Learning by plotting

Carel van de Giessen (1)

1 Almende College

An important characteristic of ict-tools is that they do things more neatly and quickly than we could do by hand, and that they do not mind correcting errors. These machines entail less work and more time for things like thinking and learning. If that were all the advantage would be undeniable.
For education however an ict-tool should do more, it should benefit and promote thinking and learning . A graphics program for educational purposes should offer more than a simple plotting of graphics. For instance the parameter. The concept of a parameter is difficult to grasp for students in secondary schools. The dynamic use of a parameter that is possible in modern software, however is a great help for students getting a good idea of the concept of parameter and in a way they like. In the Netherlands the publishers of about 90% of the schoolbooks have the program VUGrafiek (Graphic Calculus, Graphe) provided within the books, so every student can use it both in school and at home. The program is a help for students of different ages with the visualisation, explanation and conceptualisation of mathematical concepts. The main issues of the program will be shown and some recent classroom experiences will be presented.

Keywords: Education -- Data processing; Information and communications technology<br />Educational technologies; Education<br />Computer-assisted education

Keywords: Education et informatique<br />Nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication

Domains: Education

Carel van de Giessen. Learning by plotting. Jun 2003, Reims, France. ⟨edutice-00001346⟩