[geogebra-cas] GeoGebraCAS project start

From: "Markus Hohenwarter" <markus@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: geogebra-cas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:54:33 +0200
Dear friends of GeoGebra and Computer Algebra Systems,

thanks to support from the Austrian GeoGebra Institute with funding by
the Austrian Ministry of Education we can now start the intensive work
for a GeoGebraCAS interface! Some things have already happened thanks
to Quan Yuan who has worked with me at Florida Atlantic University
during the last months. Quan, Michael Borcherds and I will continue
our efforts to build a first notebook style interface (similar to
Mathematica) based on the CAS Yacas.

Timeline for GeoGebraCAS

Goal:
Build an educational CAS that is easy to use for 12 year olds. The
development will be done in close collaboration with Austrian
classroom teachers who have decades of experience in using CAS
technology.

Phase 1: July to November 2008
Thinking about conceptual framework, what are the basic needs of a
pedagogical CAS? We are using our developer wiki to do this. Please go
to http://ggbdev.pbwiki.com and login with your email address and the
password "ggb". There is a special page for the CAS project
http://ggbdev.pbwiki.com/CAS+Interface. On the page
http://ggbdev.pbwiki.com/Features+of+an+educational+CAS you find a
list of basic features by the Austrian group, feel free to make
additions. Remember: we are talking about the BASICs of an educational
CAS, special features can be dealt with next year ;-)

Phase 2: October / November 2008 to June 2009
Testing of a first prototype of the GeoGebraCAS in test classes (15-30
– from year 7 to 9) in Austrian schools (Note: also the new
spreadsheet component should be tested here). Use feedback from tests
to improve interface and add features.

Phase 3: April - July 2009
First presentations of GeoGebraCAS at conferences:
* April in USA at NCTM annual meeting by Markus and Maurice Burke
* July in Austria at the first International GeoGebra Conference in
Hagenberg near Linz

As mentioned above, we are using the developer wiki to share our ideas
and collect (important) features and bugs. To communicate directly, we
are using the mailinglist geogebra-cas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Feel free to
post to this address when you have a message for everyone in the
project group (see http://ggbdev.pbwiki.com/Mailinglist):

Programmers
"Markus Hohenwarter" <markus@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Michael Borcherds" <mrb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Quan Yuan" <qyuan@xxxxxxx>,

Austrian GeoGebra Institute, Austrian Center for Didactics of Computer Algebra
PH Niederoesterreich, Baden, Austria
"Josef Böhm" <nojo.boehm@xxxxxx>,
"Anita Dorfmayr" <anita.dorfmayr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Helmut Heugl" <hheugl@xxxxxx>,
"Peter Hofbauer" <peter.hofbauer@xxxxxxxxx>,
"Walter Klinger" <wr.klinger@xxxxxx>,
"Andreas Lidner" <a.lindner@xxxxxxxx>,
"Heidi Metzger-Schuhäker" <heidi.metzger@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Walter Wegscheider" <walter.wegscheider@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Evelyn Stepancik" <estepancik@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Josef Lechner" <lejos@xxxxxx>,

University of Birmingham, UK
"Chris Sangwin" <C.J.Sangwin@xxxxxxxxxx>,

Montana State University, Bozeman, USA
"Maurice Burke" <burke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,

I have added Chris and Maurice because I have already been in touch
with them concerning the possible CAS interface of GeoGebra; both had
already given very valuable feedback and examples for great
applications in school.

I am looking forward to working with you! Know is the time to add your
ideas to the http://ggbdev.pbwiki.com/Features+of+an+educational+CAS
page. The programmers will continue to work on the basics of a first
interface for Yacas in the background.

Thanks for your support! Let's build a nice tool ;-)
Markus
[geogebra-cas] GeoGebraCAS project start

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