Abstract of Dr. Vladimir Dubrovsky
Using Interactive Mathematical Systems in Distant Teaching
Dr. Vladimir Dubrovsky
Kolmogorov School of Moscow State University, The Russian Federation
Abstract
Interactive mathematical systems (IMS), originally known as dynamic geometry programs, is a specific sort of digital educational tools that allow the user to create mathematical objects, such as geometric figures or function plots, and then manipulate them varying their initial data, points or numbers, but preserving the construction algorithm. There are many systems of this sort: the Geometer’s Sketchpad, localized about 20 years ago for both Thailand and Russia, used to be one of the most popular among them, but nowadays it has been almost completely ousted by Geogebra, like other originally commercial IMS. However, the Russian IMS, MathKit, survived. In particular, we use it at Kolmogorov School. Although the history of IMS is quite long, they have been mostly used in various kinds of after-class teaching and learning. The last academic year dramatically reduced the volume of communication between teachers and students and it was only natural to try to make up for this reduction by means of IMS-based materials, which became an integral part of our regular work. In online teaching, an IMS can replace an interactive board: it is equally convenient, but more powerful when it comes to mathematics. What is more important, the format of interactive activities allows the teacher to introduce mathematical experiments and exploration into traditional courses. In my geometry course, at least half of all home tasks contained a problem in which students had to construct some configuration in MathKit, explore the result, come up with their observations and conjectures, and then try to prove them. Students’ response to such activities was quite favorable, as the poll at the end of the course showed.
Keywords: Interactive mathematical systems, dynamic geometry, online teaching.