There is some really good maths software out there, both for teachers
and pupils, but I have found that many people are put off trying it
because they perceive it as too tricky to use. The aim of this section
is to banish all fears and get everyone using the best software around
with confidence.
In my experience, GSP is one of the most
undervalued, underrated, and under-used pieces of maths software
around. It is a dynamic geometry package that many schools have,
but few really use to its full potential. It is incredibly powerful
as a demonstrative teaching tool (e.g. for teaching transformations),
but also as a means of independent learning for pupils (e.g.
for deriving circle
theorems)
At first, the package is a bit fiddly and incredibly annoying
at times, but once you get into its way of thinking, you will
(hopefully) find it to be a very logical and extremely useful
piece of software
Autograph is another piece of software
which is often under-used in schools. In terms of drawing graphs
and displaying statistics, there is simply no better package
around.
a
link to a series of very impressive video tutorials illustrating
how to use Autograph both for Key Stages 3 and 4 as well as
A Level. Very impressive!
Most people have used Powerpoint before,
and the aim of these tutorials is just to help you get to grips
with all those fancy animations and all the other aspects that
can make your presentation look really impressive.
However, just be careful not to go into overkill with Powerpoint.
Whilst it can be an extremely effective teaching aid, it can
also lead to more problems than it solves if presentations are
merely clicked through lesson after lesson
a
presentation containing lots of animations. If you like the
look of an animation, simply right click on the object, go to
custom animation, and see how it was done!
Some people seem to feel that Excel is
on the way out, especially with the rise in popularity of Flash.
There is also little doubt that Autograph is a much stronger
statistics package, but excel still has a lot to offer in generating
interactive worksheets that do exactly what you want them to
do without having to get into all that nasty code required for
flash
Please note, in order to get the most out of Excel, you must
ensure macros are enabled by changing the security settings.
Go to Tools > Macro > Security,
and select Medium. Also, for many
of the useful maths functions it is necessary to have the RANDBETWEEN
function enabled by going to Tools >
Add-Ins and ensuring the Analysis
Toolpak-VBA is selected and installed
If your school hasn't got GSP or Cabri,
then there really is no better package around than this. Completely
free, user friendly, and incredibly powerful. Hopefully the
guides below will help you get started with it.
an
excellent series of interactive, step-by-step lessons, which
really help you get the most out of the software
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