9561674 Jackiw This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project establishes the groundwork for the development of interactive and exploratory geometry-learning software realized on inexpensive, pen-based, and handheld computers. The research draws on Key Curriculum Press's existing dynamic geometry software--The Geometer's Sketchpad--and on the accessibility afforded by handheld technology (currently in the form of "graphing calculators"). The proposed research will develop classroom scenarios of pen-based devices used in classrooms, taking into account possibilities for interaction with desktop-based computers. These scenarios will be used to develop algorithms for pen-based geometry input, prototypes of a pen-based Sketchpad product, and specifications for a minimal hardware platform for launching this new technology in a mathematics education context. The Geometer's Sketchpad enjoys a position as a well regarded and commercially successful educational software system. The proposed project, led by Sketchpad's original author and ongoing project director, will pave the way for migrating this software to a new and promising hardware platform on the horizon of educational technology. The project has outstanding potential for commercial success in school markets because it represents an environment which is educationally sound (in that it draws on the existing Sketchpad), widely accessible (in that it is both portable and inexpensive), and ideally suited for exploring mathematics (because it is pen-based).
