Journal Entry Week 3

This week while working with GeoGebra I realized what an excellent program this is to work with Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, and more. After making our Introductory Assignments, it was amazing to see all of the applications, commands, and all the possibilities that this program is capable of doing. Which also brought to my attention that there is so much in this program, since it is continually getting updated, that I may not even know that the program can do.

Even though I have watched some tutorials and played around with the program, I learn something new almost every time I open it up. Since it is continually being updated, it makes it difficult to keep up with all of the applications and possibilities of the program. I think that is the most frustrating part about this program. If I want to see what is new, I need to continually update the program, though it is nice to have new applications. Currently, the program only has two-dimensional capabilities, but they are updating it and trying to add three-dimensional capabilities. I think this will help the program with Calculus and higher methods of mathematics.

I’m looking forward to sharing this program with others because I am quite comfortable with it and find it to be a wonderful program to incorporate into classrooms.

Journal Entry Week 2

This week in Geogebra, I started making triangles and working with angle degrees. I think this program is fairly easy to use. It is easy to “hide” items such as points, but you cannot “hide” triangles or other shapes that have been made like you can in GSP. The screen is very small and I haven’t figured out how to change the scale yet, which is necessary to do since you can’t see very many lines on the grid view. When finding the measure of the angle, it depends on which way you order the points of the triangle, i.e, by clicking point A, then point B, then point C will give the angle wrap around outside of the triangle, but by clicking point C, point B, and then point A, the angle is measured inside the triangle.

Each of the items are a different color. Points are blue, angles are green, triangles are red, and circles and ellipses are black. What is really nice is this program automatically calculates many different items, such as the length of sides, the area, circumference, and many other items without using a calculate button like in GSP.

I think it will be easy to show our class the interesting applications that this program can do, all for free. It will be easy to display items that we want to share by using our Jing download.

Journal Entry Week 1

This week I started by downloading the Geogebra program. Since it is free, it didn’t take long for it to be downloaded to my computer. I spent time watching tutorials from different sites and learning what this program is capable of doing. I have only started in the beginning practicing the easiest tools and applications. I will be spending more time to determine what else this program is capable of doing. I think this program is fairly easy to use, thus far. It is nice that this program allows you to name your own points and plot points where you want them instead of “eyeing” where I think (2.5, 4) would be. I am anxious to work more with this program.