MS Input Panel and Equation Writer

Microsoft's Equation Writer converts handwritten mathematical expressions to typeset expressions which can be inserted into MSWord documents.  I played with the Equation Writer in January 2010 and found it amusing but not usable.

Now Microsoft's Math Input Panel, which I found under Accessories in Windows 7, is definitely an improvement.

I first tried writing the same equation that had given the Equation Writer so much trouble.

Although my handwriting has not improved, the Math Input Panel recognizes my writing much better than the Equation Writer had, provides a more pleasingly formatted result, and is easy to edit.

The "Select and Correct" allows you to lasso a part of your expression and gives you a list of likely interpretations.  Sadly, the program's best guesses for my cursive "dx"were "m," omega,"max," "cos," "log," "def," or the infinity symbol.  But it was easy to erase my connected "dx" and replace it with two separate letters, which were properly interpreted.

To get the expression into a Word document, I needed to have both the Word document and  the Input Panel visible, I clicked on the point of insertion in the Word document, then clicked on "Insert" in the Input Panel.

What might make this worthwhile is that once you insert the expression into a MSWord document, you can use the Equation Tools.

For example, suppose you've input "sin x" using either the Math Input Panel or typed directly into the Equation editor (by first simultaneously pressing the Alt and = keys).  Now when you right click on the expression, you get a menu of possible actions.

If you click on Integrate on x:

It's interesting that the constant of integration is included in the result.  What's also interesting is that if you type a 1 immediately after the C, right-click to get the menu of options, then select Graph -> Plot in 2D, you get an insertable graph that can first be reformatted and/or display an animation based on varying the constant of integration.

You can also go back and right click on your antiderivative, integrate on x, and type a 2 immediately after your new constant of integration.  Now when you ask for a 2D graph, you can run an animation based on either of the two constants.

And yes, you can draw 3D graphs in your Word document. Press the Alt key and the = key simultaneously, type in an expression in two variables (such as sin x + cos y), right click and select Graph -> Plot in 3D.

You can drag the image to a preferred orientation before inserting it into your Word document.

You can also use the "Calculate" option to solve some simple equations or to evaluate/simplify algebraic expressions.

ICTCM 2011

There were about 750 participants at the International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics this year in Denver (March 17-20).  The keynoter Theo Gray gave an exciting talk about his vision of what textbooks should be.  He gave snippets of his Elements ebook, which was enough to make me want an iPad.

Lila Roberts gave a great start to the Emerging Technologies strand of presentations.  She proposes widely utilizing browser-independent applets, that is, applets based on HTML5 and javascript rather than using Flash or Java.   A few free resources  mentioned in her talk that I want to explore: 

280slides.com for creating and storing slideshows online, screen-o-matic.com for screen capture videos via browser,  MathJax for displaying math notation online, and JSXgraph for dynamic  graphs.

Lila also mentioned WolframAlpha widgets.   You can easily create and embed a Wolfram|Alpha applet in your webpage or Learning Management System (Blackboard, Moodle , WebCT, Angel, etc.) , or simply embed one of the existing widgets from their gallery (as above).

Susan McCourt mentioned embedding videos during her talk about engaging students in discussion boards.  Her YouTube video shows how to  embed a Jing video in a discussion board so that the actual video is on the discussion board, not merely a link to a video.

I was not encouraged by the course redesign sessions I attended.  The strategy appears to limit the curriculum to exercises that computers can grade.  I was in agreement with the speaker when she said that we should automate what is best done by automation, but she lost me when her next statement was that we should never grade homework again.

At another redesign session, the school's goal was to improve the college algebra success rate of their students who pass intermediate algebra.  That goal was reached admirably, but at an expense of lowering the pass rate in intermediate to the level that there did not appear to be any more students able to progress through both classes than before the redesign.

And in the a third redesign session I attended, the speaker confirmed that in Tennessee, intermediate algebra is no longer a developmental course, so that elementary algebra (with systems of equations removed) was now the prerequisite for some college math courses.

I had agreed to man the keyboard for Fred Feldon's Friday morning talk on Wolfram|Alpha.  I arrived early to make sure I could work ok with the provided laptop.  Then Sharon Sledge walked in with an unusual request:  would Fred and I be willing to take over the Wolfram|Alpha workshop that was starting an hour after Fred's talk?  The scheduled speaker cancelled that morning, but the workshop was completely booked.

I think our improvised workshop went reasonably well, but I did need to spend the hour between those sessions editing and uploading some materials I was working on for an AMATYC webinar in May.  

My favorite free math stuff

Winplot

Although I have licensed copies of Mathematica, Mathcad, and Maple, my favorite grapher is Winplot. Plots are easy to create and highly customizable. Winplot handles parametric, polar, and implicit 2D graphs and wireframe 3D plots, with numerous other nifty features.

Winplot is one of several clever programs written by Rick Parris of Phillips Exeter Academy. You can download his free programs from http://math.exeter.edu/rparris/.

GeoGebra

Another under-utilized program is Markus Hohenwarter's GeoGebra. If you ever wanted to use (or are using) Geometer's Sketchpad or Cabri, you might want to give this one a try. Like GS or Cabri, GeoGebra allows you to make a geometric construction based on points and/or lines of your choice, then shows you how the constructed object changes as you use the mouse to alter the defining points or lines.

But unlike GS or Cabri, GeoGebra also has an algebra window that records the algebraic representation of the geometric objects. You can either modify an algebraic definition and watch in real-time the change in the figure, or alter the figure and see how parameters change in the algebraic description.

Read more about GeoGebra in articles in the online journal Loci (http://tinyurl.com/yk8w3ks and http://tinyurl.com/yz2yjkj), or download the free program directly from http://www.geogebra.org/cms/ .

Flash Forum

Barbara Kaskosz and Doug Ensley's Flash Forum has lots of clever applets for free download or use online. I particularly like the "Visualizing Regions for Double Integrals" (http://tinyurl.com/ygcfulh) by Barbara and Lewis Pakula. You enter the limits of a double integral (in rectangular or polar coordinates) and the appropriate region is sketched. Or you can ask for a practice problem, and you are given a region for which you need to determine the coordinate system and corresponding limits to define it.

The Flash Forum also has a 3D function plotter, and graphers for surfaces defined parametrically in rectangular, cylindrical, or spherical coordinates (http://tinyurl.com/yhx45lx).

But my favorite applet is "Terminate the Terminator!", (http://tinyurl.com/yzn9m25) a game to introduce radian measure and polar coordinates. It was originally created by my colleague Bob Martinez in Mathcad, but the online version is in Flash.