Curriculum RelevanceThe software allows the student at Key Stage 3 to fully investigate the full range of functions including linear and polynomial.
It also enables the student to gain a good insight into the four transformations and how they can be used to alter simple two-dimensional shapes.
It also can be used to investigate scattergraphs and the line of best fit that can be drawn to determine the extent of correlation.
The facility of being able to vary an individual point, so as to be able to determine the overall effect on the correlation, was particularly helpful, as it is not possible using traditional resources. Design & NavigationThe software is fundamentally a one-screen product like Windows, where you access the required functions by clicking on a button, or a drop down menu. There are some demonstration screens, which can be accessed from the menus. The student is straightaway presented with a set of Cartesian co-ordinates, which they will provide input for in the majority of lessons. There is a very limited introductory sequence, which is a part size picture of the product's sales picture this disappears as soon as you click anywhere on its surface. I found the onscreen help, which was similar in structure to a Microsoft help, to be personally useful and appropriate.
A student can readily save work they have created for future use in a subsequent lesson. The product readily enables virtually all forms of data to be graphed in a myriad of formats. The product's language is fairly limited, as a lot of the time the student is using icons to manipulate the graph plotting capability of the software. The product would need to be introduced for at least part of one lesson before students could independently produce work, or perform an analysis without teacher supervision. Ease of UseOnce the student has been introduced to the package and had the relevant functions explained and demonstrated, preferably using an electronic white board, students of average, or above average ability should be able to work with minimal teacher support. For those with limited recall, or who lack confidence in using Information Technology, a reference sheet showing relevant toolbars might be helpful. The toolbar icons were generally found to be similar to those you would encounter in the Microsoft Office suite. My students had little difficulty in accessing previously saved work for subsequent use.
With some of the more adventurous and advanced students, I noticed that they were successfully experimenting with previously unknown toolbars to produce effective improvements. For example, early on I was uncertain as to how to label a straight line, but before the 35-minute lesson was completed, a student had successfully determined the correct method. I found the supporting information to be personally helpful, although it would be on limited direct benefit to a Key Stage 3 pupil. Special NeedsI did not discover any facility for engaging an audio output, nor was there an apparent method for altering the size and colour of the limited amount of text that you encounter when using the software. The main type of student with Special Educational Needs that would benefit from the product is:
1. A pupil that had limited reading ability, especially if English was an additional language, as the icons have a pseudo-mathematical image to help convey their function.
2. A student with limited attention span, or similar limitation, would benefit from the fact that the software provided instant feedback and required less patience than the traditional pen and paper approach. CoursewarePrimarily the kind of exercises a Mathematics teacher would want to carry out with the product would need to follow the normal Scheme of Work for that class. There are a number of demonstration exercises that can be utilised though only a few of these are designed for Key Stage 3. The software does not mark the student's work, nor does it record the level of achievement of the student; it is primarily a sophisticated dynamic software that allows all forms of graphs to be plotted and statistics and probability to be illustrated. The product does come with a booklet that describes some 45 introductory exercises, of which almost half are suitable for a Key Stage 3 class. ConclusionThe product is a very versatile, easy to use Mathematics tool that enables the student to gain deeper insight into some otherwise quite challenging Mathematics. It is a piece of software that the pupil should be introduced to at Key Stage 3 and that would then be able to utilise it to assist with GCSE and A-Level coursework.
Although it takes a little while to master, the investment in my opinion, was more than paid off by the increased motivation and understanding of my students.
Unlike other dynamic plotting programs I have used, Autograph has a much greater range of Curriculum applications. It also provides a ready facility for investigating statistical graphs and probability distributions.
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