GeoGebra - A free math apps that created a global community : by Dr Markus Hohenwarter
- Author:
- Lew W. S.
Founder Dr Markus Hohenwarter's Presentation about Geogebra's birth, growth and future directions, at the Open Conference on Computers in Education 2018
Founder Dr Markus Hohenwarter's Presentation about Geogebra's birth, growth and future directions, at the Open Conference on Computers in Education 2018.
For those who would like to know more about the software and it's directions. Will it be free for a long time to come? Is it worth investing our precious time to learn and to use it for preparing lesson resources?
Many of us who believe ICT tools can and should help teaching and learning are always concerned that many such tools come and go,
very often starting free, later requiring payment to the vendors, and finally become unsupported as their software lifecycle expires.
The only ones that seem to have outlasted time in present day, are many of the Microsoft and Google products.
If you have followed Geogebra's birth to the present, it appears to be heading down the path of Google Docs and Spreadsheet,
being continuously freely accessible for use.
Have you seen what Geogebra can do to improve engagement, illuminate abstract concepts, encourage exploration, hone creative skills and build mathematical modelling skills through creating simulations?
As educators passionate about using ICT tools effectively for teaching and learning and preparing our students for lifelong learning and 21st century competencies, is Geogebra one of the ICT tools worth investing our time learning to use and then putting in time and effort to create interactive resources? Have you experienced what Dr Hohenwarter mentioned about the growth of Geogebra with its global community? Would you like to have students learn to use tools that foster lifelong competencies through its subject disciplinarity (mathematics) and its practical use in many different situations, like a Swiss army knife?
Can students and educators experience the global Geogebra community's example of camaraderie and collaboration across borders, supporting one another creatively and solve problems together as they create resources and use the tool, and helping in its evolution from a mere master's thesis 17 years ago into a powerful mathematics education software that remains free for non commercial users?
Can we learn how constant innovations and community driven development allow the software to be now funded and sustained fully by agreements with commercial partners?
Watch the video to hear the story about Geogebra.