4.2 Release Candidate

GeoGebra 4.2 will be released soon. 21 developers have contributed to this release, so there are many new and exciting features to explore and enjoy! Here are some of the things you can look forward to, and details of how to try out the Release Candidate are here.

GeoGebra 4.2 is released. Download it here.

Speed & Stability

As well as the usual bug-fixing and adding features, while developing version 4.2 we have rewritten large parts of GeoGebra so that it will be much more stable and also faster (much faster in some cases) than previous versions.

In particular, the following will be much faster:

  • anything using the Sequence command
  • the following commands when used on polynomials: Derivative/Integral/Tangent/Degree/Coefficients/Expand

Here is an example of a file using Derivative[ ] that is much faster in GeoGebra 4.2.

Here is a very nice demonstration of volume of revolution by Daniel Mentrard running in GeoGebra 4 and here is the same file in GeoGebra 4.2. Drag the red point marked “View3D” to see how much faster it is.

CAS View

The long awaited view for symbolic calculations is here. It allows you to symbolically factor, expand, differentiate or integrate expressions that may include parameters, and it is dynamically connected to all the other views. The documentation is available at http://wiki.geogebra.org/en/CAS_View.

Here is an example showing how the CAS View interacts with the Graphics View. Drag the points A, B, C to see the exact calculation of the coordinates change.

Features

The feature that’s taken the most programming time in this release is that worksheets can now be viewed on devices without Java (eg iPads, Android Tablets, Chromebooks). The best way to make use of this is to upload your applets to GeoGebraTube (File -> Share) and then the conversion will be done automatically. At the moment only the Graphics View is supported. You can test how worksheets will look and behave on tablets by adding ?mobile=true on the end of the URL in GeoGebraTube, eg
http://www.geogebratube.org/student/m20510?mobile=true

The Pen Tool has been enhanced so that it now creates a PolyLine rather than drawing to a bitmap. Together with new Delete Tool (drag a “rubber” to delete) it’s now much easier & better to use.

You can now drag a parabola, but keep its vertex fixed. Just hold down <Alt> when dragging!

The Rigid Polygon Tool has been enhanced with a small but useful feature: simply click on a polygon to make a “rigid” copy of it (ie the copy can be rotated and translated by dragging)

Neel Shah, as part of Google Summer of Code, has programmed some shape recognition algorithms for the Freehand Shape Tool, which will recognize circles, lines, line segments, triangles and quadrilaterals. It works very well on an interactive whiteboard (IWB).

You may also check a nice overview of new  features by Guillermo Bautista
and there are brief details of the hundreds of other changes in the Official Release Notes.

Power

Kai Chung Tam has programmed the PSLQ algorithm for us in Java which allows a Surd to be numerically reconstructed from a decimal. So for example SurdText[2.414213562373095] returns a nice FormulaText ie [latex]\sqrt{2}+1[/latex]. See here for an example.

We have made it much easier to make worksheets with slopefields and the particular integral like this.

All you need to type is:

f(x,y)=x/y
SlopeField[f]
A=(1,1)
Locus[A,f]

If you need more control over the spacing, there are some options, see the online manual.

Sergio Arbeo, as part of Google Summer of Code, has added a new command LocusEquation. This will calculate the equation of a (geometrical) locus using Gröbner bases.

For example here is the (numerical) locus of a parabola with the calculated (exact) locus overlaid.

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GeoGebra supports two versions of Java OpenGL for 3D

For some weeks GeoGebra 5.0 beta version now supports as well Java OpenGL 1 (JOGL1) and JOGL2 for 3D rendering. You can start both from webstart here:

Portable versions should follow.

 

Historically we started 3D with JOGL1. JOGL1 supports old graphics cards; JOGL1 is obsolete but can still be downloaded.

As a final release we may use only JOGL2, that is the current OpenGL for Java project. Unfortunately it’s not supported by all GPUs for now. JOGL2 is still in release candidate stage, so hopefully improvements will be done to correct this!

Posted in GGB

Google Summer of Code Mentor Summit

Thanks to Google, this year we had 7 students for the Google Summer of Code program. This was the 3rd year we have been involved after 5 and 7 supported students since 2010. As an official closing of the annual program, mentors of the involved organizations were invited to California, United States, to meet at the Mentor Summit on 20-21 October 2012.

