education technology have had such focused attention with such consistent results, yet the issue of whether the use of calculators is a positive addition to the mathematics education classroom is still questioned by many areas of the mathematics community, as evidenced by continually repeated studies of the same topic" (Ronau et all, 2011, pg. 2). 

I think that calculators allow students to explore problems that are much more difficult than what they could do by hand.  It allows students to extend their knowledge to problems that may be out of their reach when computing by hand.  

For example, in a calculus class, there are some integrals we cannot compute by hand in Calculus 1, but their calculator can still find the area under that curve that we cannot calculate its integral by hand.  Should we exclude these problems from a Calculus 1 course? Or should we allow our students to explore why they can't compute by hand,but still find the value of the integral on their calculators?


What are your thoughts on calculator use in the classroom?  

References: 
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2014). Principles to Actions: Ensuring mathematical success for all. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Ronau, R., Rakes, C., Bush, S., Driskell, S. Niess, M., Pugalee, D. (2011). Technology Research Brief: Using calculators for teaching and learning mathematics.(King, Karen, Ed.) Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.