1. Educational Software for Mathematics; A Greek Reality Kyriakos Mamoukaris & Anastasios Economides UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA THESSALONIKI, GREECE

2. Multimedia educational software has become an integral part of traditional educational courses, enhancing students' skills and reinforcing teachers' pedagogical role

3. This paper has been motivated by the strategy of the Greek Ministry of Education to employ educational software in teaching math courses in the secondary education.

4. Role of Multimedia Applications Supplementary Friendly Polymorphic Manageable Flexible Entertaining

5. Selection Criteria for Mathematics Tools Categorization Types of structures Accepted Social criteria Special characteristics Accepted Practical criteria Evaluation of training Support and help

6. Categories of evaluation criteria 105 pedagogical and social criteria –Social Acceptance –Practical Acceptance Concerns the proper presentation of the educational material, the structure of the content with regards to the special characteristics that mathematical packages have. Pedagogical parameters Design parameters of the software Procedures of supporting students Evaluation of training

7. Results of Survey 6 general categories –Integrated Mathematical Courses –Authoring Tools –Mathematical Quizzes – Puzzles –Mathematical Games –Calculators and –Mathematical Dictionaries

8. Results of Evaluation Methods of training: –Transfer through Internet and installation on PC –Interactive training through Internet –Transfer via CD-ROMs and other similar medium

9. Architecture Model of Evaluation Integrated Calculators Dictionaries Games Authoring Puzzles & Quizzes Transfer through Internet Training through Internet CD-ROMs

10. Histogram of social acceptance of mathematical multimedia tools

11. Histogram of practical acceptance of mathematical multimedia tools

12. Special Characteristics in Mathematical Multimedia Applications human voice sound effects musical themes images video presentation animation & simulation integrated presentation of theory solved exercises evaluation tests and report of students’ progress

13. Special Characteristics in Mathematical Multimedia Applications hyperlinks (internal & external) annotations index & glossary with mathematical words mathematical libraries to add course content mathematical educational tutorial logical questions & questions based on student’s skill help and guidance to solve exercises calculators in test environments co-operational training

14. Special Characteristics that we meet in Mathematical Multimedia Applications functions to construct geometrical schemes 3D and 2D graphics of simple or complex functions representation of graphical equations where the student can designate the coefficients step by step presentation of mathematical equations ability to print, for example the course content in order for the student to read the paper form knowledge based expert systems procedures which praise student’s progress

15. Histogram of practical acceptance based on special parameters

17. Conclusions ( 1 of 3) Educational multimedia applications in the field of mathematics are recommended for upgrading the traditional educational system. The available software provides a friendly user interface, which stimulates students to give proper attention to the mathematical science and its applications.

18. Conclusions ( 2 of 3) The analysis of Greek schools’ communities pointed out the obstacles concerning the use of such software tools in secondary education. Software’s capability with respect to the pedagogical potentiality ought to be carefully examined. The required conditions and circumstances for introducing such media in Secondary Education should be accurately determined.

19. Conclusions ( 3 of 3) Problem that might occur: To offend the educational community by providing training based on racism or social and religious theories. Mathematics training material need to have a proper multimedia design in order to attract students’ interest. It is worth to mention the problems that we had faced out during our evaluation tests: The structure of the packages was not easily understandable and the performance not so outlined.