Development of collaboration functionalities in a dynamic geometry app for mobile devices

• Grant number: 13/10202-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science
• Principal Investigator: Seiji Isotani
• Grantee: Darlan Santana Farias
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação (ICMC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Geometry is an important branch in mathematics and works as a tool for other knowledge areas. Although, geometry teaching has some problems and is one of the most feared topics for students and teachers, specially in developing countries. As an alternative to traditional methods of teaching geometry, with ruler and compass, Dynamic Geometry (DG, or Interactive Geometry) arose. Through DG programs, students and teachers can make a construction and analyses it in many ways as they want. Through the manipulation of the geometric objects they can identify the permanent relationships and then find out the invariant properties, that is difficulty to do in a blackboard, for example, in which would be necessary to make a lot of drawings, all of those carrying possible errors that would not occur in computational systems. There are a lot of works about DG and its using in class room, although, there is an unexplored possibility: using DG in mobile devices, once every program already developed is based on desktop model. This work presents GeoTouch, a DG program for Android system mobile devices, and its major goal is to continue the program development and study the impact that it can in a learning environment.