iGeom: Towards an interactive geometry software with intelligent guidance capabilities

Abstract

Two of the most important characteristics to support learning of geometric concepts are (a) the possibility of allowing students to interact with geometric objects and (b) the capability of guiding these students during the process of interaction by helping them to discover interesting properties and to make "plausible" conjectures. Available interactive/dynamic geometry software allow for rich interaction between geometric objects and users, but with no computational support for guiding students. This work presents an on-going effort to design an interactive geometry software, referred to iGeom, that have both interactive geometric objects that students can fully manipulate and the capability of helping students by providing personalized guidance and feedback when needed. iGeom have been developed in Java, freely available on internet (http://www.matematica.br/igeom), and can be easily incorporated into other programs such as learning managements systems or ITSs. To provide guidance capabilities we have been using CTAT (http://ctat.pact.cs.cmu.edu/), an authoring tool that facilitates fast development of cognitive tutors. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.