Entry #7: A digital geoboard 💻

 A digital geoboard

As it is commonly said and stated by authors as Villarroya (1994), the learning of geometry should, at least, start by manipulating objects. From this perspective, it is interesting to think about using tangible materials in the classroom. However, it is a real possibility that these materials may be lost, damaged or broken. For that reason, we should know more alternatives, and that is where the digital world comes in. I am sure many of you know what a geoboard is. Nevertheless, what is it? A geoboard is a manipulative material made up of a board with axes on which we place strings to form geometric figures. As you could imagine, this resource is quite useful to learn different aspects of geometry in a really ludic way, but losing the strings or breaking the board could easily happen 📍📏. 

For all of that, today I will show you a digital and free geoboard developed by the workers of The Math Learning Center. In their main webpage (click here! 🖰) there are several free resources that I suggest you investigate. I even think I will show you another one related to geometry in a future entry. However, let's see what this digital geoboard has in store for us! 👀

Some interesting aspects

First of all, here you have the link to the resource (click here! 🖰), so that you can use it while I tell you its different features. Well, I consider that this digital geoboard is quite interesting because it has the basic characteristics of a conventional geoboard and some added ones which make it a really useful tool for students to learn geometry. Anyway, once we click the link, we are going to see the following:

I will show you this resource by using this 10x15 board, although you can see that we can switch between three board modes in the toolbar below. Mine is selected in green. So, the most basic thing is to create geometric figures with the strings. To do this, we select one of the strings and we place it on the board. With the purpose of creating the geometric figure, we only have to manipulate the string on the board. Be careful! 😳 When I was learning to use this resource I used to create the figures by taking multiple strings (for example, for a square I took four strings), but it is enough to manipulate the string on the board by stretching it. Here I have recorded and uploaded a video for you to understand it! 🎥

Easy right? Once you have understood how to create a geometric figure, I will show you some different features that can be very interesting to use with your students. On the one hand, if you look at the toolbar below, you will see that next to the board modes there is a button on the left. This button (see the orange arrow) is used for starting with an empty board. On the other hand, the buttons on the right (see the red arrow) are used for adding a grid and its corresponding numbers. Have a look at it! 😏

Then, the next buttons are used to colour the inside of the figures we have created. The first one (see the yellow arrow) is used for colouring just the figures that we want and the second one (see the purple arrow) is used for colouring all the figures which are on the board. I think that it is interesting in order to understand the concept of area in a really visual way! 👀

Finally, we can see other four buttons. These buttons are used for (in order): hiding the figures behind a curtain, adding mathematical expressions, adding text and drawing freehand. Then, there is another pair of buttons. The button which is a key allows you to introduce a code that is linked to your students' board and is obtained in the button next to it. With it, you can see what they have done on their boards!

Some educational uses

Now, I would like to comment on some of the educational uses of this resource. First of all, the most obvious use is to learn new figures, manipulate them in order to understand their properties and so on. Then, it could be used for performing activities related to the calculation of areas and perimeters by writing the length of the sides using the grid and the tool for writing. 

It could also be used for building 3D solids, such as the following ones: 

You can even create more complex figures and ask students what geometric shapes they have used! Look at my rocket 🚀. 

Battleship!

Have you ever played the game known as Battleship? 🚢 Students can play it through this resource too! You only have to tell them to open two windows of the resource and put them side by side. Then, on the left-hand screen they will place their ships (whose measurements will be given to them), and the right-hand screen will be the one on which they will shoot to finish off their partner's ships 💥. By following the coordinates and using the freehand drawing tool they can play without any problems! Although it is a game, it could be useful for working on line segments and coordinates, as well as learning in a funny way! 👦👧

Finally, I would like to share with you a few videos that can give you an extra idea about this resource. 

Therefore, as I am studying in a bilingual way, here I leave you a few videos in Spanish! If you have more ideas, please, share them with me in the comments! 😀

Reference

Villarroya, F. (1994). El empleo de materiales en la enseñanza de la geometría. Revista Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado, 21, 95-104. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=117840