Design decisions in interactive geometry software

Abstract

Software design is increasingly being recognized as an important factor in student learning when interacting with interactive geometry software (IGS). A categorization of the operations possible within an IGS is used to identify and analyse design decisions made in a number of current IGS programs: Cabri II Plus, Cabri 3D, Cinderella, GeoGebra and Geometer's Sketchpad. The analysis, in the context of exploring the area of a circle, is focused on construction, dragging, and alternative spatial and semantic views. A wide diversity of both design issues and individual design decisions was identified, illustrating both the scarcity of research in this area and a number of inevitable tensions, such as between functionality and complexity, and between static and dynamic geometry, related to which future research questions might be posed.

Invited Lectures from the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education

“…With the many varieties of dynamic geometry software, convergence towards mature common standards remains limited (Mackrell 2011). However a major European project, Intergeo, has sought to facilitate exchange and use of dynamic geometry resources by teachers through creating an online repository with the potential to enrich the readily available range of tried and tested dynamic tasks (Kortenkamp and Laborde 2011).…”

Recent research on geometry education: an ICME-13 survey team report

“…Some of them, including Sketchpad and Cabri, are still available, but it has become difficult for independent developers or companies to maintain or launch alternative DGEs. Mackrell (2011) discusses the matter of design decisions for interactive geometry software comparing Cabri, Sketch-pad, Cinderella (Richter-Gebert & Kortenkamp 2012) and GeoGebra, and shows that a certain variety of approaches is desirable. She also highlights the fact that consistent educational design of a DGE is difficult to achieve.…”

Geometry Education, Including the Use of New Technologies: A Survey of Recent Research

“…Trends for digital geometry tools include (1) how geometry on the web is encountering various technological difficulties associated with the need to replace Java; (2) the issue of interface design and how users interact with onscreen geometry (Jackiw & Sinclair, 2009;Kortenkamp & Dohrmann, 2010;Laborde & Laborde, 2014;Mackrell 2011;Schimpf & Spannagel, 2011; (3) the rise of mobile devices and touch technology; and (4) new modes of interaction such as multi-touch and multi-collaboration.…”