The final operation in analyzing the artifact is
interpretation. In this section I will concentrate on
what the calculator signifies to me and the small subgroup
of people like me who are also users of the HP 48 series. Indeed,
we tend to have a much different feeling toward our sacred tool
than the general public does.
Actually, "sacred tool" is a pretty good description of what
comes to my mind when I think about my HP 48G. For me, this
artifact represents speed, efficiency, accuracy, and competitiveness.
Its value lies in its ability to save time and keep me from
making so many mistakes.
Saving time seems to be important to a lot of college students. Alicia Moyer is a fellow classmate in my AMST 205 class who also cherishes an artifact which saves her valuable time, her turkey sandwich.
During engineering exams, the time factor will either
make you or break you. There's no such thing as finishing an
exam with five minutes to spare. When it comes down to the
final minutes of the test, everyone is trying to quickly
earn a few extra points here and there. It's a very, competitive, stressful
time and this is where most of the mistakes are made. Simply
having that edit key has saved me many times. Think of how many
mistakes you make when typing a paper and how many times you
use that delete key. Realize though, if you mispell a word, the
reader can probably still follow your thought. However, if you
enter even one wrong digit out of a long equation, the answer
will be completely wrong. My old calculator didn't have an edit
key, so if a mistake was made, I had to start entering the entire
string of equation all over again. With my HP 48G, I simply
backspace and keep right on going.
Engineering students who use this type of calculator would
probably agree with me that it represents speed, efficiency,
accuracy, and a means by which to compete more effectively in our field.
Mark
Lewis is one user of a HP 48 series calculator who tends to agree
with me on this point. In his section entitled "Interpretation", he
suggests that possessing his calculator makes him feel like he could
never fail.
However, one
thing that is a major
source of disagreement between users of the different Hewlett-Packard
calculators is the importance given to memory and the ability
to expand versus the importance given to affordability. I
personally don't think that the extra memory is worth the money.
My model has all the capabilities I need and only cost me $100.
However, some people place a high value on being able to
insert cards to access things like additional equation libraries for their
subjects, and even games. Fellow-user,
Mark
Lewis,
is one person who finds the available games (like Pac-man and Tetris) quite
enjoyable.
This more powerful model cost them about $250.
I don't believe that the users of the 48GX are buying the
most powerful model simply to show it off, because regardless of which
caclulator we own (the 48G or the 48GX), the members of our
subculture all simply refer to it as our HP. Therefore, I'll conclude
that the artifact holds basically the same value for all of the users,
which includes me. This value lies in its ability to make us more
efficient and accurate so that we may compete better in our field. In
essence, the HP represents our competitiveness.
Return to Beginning of Project 1
Identification
Evaluation
Cultural Analysis
Interpretation