About Us
We investigate the instructional potential of inherently virtual tools for mathematical exploration. Inherently virtual tools are those for which there a no convenient physical analogues. An example of an inherently virtual tool is the flatsurface tool of our HandWaver environment. Flatsurface is a 3-dimensional analogue of a straightedge. The tool extends a plane between any three points in space, using a similar action to aligning a straightedge with two points and drawing a line. The flatsurface and arctrace tools (3-dimensional analog of a compass) open new possibilities for exploring higher dimensional geometric constructions. These are just two examples of the mathematical making activities we are exploring. Our work investigates how inherently virtual tools can be incorporated into mathematics instruction.