[Maths-Education] review of interactive geometry software

[Dave Hewitt]

Excuse quick response.... I choose Sketchpad originally mainly due to the power of the buttons. The buttons enable me to construct pre-prepared files which are designed to use as a teaching resource, mainly with an interactive whiteboard. I am not sure whether the description I have just written makes it clear enough as to how I tend to use sketchpad as a teacher and so I offer an example attached along with reference to an article which gives a brief indication of how I might use it in a classroom (Hewitt, D. (2007), 'Canonical images', Mathematics Teaching, 205, pp. 6-11.). The fact that you ask the second question you have in your email adds to my sense that few people seem to consider the opportunities sketchpad, in particular, offers as a teaching resource by way of carefully constructed pre-prepared files where the teacher might control what happens with the file initially as part of a whole class interactive engagement with mathematical questions which can lead quite directly towards some desired mathematical content. In the literature I tend to read about students being given a problem/task and using the software as a tool to work on that task. This is, of course, one powerful way of using such software. however, personally I have found it particularly powerful to use sketchpad as a pedagogic tool working with a whole class, and this seems to be rarely discussed in the literature.

Hope this makes some sense!

In haste,

Dave.

 
Dr Dave Hewitt
School of Education
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Tel: +44 (0)121 414 4824
Fax: +44 (0)121 414 4865
________________________________________
From: maths-education-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [maths-education-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Kate Mackrell [katemackrell at sympatico.ca]
Sent: 11 August 2010 18:02
To: maths-education discussion forum
Subject: [Maths-Education] review of interactive geometry software

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I am currently writing a comparative review of Sketchpad/Cabri/
Cinderella/Geogebra and would love to hear from anyone on the list
concerning:

a. their reasons for choosing to use a particular interactive geometry
software.  Don't necessarily limit yourself to the ones above - I
would possibly be open to including other softwares in the review.

b. any geometry/algebra tasks that would provide a useful basis of
comparison for the softwares.  I have a number of ideas, but I'm
worried that I will automatically choose a task that works best with
my own favourite software, which would not be quite fair!

Thanks

Kate Mackrell
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