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Mathematics teacher development with ICT: towards an International

GeoGebra Institute

Article · January 2007

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Markus Hohenwarter Zsolt Lavicza

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D. Küchemann (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, 27, 3, November 2007

MATHEMATICS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT WITH ICT:

TOWARDS AN INTERNATIONAL GEOGEBRA INSTITUTE
Markus Hohenwarter and Zsolt Lavicza
[email protected], [email protected]
Florida Atlantic University, University of Cambridge
Research indicates that despite the numerous benefits of using ICT in mathematics
education, the process of embedding ICT in classrooms is a slow and complex
process. Most teachers need more than just being provided with technology if the
benefits of ICT are to be substantially realised. GeoGebra is free open-source
dynamic software for mathematics teaching and learning that offers geometry and
algebra features in a fully connected software environment. In this paper, we outline
the emergence of the GeoGebra software as well as ideas and plans for establishing
an International GeoGebra Institute to provide training and support for teachers and
to coordinate research in relation to GeoGebra.

INTRODUCTION
Research suggests that, for the majority of teachers, solely providing technology is
insufficient for the successful integration of technology into their teaching (Cuban,
Kilpatrick, & Peck, 2001). It has been suggested that adequate training and collegial
support boost teachers' willingness to integrate technology into their teaching and to
develop successful technology-assisted teaching practices (Becker, Ravitz, & Wong,
1999). Our aim is to establish an International GeoGebra Institute (IGI) to be able to
offer structured training and support for teachers who are ready to integrate
GeoGebra into their classrooms. In addition, we will organise and coordinate research
projects in relation to GeoGebra to enhance the development of training and support
materials. While our initial plan is to establish an IGI site at Florida Atlantic
University (USA), in the long run our goal is to collaborate with colleagues and set
up other institutes in various locations around the world.
History of GeoGebra
GeoGebra (www.geogebra.org) is
open-source dynamic mathematics
software with rapidly growing
worldwide popularity, especially in
Europe and North America
(Hohenwarter & Preiner 2007a). The
software was conceived as Markus
Hohenwarter’s Master’s thesis
project at the University of Salzburg,
Austria. The basic idea of the
software development was to create
Figure 1: Algebra and graphics window of GeoGebra
a dynamic software that incorporates

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geometry, algebra, and calculus, which other packages treat separately (spreadsheet
and computer algebra extensions are soon to be added to the software), into a single
easy-to-use package (see Figure 1).
After publishing the software on the Internet in 2002, unexpectedly, numerous
teachers contacted Hohenwarter to share their enthusiasm in using GeoGebra in their
classrooms. The immensely positive feedback from teachers was further confirmed
by several educational software awards, including the European Academic Software
Award 2002. Inspired, Hohenwarter continued developing GeoGebra and earned his
PhD with a project on examining pedagogical applications of GeoGebra in Austrian
schools. In August 2006, Hohenwarter became a visiting professor at Florida Atlantic
University (FAU) and began working in a teacher training project funded by the
National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematics and Science Partnership (MSP)
initiative. Within the project his research focuses on enhancing teachers’ mathematics
content knowledge and teaching practices through technology-enriched
environments. The MSP partnership with local schools allows him to continue
developing GeoGebra according to the feedback and experience gained while
collaborating with middle and high-school mathematics teachers.
Since 2002, Hohenwarter has been invited by teacher associations, universities, and
academic conferences to deliver talks and offer workshops on GeoGebra in Europe
and North America. In addition, highly regarded researchers have begun using
GeoGebra in their projects and
textbooks are being published
with GeoGebra supplements.
Furthermore, volunteers have
translated GeoGebra into 35
languages. Currently,
www.geogebra.org receives
about 300,000 visitors per
month from 188 countries (see
Figure 2) and it can be
estimated that more than
100,000 teachers use GeoGebra
worldwide. Figure 2: Visitors on GeoGebra website per month

In order to handle the pouring requests

from teachers Hohenwarter established the GeoGebra user forum and GeoGebraWiki,
a pool of free material, which currently include thousands of postings and dynamic
mathematics worksheets. Despite this rapid growth GeoGebra remains primarily a
project led by Hohenwarter and the project reached a point where its continued
success can no longer be sustained only by one person and an informal user
community. Based on feedback and data from the website, most teachers who are
currently using GeoGebra have not received any training in the use of the software,
but have begun using it due to their enthusiasm or encouragement by their colleagues.

