North American GeoGebra Journal (ISSN: 2162-3856) Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012 45 GeoGebra as a motivational tool for teaching and learning in Slovakia Ján Gunˇ caga and Janka Majherová Abstract: In this article we present several possibilities of the use of GeoGebra in education. We present Slovak GeoGebra Wiki as a tool to share teaching materials. We show some examples of this use in subjects of mathematics, physics and computer science. These works are connected to the goals described in new Slovak Curriculum ISCED 2 for education at the lower secondary education level. Keywords: Slovak, mathematics education, computer science education, physics education, Geo- Gebra, secondary education 1. INTRODUCTION According to Oldknow and Taylor (2003) we can iden- tify at least three reasons to promote an integration of In- formation and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the teaching process of mathematics at schools. • Desirability: The use of ICT may stimulate pupils’ motivation and curiosity and encourage them to de- velop their problem-solving strategies. Regarding teach- ers, the use of ICT can improve their efficiency, pro- vide more time to address students individually, or stimulate rethinking of their approach to teaching and understanding. • Inevitability: Many fields of publishing have moved from a printed to an electronic form. This fact applies to conference proceedings, reference works such as encyclopaedias, small-circulation textbooks, special journals, etc. • Public policy: Slovak National Curriculum ISCED 1, 2 and 3 classifies Mathematics as a school subject, which is a part of the group called Mathematics and Working with Information. During the teaching process, ICT support the development and implementation of high-quality teaching and assess- ment materials. An important aspect of ICT-aided edu- cation is visualization. Within the framework of mathe- matics education, ICT promotes mathematical communi- cation among teachers and students in the following ways. • ICT provides an effective medium for communicat- ing one’s method for solving mathematics problems Manuscript received November 7, 2011; revised March 14, 2012; accepted May 2, 2012. Ján Gunˇ caga is a faculty member in the Department of Math- ematics at Catholic University in Ružomberok, Hrabovská cesta 1, 034 01 Ružomberok, Slovakia (email: jan.guncaga@ku.sk). Janka Majherová is a faculty member in the Depart- ment of Informatics at Catholic University in Ružomberok, Hrabovská cesta 1, 034 01 Ružomberok, Slovakia (email: janka.majherova@ku.sk). This research was supported by KEGA 001UJS-4/2011 and discovering / communicating structures of vari- ous mathematics models. • ICT promotes the visualisation of relationships within and among various mathematical models, enabling students and teachers to develop new results and new connections in other fields within and outside of math- ematics. • ICTM supports the building of various mathemati- cal competences, including basic science, communi- cation, and digital competences. GeoGebra supports the realization of the above concerns. This software connects features of computer algebra (CAS), interactive geometric software (IGS) and spreadsheet. Geo- Gebra provides this functionality within an intuitive, user- friendly interface. The software provides teachers and stu- dents with a method for authoring dynamic HTML web- sites with interactive pictures (see Hohenwarter & Lav- icza, 2010). Materials developed by GeoGebra may be freely uploaded and hosted on GeoGebraTube 1 or Geo- Gebra Wiki. 2 The latter contains materials created for Slo- vakian school students. 3 The materials and applets avail- able at the aforementioned site makes use of the interac- tivity and dynamical character of GeoGebra. Moreover, the materials follow the Slovak curriculum from geometry through calculus (e.g., exponential and logarithmic func- tions, cubes, hexagonal prisms, constructions of triangles and parallelograms). Naturally, the website contains also materials for teaching physics and computer science. 2. SOLVING GEOMETRICAL TASKS IN GEOGEBRA The new Slovak curriculum ISCED 2 for lower sec- ondary level includes multiple educational competencies for teaching of geometry. For instance, pupils should be 1 www.geogebratube.org 2 http://wiki.geogebra.org/en/ 3 http://www.geogebra.org/en/wiki/index.php/Slovak