Descriptive Geometry Learning is no more threatened by dynamic geometry software than stairs by elevators

Abstract

The present article intends to reflect on the need to reorient the Descriptive Geometry teaching in High Schools, for a better response to the present requirements, aiming so to improve the capacity for students to better understand and represent the tridimensional space and being able to comprehend what they represent.

Alongside this reflection, we intend to exemplify some of the potentialities that GeoGebra software presents for the explanation of various themes on the Descriptive Geometry subject that is taught in Portuguese High Schools, demonstrating some of its advantages: the possibility of exploring, in class or as an online resource, dynamic or step-by-step constructions with the purpose of simplifying the learning process from the student’s perspective.

According to Albert Schmid-Kirsch (1997), “Computers will go on solving problems that were meant to be solvable by human intuition only [but will] enable us to visualize complex connections in a new and better way”.