Photo by Robin Smidsrød

The summit took place at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View. About 300 mentors worldwide came together to have an unconference about participant-driven topics including student selection process, events, financial questions of open source development, free software in education, and more. Lots of important FOSS took part in the sessions like LibreOffice, The GNU Project, KDE, Gnome, PHPBB, Joomla, Mediawiki, Inkscape and Xapian. GeoGebra was represented by Balázs Koren and Zoltán Kovács from Hungary and Austria.

Mentors from other mathematics related free software were also participating, namely Virgilio Gomez Rubio from the R project and Burcin Erocal from Sage. GeoGebra already has some kind of direct connections to both software, and this meeting was a good time to plan further developments between us.

As usual, Google offered a great hospitality to all participants. California was sunny during these days and it was a perfect time to make excursions to important places of the Silicon Valley and San Francisco as well.

San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge from North

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Using GeoGebra on the iPad

About a month ago we already posted a great video tutorial by Linda. Here is the next in the series. Linda tries to use GeoGebra on the iPad. Of course the real iPad application is coming soon. The question is, can you use your iPad with GeoGebra.

Linda couldn’t wait for the first reelase of the iPad app, she launched the browser and started playing with GeoGebra. See her experiences in the following video.

Did you try using GeoGebra on your iPad or your Android tablet? What are your thoughts?

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Methods of Teaching with GeoGebra

There is a great deal of GeoGebra-related information on the Web that focuses on (a) the technology (how to use the various features and tools in GeoGebra), or (b) the sharing of Dynamic Worksheets developed by faculty.

But what specific teaching methods, strategies, or models are being used to organize GeoGebra-based instruction? Specifically how would a Dynamic Worksheet-related learning activity be organized? How might it be assessed?

The U.S. Common Core-Mathematics emphasizes the notion that high quality mathematics education develops not only content competency but also habits of mind and higher-order skills that are integral to the process of mathematics, e.g., problem solving, reasoning, communications, etc. Are there some teaching methods, strategies, or models that help teachers using GeoGebra focus on both the content and the process of mathematics better than others?

At GeoGebra Iowa, one of our goals is to spotlight the pedagogy of GeoGebra use in the classroom by building an online “methods course” for teachers interested in using GeoGebra as an effective teaching/learning tool.

We hope that educators using GeoGebra, whether at the elementary, secondary, or postsecondary level, will help us build this resource by sharing ideas, experiences, and examples that focus on strategies and methods that are not math content-specific but are transferable.

Please visit us at: https://sites.google.com/site/geogebrainstituteofiowa/the-geogebra-pedagogy-connection if you are interested in this topic or you would care to contribute.

Guest post by Jack Gittinger from the GeoGebra Institute of Iowa

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GeoGebra for tablets

Just corrected the previous post for $50 missing, when @serabe sent a tweet with the image below:

Thanks to all the backers, supporters, people who shared the Kicksterter project for this moment. The project is funded, GeoGebra is on the way for tablet devices. For 12 more days offers are still welcome, since we reached the $10,000, every cent added to the Kickstarter will reach GeoGebra Inc.

And there is one more thing. Reaching the $10,000 is not the end of the Kickstarter project. The iPad app is just the start. We have already started working on an Android app in parallel. So, if you want to use GeoGebra on your Android tablet, please also support this Kickstarter project.

12 more days to go.

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GeoGebra for tablets

Less than $500 are Only $50 is missing to reach our goal of $10,000 on Kickstarter. More than 200 people have helped to make many more people’s dream come true. GeoGebra is going to be available on the iPad. We hope to reach the minimum amount needed and even more to include even more features in the app. Because we believe in the support of our community and all the new people joining our community through Kickstarter, we have already started the development of the GeoGebra iPad app.

And not just that! The iPad app is just the start. We are already working on an Android app in parallel. So, if you would like to see GeoGebra on Android, please also support this Kickstarter project.

Please have a look at the first alpha version screenshot of our GeoGebra iPad App attached.

Thank you for your support.

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GeoGebra MathsJam video

See the video from Matt Parker. Matt is the person behind the @standupmaths twitter and he organizes MathsJams. He got an interesting shape from Mike (@mike_geogebra) and now destroys it in his video:

And we have a video from the last year’s ISI conference. Where you can see how the shape is created:

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Multi-User GeoGebra with Virtual Math Teams (updated)

Would you like to work with your friends on GeoGebra? Would you like your students to be able to collaborate in online groups, exploring math together with a shared GeoGebra screen that they can all see and manipulate while they chat about it? Now GeoGebra is available in a fully multi-user version, integrated with text chat and other collaboration tools. This is an experimental version, still under development, but you are invited to try it out and use it.

