Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
More on Wolfram Alpha
Seriously though, W/A will change the way we teach mathematics.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
GeoGebra
Truth is, GeoGebra is impossible to describe. You need to see it in action. The web site has many examples, as does www.john-burke.net. Note that GeoGebra is free and is actively being enhanced. You can install GeoGebra on any PC or Mac (it is completely written in java), run it through a browser, or even run it off a thumb drive.
The best way to learn to use GeoGebra on your own is to download the examples and then run the the Construction Protocol step by step (not the algebra window, but View -->Construction Protocol).
For my colleagues at ARC, I will be giving a short presentation on GeoGebra Thursday, 8/20 and Friday, 8/21 at the Math Department meetings.
For my colleagues at Sierra College, I will be giving a four hour hands on tutorial Tuesday, 8/25 from 1 - 5PM where you can (will) learn to use GeoGebra and leave with several constructions you can use in your classroom.
Wolfram Alpha
There have also been a few posts so far about Wolfram Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com) and how to incorporate it into our teaching ("if" to incorporate is not an option since students will use it whether we want them to or not). If you have not seen what Wolfram Alpha can do, just check out some of the math examples at http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/Math.html.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Two New URLs
The first is for the MathForum @ Drexel University. It is hard to describe in a few words everything this site offers to both instructors and students. You can easily spend several hours just looking into everything available, some free, some for a fee. From the "about" page:
"The Math Forum is a leading center for mathematics and mathematics education on the Internet. Operating under Drexel's School of Education, our mission is to provide resources, materials, activities, person-to-person interactions, and educational products and services that enrich and support teaching and learning in an increasingly technological world. Our online community includes teachers, students, researchers, parents, educators, and citizens at all levels who have an interest in math and math education."
The second URL is for the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. These are java applets that illustrate interactively many basic arithmetic and mathematics concepts. While nominally aimed at K-12, many of the virtual manipulatives are suitable for the skills development course taught in community colleges (College Arithmetic through Intermediate Algebra). Since statistics is commonly taught now in high school, the library also contains several virtual manipulatives (I am particularly enamored of the Monty Hall Problem manipulative) suitable for a college Elementary Statistics course. The Library can be used freely through any Internet connection or can be downloaded for a nominal fee. If you teach any skills development courses or Elementary Statistics, you should be able to find something here to use in the classroom.