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Besides clusters of workshop activities at different locations there is no, or at least
none that we could trace, organised GeoGebra-related professional development
programme for in-service teachers. There are several universities that are starting to
integrate GeoGebra into their teacher training programmes, but there is little
coordination and communication among these programmes. To be able to reach
teachers who require support and provide free professional development for
GeoGebra, ensure the continuation of the technical development of GeoGebra, and
coordinate research in relation to GeoGebra, we decided to create an umbrella
organisation, the International GeoGebra Institute.

INTERNATIONAL GEOGEBRA INSTITUTE

The unanticipated success of GeoGebra has demonstrated that non-commercial
software packages have the potential to impact mathematics teaching and learning
worldwide. There is an extensive self-supporting user community that shares free
interactive teaching materials on the GeoGebraWiki and supports fellow users
through the user forum. Volunteers from the user community have translated
GeoGebra to numerous languages offering the great opportunity to use the software
in local languages and in multicultural environments. The software runs on virtually
any operating system as it requires only a Java plug-in and, unlike commercial
products, students and teachers are not constrained by licenses to run the software on
only a limited number of computers. Moreover, GeoGebra offers the powerful
opportunity for teachers to create interactive online learning environments by
supplying not only interactive worksheets, but also the entire software package for
their students through the Internet. Such customised interactive worksheets have led
many teachers to foster experimental and discovery learning for their students and to
share thousands of such worksheets on GeoGebraWiki.
These developments have encouraged us involve more people working on open-
source resources in an International GeoGebra Institute. The IGI, regardless of
location, aims to promote the learning and teaching of mathematics by supporting and
coordinating the following activities:
1. offer free software for teachers, students, and anyone with non-commercial
interest,
2. continue to enhance GeoGebra’s capabilities and ease-of-use based on
feedback from teachers and researchers,
3. offer free workshops, professional development, and teaching materials,
4. develop an organised structure to train and support (and maybe certify)
teachers who wish to participate in GeoGebra-related activities in their local
school area, conferences, and within IGI, and
5. design and support research projects in relation to GeoGebra and nurture a
network of researchers who wish to contribute to any aspects of GeoGebra.

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The first IGI site is going to be established at Florida Atlantic University in the spring
of 2008, which will be followed by other sites in the US and Europe. Although IGI
sites will have specific locations, the idea of working together on open-source
software is more important than the actual location of IGI sites. We envision building
an accommodating network of IGI sites with colleagues working on various aspects
of GeoGebra. The overall goal of IGI is to develop a supportive environment and
continuous communication among participants and sites. According to this
philosophy every IGI site would adopt ideas and materials to serve their local needs.
With respect to research we anticipate that researchers will contribute to GeoGebra
according to their research interests. We also hope that IGI sites in different countries
will create an invaluable opportunity for researchers to conduct international
comparative research and for teachers to collaborate with colleagues across borders.
Moreover, we will try to support any incentives and funding applications that
contribute to the objectives of IGI.
The IGI website will be a central part of this project. Currently, we are designing a
website which is likely to become available in the spring of 2008
(www.geogebra.org/IGI). The website will provide information about IGI sites,
people associated with IGIs, and IGI related activities. Local IGI sites can set up and
maintain their own websites, which will be linked to the main IGI website that we
hope to become the main channel of communication of interested people.
IGI activities at Florida Atlantic University
With the support of NSF we will be able to set up the first IGI site at Florida Atlantic
University. This site will develop materials and activities that may be adopted and
further developed by other IGI sites. The FAU-IGI site will coordinate the following
activities:
ï develop GeoGebra workshop and certification materials
ï offer workshops for teachers and future trainers throughout the US
ï further develop GeoGebra and implement new features of the software
ï develop an on-line support system for teachers
ï evaluate and improve the professional development activities and materials
ï design and implement research projects both on GeoGebra and IGI
ï deliver presentations at national and international conferences
Other IGI sites will be able to base their activities on materials and experiences from
the FAU-IGI site. However, these sites will be free to focus on specific elements or
develop entirely new activities. One of the central aims of the FAU-IGI site is to
develop workshop and certification materials. Teachers in Florida are required to
participate in professional development programmes and based on their participation
earn certification points. To address this local need, we must develop a system that

