GeoGebra Institute:2010 Annual Report GI Timisoara

People

The GeoGebra Institute of Timisoara, Romania developed its work under the guidance of the leading group of Alexandra Fortiş, Valerian Antohe, Dan Lacrămă, Oltea Copaci, Elena Petria Boldea and Cristina Anton. We thank all our colleagues for implication and volunteering in this project.

Training and Support

Since its establishment in November 2009, GeoGebra Institute of Timişoara, Romania, through its members, gave multiple presentations in different locations all around Romania (Timişoara, Oradea, Brăila, Piteşti, Tulcea, Focşani, Oneşti, Ploieşti), in order to present this educational software and to create a community of GeoGebra users. Some of these activities were:

1. November17-19, 2009: the establishment of the GeoGebra Institute of Timişoara, Romania. Its host institution, “Tibiscus” University of Timișoara supported the first discussion group formed by 35 teachers and authorities in education from the West and North-West regions of Romania.

2. December 11-12, 2009: meeting in Brăila with discussions on the objectives of the GeoGebra Institute of Timișoara in the context of computer aided education. 60 teachers from the Eastern part of Romania participated in this activity coordinated by Valerian Antohe.

3. March 11-13, 2010: invitation from authorities in education in Oradea, Bihor county. 30 teachers from secondary and high-school level participated in discussions and demonstration in the context of “GeoGebra Application in Sciences”, gave by Alexandra Fortiș.

4. May 15-17, 2010: first training for math teachers in Timișoara. 25 teachers participated in this activity supported by “Tibiscus” University of Timișoara and conducted by Alexandra Fortiș.

5. May-June 2010: 24 hours training course for teachers in Brăila county. Valerian Antohe conducted the course “Didactics of Teaching Mathematics with Modern Methods”, for 29 teachers.

Development and Sharing

Under the coordination of Alexandra Fortiș and Casian Colcher, GeoGebra is now available in Romanian. We are still working on the translation of the GeoGebra help. The domain geogebra.ro was purchased and we are now recreating the web-site; it will allow teachers to upload their work. Also, a Romanian forum was created and moderated by Flaviu Vlaicu. Several diploma thesis for students were conducted by Alexandra Fortiș from “Tibiscus” University of Timișoara and Petru Dumitrache from “Dunărea de Jos” University in Galați, and a group of 15 students prepared their speciality practice in schools around Timișoara, using Geogebra together with secondary level teachers.

Research and Collaboration

The GeoGebra Institute of Timișoara is continuously working on the creation of a GeoGebra users community around the country. GeoGebra is now used in several schools in Romania as an illustrative tool for theoretical information. On September 24-25, 2010, the First International Workshop on GeoGebra gathered 60 teachers and researchers from Romania, Spain, Ukraine, Serbia. The workshop, a real success, took place in conjunction with the 3rd "European Conference on Computer Sciences & Applications", organized under the guidance of Alexandra Fortiș, Tiberiu Marius Karnyanszky and Oltea Copaci. Selected papers were published in Annals. Computer Science Series, ISSN: 2065-7471. The other presentations will be available on the new web-site of the Institute.

Outreach

December, 2010: with the financial support of a grant from European Structural Funds, a teacher training centre will be created in “Tibiscus” University of Timișoara. Its main objective is to train teachers in multimedia techniques included in the education process. Teachers will participate in a 5 module course and a module is dedicated to the inclusion of GeoGebra in the education process at secondary and high-school level. In collaboration with colleagues from schools and universities in the Republic of Serbia, GeoGebra Institute of Timișoara, Romania intends to obtain another financial grant within Transborder European Programmes. The call for proposal is not yet open. We intend to collaborate with other GeoGebra Institutes in order to obtain financial support for contributing to future developments. After the success of the First International Workshop on GeoGebra, we intend to announce the second one for May 2011, in the framework of Romanian Academic Days, event sustained by the Romanian Academy.

Publications

1. GeoGebra – The New Language for the Third Millennium, (coordinated by Valerian Antohe), may 2010, Zigotto Publishing House
2. Antohe Valerian: New methods of teaching and learning mathematics involved by GeoGebra, in Proceeding of the First Euroasia Meeting in GeoGebra, ISBN: 978-605-4233-31-1
3. Ionica Soare, Carmen Antohe: Modeling the geographical studies with GeoGebra-software, in Annals. Computer Science Series, ISSN: 2065-7471, 2010 (anale-informatica.tibiscus.ro)
4. Alexandra Fortiș, Adriana Bînzar, Cristina Laiu: Maths Made Easy, SmartKids International Symposium, Timișoara, December 2010 (to appear)