Thechallengeofanewhardwaregenerationtomathematicseducation.docVIP

The Challenge of a New Hardware Generation to Mathematics Education Alfred Wassermann Department of Mathematics, University of Bayreuth 95440 Bayreuth, Germany alfred.wassermann@uni-bayreuth.de Abstract JSXGraph is a library for displaying dynamic mathematics, e.g. dynamic geometry, function plotting, turtle graphics, in a web browser. It is written in JavaScript and runs on a broad variety of devices from desktop computers down to smart-phones and tablet PCs. JSXGraph is able to import various file formats like GEONEXT, GeoGebra, Intergeo, and – at least partially - Cinderella. At the moment, this seems to be the only possibility to display content from these sources on upcoming small computing devices, which makes them usable in class room. Introduction In the late 1990s the availability of graphical web browsers that enabled easy access to the World Web Web brought many fresh ideas to the class room and to Mathematics education. The programming language Java became the dominant tool to raise interactivity in dynamic mathematics to a new level. Countless new Java-applets came to existence to visualize many aspects of mathematics from Kindergarten level to University level. Also, powerful software systems were developed that combined geometry and calculus under one graphical user interface. The most prominent examples are Cinderella, GEONEXT and GeoGebra to name a few of them. But now a new hardware generation is on the horizon which appears to be better suited for the class room than the old clumsy desktop PC. The revolution started with the success of small and cheap netbooks and the appearance of powerful smart-phones. Now, these two complementary worlds seem to melt together into tablet PCs. The success of the iPad made by Apple confirms this. Probably, very soon many other hardware manufacturer will follow and produce cheaper tablet PCs having more features than Apples iPad. For use in class room the advantages of these devices ovver the desktop PC are the lon