Monday, April 9, 2007
Java Applets for Math
I was searching for some information on Java applets for my class project when I came across this website which has Java applets for Math! The use of applets helps create more lively and entertaining presentations. Students tend to stay more interested with hands on math than stuff taught directly out of the book. Students can go home and learn or revise their fundamentals before they dive into their homework. Even though the site does not offer too many applets, the quality of the applets make me believe that this will be a great tool for all kinds and levels of math ed. I liked the "Pattern Blocks : Learning fractions with shapes" applet. And above all, the best part of applets is that they can be run on any platform which has Java Virtual Machine installed! I think our Math Lab can create similar applets especially with Calculus I topics like Integration and Limits since there is a lot of visualization to be done for these topics. This might even be a great tool for Calculus 3 where they use lots of MatLab/Maple visualizations!
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4 comments:
I only know a bit about applets and don’t exactly understand why they are called that. Just another name to confuse technology newbie’s like (screammmm) myself-perhaps. Are they also called RLO’s or is this something different as well? SLOPE is an example of an RLO (reusable learning objects) repository http://slope.senecac.on.ca/browse.php .
I tried the pattern block applets and I think this would be appropriate for middle school. I see lots of potential. Would college students really rather do these than a book? I just wanted to accomplish the task in the shortest amount of time – really didn’t matter how- if the outcome was the same. This seems rather curious to me.
Vickie,
Applet is basically a java compiled program that can be run on any platform which have a decoder for the program(Macs, Linux, Windows). This makes them platform independent - a huge plus on the internet! Here is what I found about them on the Sun/Java website:
"An applet is a program written in the Java programming language that can be included in an HTML page, much in the same way an image is included in a page. When you use a Java technology-enabled browser to view a page that contains an applet, the applet's code is transferred to your system and executed by the browser's Java Virtual Machine (JVM)."
Thank you for clarifying that. What a simple concept.
Thanks for clarification on what an applet is. I too had no idea Vickie. I looked at a few of the applets and I see a lot of potential for some of the programs. I am going to bookmark this site for the math teachers at my school. I think this would be great for middle school students.
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