The Virtual Math Teams (VMT) software (http://vmt.mathforum.org) is an open-source online environment for collaboration on math topics and challenging math problems. It now features multi-user GeoGebra, so small groups of students can work together on a shared dynamic-geometry construction. It makes available most of the tools of the current version of GeoGebra and adds new collaboration, reflection and research features.

VMT is free and easy to use. Anyone can register and anyone can use existing collaboration chat rooms or create their own and invite people to them.  There are basically two components to VMT.  The web interface, called the VMT Lobby, and the VMT chat rooms which are Java webstart apps, just like GeoGebra.

Getting Started With VMT – Using the Lobby.

Creating and managing VMT chat rooms is done through the VMT Lobby.  To get started, go to vmt.mathforum.org and click Register.  You will be asked for your name, a username, and an email address and some other optional information.  After you register, a random password will be emailed to you.  You can use that one, or change your password at any time.

In the VMT Lobby chat rooms are organized by project, subject, and topic.  By default you will only see subjects associated with your default project (chosen when you register an account).  But you can use the project drop down to change the current project.  Click the gray arrows next to the subject to see topics under that subject.  Similarly, click the gray arrows next to topics to see the list of rooms under that topic.  When you find a room, click the room name to enter.

Here is an example of creating and entering a room in the Lobby:

Using a VMT Chat Room

A chat room is a shared environment for collaboration.  Chat rooms use tabs to hold each shared application.  You can have as many tabs as you like in a room.  Each tab holds an independent instance of a shared application.  So if you create three GeoGebra tabs, each one will have a separate instance of GeoGebra.  A user can only see one tab a time, but the content of each tab is still shared in real time.  So any time a user switches tabs, they will see the latest work done there.

Within a tab, GeoGebra acts just like normal single user GeoGebra with a few exceptions.  For example, the custom tools feature is not currently supported in VMT (coming soon!).  As you modify the construction on the GeoGebra tab, all other users will see your work!  Also, anyone who logs into the room later will be able to go back through the history and see what was done.

Here is a YouTube video about the history slider, which allows anyone in a VMT room to review what was done in that room:

To add new tabs to the room, click the ‘+’ button in the upper right of the VMT window, near the ‘current users’ box.  This will show a dialog box that allows you to pick which type of tab you want, and what to name it.

Coming Soon

There is still much work to be done on VMT, so this fall we have several new features we are working on.  They include:

  • Adding support for GeoGebra’s custom tools.
  • Adding visibility for which tools are being used.
  • Integrating VMT’s pointer tool with GeoGebra.  This tool allows users to select objects on the screen and reference them in a chat message.  VMT draws an arrow from the chat message, to the selected object.

Of course, the best way to learn VMT is to use it!  More info on how to use VMT, and student activities designed specifically for VMT are available at http://gerrystahl.net/vmt/activities.pdf. We would love to hear about any work you are doing with VMT, or if you have suggestions or questions about VMT.  Email us at vmt@mathforum.org.

Guest post by Tony Mantoan

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San Jose GeoGebra Afternoon

When: FRI, OCT 19 | 4:00 – 7:00 pm
Where: San Jose State university Department of Mathematics, 520 MacQuarrie Hall

Balazs Koren and Zoltan Kovacs of the International GeoGebra Institute (IGI) lead a series of interactive presentations from 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. The primary aim of the meeting is to introduce participants to the software, share teaching ideas, and build community.

Participants need to bring laptops in order to fully engage in the workshop activities. Light dinner will be provided (RSVP required; email Joanne.RossiBecker at sjsu dot edu by Oct 15 to reserve your seat).

For more information write a comment here or send an e-mail to balazs at geogebra org.

You can download the flyer in .jpg or .pdf format. Please share the information about the workshop. We are looking forward to meet you in San Jose.

Zoltan, Balazs and the local organizers, Joanne and Ferdinand.

P.S.: Thank you @mtoddedwards for the flyer.

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About GeoGebra

GeoGebra is free and multi-platform dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that joins geometry, algebra, tables, graphing, statistics and calculus in one easy-to-use package. It has received several educational software awards in Europe and the USA.

Quick Facts

  • Graphics, algebra and tables are connected and fully dynamic
  • Easy-to-use interface, yet many powerful features
  • Authoring tool to create interactive learning materials as web pages
  • Available in many languages for our millions of users around the world
  • Free and open source software
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