.: iGeom : Introduction :.
Sorry, the English version is incomplete, it is under construction...
This is a short manual for the software of Interactive/Dynamic Geometry, iGeom: interactive Geometry into the Internet.
The iGeom is a free of charge system, that allows the user/learner to produce geometric constructions and interact with them.
Its main features are:
- it is possible to export any construction to be used in a Web page;
- it is possible to do any construction directly inside an Web page;
- it is possible to encapsulate the steps of any construction to be used as an script (similar to a function or algorithm);
- it is possible to construct a recurrent script (for instance, to elaborate fractals);
- there is a feature to exercise authoring and an exercise could be automatic evaluated by iGeom;
- an exercise could be used in a Web page.
The iGeom has several interesting features to a math teacher or a learner and others interested in
the use of DG to learn geometry, trigonometry and related topics:
- Free - The iGeom is one among a small set of free DG software that is "complete"!
- Portable - The iGeom is a system coded in the programming language Java,
because of this, it can be used under any operational system. Besides, it is possible to use iGeom in the most
popular browsers. If your browser hasn\'t the Java plugin, you must "download" it (that is also free of charge).
In the section
, there is an explanation of
how to install iGeom, and if necessary, the Java plugin:
- Advanced features - The iGeom has some unique features (not all found in one Interactive Geometry system).
- With it is possible to explore programming concepts (geometric algorithms,
fractals,...) under its features for
recurrent scripts.
- There is a set of features to help a teacher, that could be important when the classes are huge:
iGeom allows you to prepare and publish exercises into the Web and can evaluate the student answer as correct or incorrect!
If the teacher has at your disposal an Web server and a system to control user\'s access (with login), the teacher
can get a quick access to the students\' solutions (that must be kept by the server).
To use these iGeom features is necessary a Learning Managment System (LMS) (or a Course Managment System - CMS).
Examples of free LMS are
TIDIA-Ae, Sakai,
Moodle, Teleduc and
Claroline. But with these it is necessary some code interventions.
Otherwise, we also has a project of CMS that already use iGeom as a learning module:
SAW.
It is worth to mention that for the student, the automatic evaluation could be interesting since he gets
instant knowledge about this solution (instant feedback).
Therefore it is not necessary a long wait for the teacher\'s (or a tutor) verdict.
- Easy - The iGeom is easy to use!
One of the interesting feature of iGeom (and others DG software) is to help the student
in a better comprehension of each geometric construction. The main reason is that any construction under DG system has
an explicit relation among the constructed objects (circle, straight line,...). These objects\' relations allow that
some mistakes became obvious. As an example, if the exercise is to construct a perpendicular bisector
of two given points and the student construct any other line (that hasn\'t the property: locus of all points
equidistant from two given points), when the student moves one of the two given points, his mistake could be evidenced
(e.g., the property is not preserved).
The main objective of the iMática project (and LEM)
is to make available good, and free of charge, didactic components (mainly software) for teachers and students of mathematics.
We hope that this guide could be useful!
Leônidas de Oliveira Brandão
iGeom project coordinator