The University of Guelph has taken the lead in introducing e-books, intelligent assessment systems and podcasts into its math curriculum. The next generation of educational technology provides teachers with more time to motivate students and improve their comprehension and retention. Student interest in math, grade averages and success rates have dramatically improved.    

Jack Weiner, a math instructor at Guelph, and education software provider Maplesoft have already partnered to produce an interactive e-book and “The Maple Mathematics Survival Kit.”  It sports randomly-generated problems for 115 math topics, hints and suggestions, illustrative graphs and dynamically generated plots. The software is a replacement for the somewhat clunky – by today’s computer standards – TI and HP graphing calculators that have been high school math curricula stalwarts for decades.

This software also provides opportunities for visualization, "what if" exploration and just plain mathematical fun in class and beyond.  The mix encourages gifted math students to stick with math and less savvy students to pursue math degrees.

“My students love getting Maple to generate spriro-graphs and fabulous 3D plots,” says Weiner. “However, they need to know the math well to tell Maple what to do. That is key. That motivates them to learn.  Seeing the results motivates them to learn more.”

Weiner administers a weekly online “Maple Graded” test that enables students to re-take it as many times as necessary to get 12 correct answers to 12 questions.  The repetition helps students practice and master the concepts, although the problems themselves are different each time. Weiner admits that the weekly test is actually a clever way to get students to do homework.