Technology for Education 1/7/2014

Happy New Year!

Some online and computer calculators for your enjoyment.

Geogebra

I've been using Geogebra since I found it in 2007 or 2008. It is Dynamic Geometry Software--meaning you can move geometric constructions to explore relationships. I was a convert from Cabri Geometry and later Geometer's SketchPad. My problem with both Cabri and Geometer was that, while useful, I could explore with the software, but my students could not.

Geogebra currently has software or apps for most platforms (Win, Mac, iOS, Android, Chromebook, Linux--see?!) and they also have a collection of interactive, teacher-created, interactive worksheets at GeogebraTube. As an example, I created this for when I introduce students to parabolic equations through bouncing a ball. This activity gets kids moving, but Geogebra takes the pain of formal equation manipulation out of this introduction as well as gives a platform to develop that formal skill much later.

Best of all, it's free!

Online Calculators

Seriously, there are so many free resources for students.

Desmos is an HTML5 graphing calculator that work on iPads, Android tablets, as well as any computer with an internet connection.

Microsoft Mathematics...ok so this isn't online, but it's still free. It's a fully functional graphing calculator for the Windows platform.

MyScript (Android, iOS) is a handwriting recognition calculator. No more 2nd x^2 to take a square root! Just draw the radical (and the extended vinculum!) and the number you want the root of and you're done! 

Why all this technology?

If you talk with me, or my parents, or depending on how old you are, your parents, we had to be proficient with variables and arithmetic, and  graphing lines and solving equations by hand before we could even begin to address more difficult problems. If we didn't have the skills we would never solve the difficult problems that people were thinking about. Problem is now we have the tools and the problems, now, are how do I set up this problem and now let's explore solutions using technology.

The skills are important and I don't forget that. However, for too long math has been about the skills for skills sake (again, I'm a fan) and we need all students to have the ability to reason in a mathematical world and these tools help students see the mathematics that many of us who are or were "good at math" never got to see because of the complexity of skills required to do the problems.

I get too many kids (too late at the high school level, in my opinion) that realize that they are actually good at math once they realize how the skills we study relate to richer problems that we are trying to solve.