The Math Section of IT Department in the college conducted a one-week workshop on “Technology-based Teaching using Geogebra”. It was organized under the staff development program of the said section. The workshop was conducted from 3rd January to 7th January 2016. Out of the 5-day workshop, 4 days were taken by Mr. Sreekumar and one day by Mr. Naseer Ahmed, both Math lecturers in the college. The workshop provided excellent and wonderful experience for all that attended. The Math Section has decided to incorporate technological-based teaching in all classes of Mathematics, together with the traditional way of teaching. The Math Section is also planning to have more of these types of workshops in future. Dr. Khalifa Zayid Al Shaqsi, HoS of Math Section has pointed out the need for new trends in teaching and learning by using technology together with the conventional way of teaching.

Geogebra is an interactive dynamic geometry software started in the year 2001/2002. It is a free software which can be downloaded from the website www.geogebra.org. Geogebra was created by the Mathematician Markus Hohenwarter as part of his masters degree thesis work at the university of Salzburg in Austria. It was programmed using Java and HTML5.This Mathematical software has won several international awards including European and German Educational Software awards. Geogebra is useful in all levels of education that brings together geometry, algebra, spreadsheet, graphing (2D and 3D), statistics and calculus. It is easy to use as everything is in a single package. It has been translated by Math instructors and teachers all over the world to more than 25 languages. It became one of the most favorite Math software which supports innovation in teaching and learning. Since 2006, the Austrian Government Education Ministry maintains the free availability of this software for Math education at schools and universities. It is a user friendly and interactive mathematical software which can be used for various purposes like making graphical questions, drawing graphs in handouts, as a teaching aid in the class room, for giving assignment projects for students, for interacting with worldwide Mathematics personalities, for enriching the knowledge in Math topics and many others. It is easy to use once you become familiar with the tools and commands.

Geogebra works in various the operating systems such as Windows, OSX, Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat Linux, Android, iOS, and others. Its mobile app version is also available in Windows Store, Apple Store and Google Play Store. This is very useful not only for teachers, but also for students. Users can use Geogebra as a standalone product, and then can take the advantage of other features including interactive learning, teaching , evaluation, and other resources that are available online. Difficulty in studying Math becames easy, as it reduces time in the teaching process. This software allows creative and customized tools. The coloring option and facility of importing images makes it more compatible and attractive. When it is used by teachers and students, they consistently end up with a deeper understanding of the subject. It gives a visual effect of real Math. The facility of creation of new tools is an added advantage. It is possible to use in all class rooms for all topics not only in Mathematics, but also in other subjects like physics, chemistry, biology, geography etc. It can be used in all levels of education system starting from lower school classes to Masters level. It affords a bidirectional combination of Geometry and Algebra that differs from earlier software forms. The applet storage of Geogebra named “Geogebra Tube” consists of more than 325,000 featured materials, popular animated worksheets, popular tags, etc. The user can create an account and it is possible to share or interact with the software community, can upload materials, tags, books, etc. The community includes lecturers, researchers and professors from various pioneer institutions like MIT and Harvard Universities. Users can download the existing /published worksheets and can edit according to the convenience and requirements of the user. The user can save files in different formats. The tutorials and manuals are self-explanatory. The construction protocol and navigation bar are remarkable advantages of Geogebra. This will help students to understand Math more clearly and concept-wise. There is an option of uploading a newly constructed files or worksheets from Geogebra directly to Geogebra Tube.

From the workshop, the views and perspectives were very clear to the teachers, as per the feedback of those who attended. They further stated that it has a wide range of use by using the 3D graphics and spreadsheet view. NCT Math Section has decided to create their own worksheets and upload these in the E - Learning System (Moodle), so that students can make use of these worksheets at any time. Also, the Math Section of IT Department is planning to have technological-based teaching and learning approach by using more of these type of software starting this semester and is also planning to conduct workshops for students to make them aware of its usage, in terms of materials and worksheets, from Geogebra Tube.