At the SVGOpen-2003 I gave the presentation "Animated Mathematics" consisting of the preview of a mathemetics teachware project for first year science students at universities. The teachware means here a teaching aid to be open with a web browser. The innovation in this project was the use of SVG animated graphics. Since then, the project was developed and the first chapter dealing with one dimensional differentiation is completed and ready for an experimental trial.
The primary aim of the teachware is for students of physics and engineering, but the animations and the interactive parts make it usefull for any science and mathematics student of the first year. The graphics and animations can be used by the teacher for projecting at class. Any student can open the teachware with the browser of his PC at home or in a library and study the material. It can be used also as a tool for self-learning.
The teachware is based entirely on the XML syntax and uses XHTML, MathML and SVG. The interactivity with the user (student or teacher) is achieved by use of Ecma-script.
There are two type of files:
The "pages" are XML files with embeded XHTML and MathML. They contain written lectures, examples and exercises. By use of links, the user can move to another page, search for a particular subject, look for the solution of a particular exercise and score himself by using a provided key for each question. In addition there are links to the appropriate "figures" related to the material just introduced and explained.
The "figures" are pure SVG files that open in separate windows, which allows their display simultaniously with the "page". It also gives the ability to be expanded and/or diminished by the will of the user. The text and the graphic display are progressing in time intervals similar to a slide show of a lecture. Each time a new text is added, the appropriate graphical dispaly appears or is modified. The graphics are colorfull and an effort is made to use colored text matching the relevant graphic. The "figures" do not contain links to other files.
Many of the "figures" include animations in order to emphasize a particular feature or to clarify some points. The animations are about 1-2 minutes long and open a new dimension for teaching and understanding mathemtics.
Some of the "figures" include Ecma-script for interactive use. The user gets the control of some of the parameters and can study by himself how they affect a particular graphic. The active intervention of the student is an important educational suplement to the animations.
There is no technical problem for any browser to open and view XHTML. Some of the browsers read MathML and other can use an existing plug-in. However an user that wants to open an SVG file with a browser could be strongly dependent on the computer system and the browser she/he is using.
The present teachware was tested with IE and the Adobe SVG Viewer 3. There are independent SVG viewerers which do not use any browser. The present teachware takes in consideration this feature and this is the main reason the SVG is not embedded in XHTML files but stand alone in "figure" files. This allows them to be displayed by an independent SVG viewer. Furthermore the "figure" files do not contain links to other files, since the feature of linking can be missing in an independent SVG viewer.
The presentation will show few examples from the teachware:
The examples will be chosen in a way to be short, simple and suitable for a presentation before an audience interested mostly in SVG and not to much in mathematical education.