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enables teachers to earn such points. The FAU-IGI team plans to work on this
certification system together with local teachers during the upcoming year.
Training and certifying teachers at FAU-IGI
The FAU-IGI will likely offer four levels of certification:
1. GeoGebra User: demonstrate effective uses of GeoGebra in their own
classrooms
2. Creative GeoGebra Users: have the ability to create and share innovative
GeoGebra teaching materials. These participants will be prepared to offer
workshops and support other teachers in their own schools or districts
3. GeoGebra Trainers: have the ability to carry out practitioner research on
innovative practices and to deliver these results at the national level
4. GeoGebra Institute Trainers: are highly experienced GeoGebra presenters,
trainers, and researches. They will provide support and offer training for
participants in IGI
These levels are neither restrictive nor necessarily consecutive. Applicable
certifications will be granted if participants demonstrate sufficient creativity and
knowledge required for a particular level. We will negotiate with school districts to
accept our workshops as professional development and for recertification. In the long
run, we will develop on-line materials for workshops and submit accreditation of IGI
to various teacher associations.
Evaluation and research activities in Florida
The activities of the FAU-IGI site will be constantly evaluated. The evaluation plan
consists of four levels, the evaluation and review of
1) workshop and certification materials;
2) feedback from workshop participants;
3) workshop presenters;
4) the long term impact of the project.
The evaluation process will follow the principles of educational research
methodologies, and serve as an instrument to continuously and constructively
improve FAU-IGI activities. Based on research literature, the evaluation team will
develop a framework to assess the quality and consistency of workshop and
certification materials and periodically offer recommendations for improvements.
The FAU-IGI team will develop an extensive questionnaire to gauge participants'
experience and to obtain feedback from the workshops. The workshop sessions will
be also videotaped and the evaluation team will conduct in-depth interviews with
workshop presenters. Interviews will be analysed and video-segments will be selected
for collaborative evaluation by researchers and trainers. Finally, towards the end of
the first project cycle an on-line questionnaire will be sent to all participants and

53
 personal/telephone interviews will be conducted with selected participants to assess
the long term impact of workshops.
The primary goals of the FAU-IGI evaluation team is to establish standards for IGI
activities and to provide constructive feedback for each member of the IGI team. In
addition, we aim to encourage team members and participants to engage in
educational research to be able to improve teaching practices in a systematic and
informed manner. Furthermore, we endeavour that the FAU-IGI team will engage in
other research activities in Florida and set up joint research projects with other IGI
sites. Reports of all FAU-IGI activities, workshop materials, evaluation results, and
research papers will be shared on the website of IGI. We hope that these materials
will provide a foundation to assist activities at other IGI sites.

CONCLUSION
GeoGebra has been rapidly gaining popularity among teachers and researchers
around the world, because it is easy-to-use dynamic mathematics software that
combines many aspects of different mathematical packages. In addition, because of
its open-source nature an extensive user community has developed around it.
However, most users of GeoGebra are teachers or researchers who are keen to
integrate technology into their work, and it is difficult to reach the ‘average’ teacher
by providing free software without offering training and additional support. Hence,
our aim is to develop a structure, which will manifest in GeoGebra Institutes around
the world, to offer professional development for teachers and coordinate research
activities in relation to GeoGebra. As the idea of the GeoGebra institute is fairly new,
we are still looking for colleagues interested in participating in IGI related work in
any way and at all levels.

REFERENCES
Becker, H., Ravitz, J., & Wong, N. Y. (1999). Teacher and teacher directed student
use of computers. Teaching, learning, and computing: National Survey Report#3.
Irvine, CA: Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations,
University of California Irvine.
Cuban, L., Kirkpatrick, H., & Peck, C. (2001). High access and low use of
technologies in high school classrooms: Explaining the apparent paradox. American
Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 813-834.
Hohenwarter, M. & Preiner, J. (2007a). Dynamic mathematics with GeoGebra.
Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications, MAA, ID 1448, vol. 7, March
2007.
Hohenwarter, M. & Preiner, J. (2007b) Creating Mathlets with Open Source Tools.
Journal for Online Mathematics and its Applications, 7(3). Washington: The
Mathematical Association of America.

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