Engineering: Maths lab for mobile phones

 

Researchers in Israel have developed a mobile phone application to help youngsters study maths.

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The programme was developed by Professor Michal Yerushalmy of the Institute for Alternatives in Education of the University of Haifa, in cooperation with experts from the university's Computer Science Department and with support from Eurocom Israel.
 
It can be installed on most mobile phones on the market today and enables the gadgets to function like computers, which are able to perform mathematical functions at different levels – from elementary geometry to calculus.
 
The application was developed specifically for the educational system, and they can be used like any application installed on mobile cell phone.
 
The popularity of phones today means that students are no longer reliant on computer classrooms in the school and that educational opportunities are as mobile as students are.
 
"I believe that mathematics needs to be learned in creative ways, and not by memorisation and repetition," said Professor Yerushalmy.
 
"Just as physics and biology labs teach through experimentation, I believe that there should also be maths labs, where learning is experiential."

Accessibility on the move

According to Professor Yerushalmy, computerised maths labs like these have been developed in the past, but the cost of computers and the limited availability of computer classrooms limited their use.
 
Mobile phone applications are accessible to both teachers and students on the school campus, on the way home or just about anywhere else.
 
Using portable telephones provides another advantage: enabling the creation of a community of learners.
 
The application enables users to send graphs and formulas to one another as short text messages (SMS), allowing them to work together to solve problems and involve any number of people to share in the learning process.
 
The programme can be downloaded from www.math4mobile.com. Further explanations and ideas for its use are available on the site.
 

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