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Geogebra, a free software for maths

GeoGebra is a dynamic mathematics software that joins geometry, algebra and calculus. It is aimed at secondary schools and it is developed by Markus Hohenwarter, at the University of Salzburg.
Palmira Ronchi, an Italian maths teacher tells more about this software.

What exactly is Geogebra?
Geogebra is one of the most original and innovative maths tools currently available.

Technical aspects
Geogebra works on a wide range of platforms (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, Unix). To use it you need Java virtual machine on your computer which can be downloaded freely online, following the simple instructions on the website.  Geogebra is continually updated and improved: the last version 2.6, has a new navigation bar which lets you step through and "play" your construction,  and a JavaScript interface for applets.

Who might be interested in Geogebra?
Students and teachers.

How to use Geogebra: an example
During a work session with Geogebra the user can use simultaneously a small computer algebra system and an interactive geometric design tool along with the double input textual and graphic, and so increase his meta-cognitive abilities.

In the figure, you can see a construction of ellipse locus done by a student using the Gardener method.  You can work with points, segments, lines, conic sections or enter functions, equations and coordinates directly and change them dynamically afterwards.
The algebraic input allows the user to generate new objects or to modify those
already inserted. The work files can easily be published as web pages.

Where can I find more about Geogebra?
The official website is www.geogebra.at.
You can get further details about the software and download it along with manuals and guides. 

Didactic materials for Geogebra are available at http://www.geogebra.at/en/wiki.