I believe it is important that everyone, especially learners in school, have opportunity to do math work on a computer. For many, pencil and paper is just not viable. Fortunately, the number of digital options is growing. I’ve written about the Equation Editor in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Mathematics Add-in for Word and One-Note, and the equation editor built into Google Docs. In this post, I’m sharing another extremely useful option. This one is an add-in for the Google Chrome browser.
Daum Equation Editor is a free app from the Chrome Web Store that can be added to the Chrome Browser. Once installed, the equation editor can be used even when the computer is not online. Symbols and notation are available for basic equations and expressions, as well as the most complex. Work can be saved as text or image for insertion elsewhere.
In terms of accessibilty, there are some especially helpful features. Font size can be enlarged to 48 pt, and there are multiple options for contrasting the color of the text with the background. This features to support vision challenges are illustrated in the image below.
The Daum Equation Editor offers yet another reason for using Google Chrome!
July 1, 2012 at 9:03 am
I thought you might want to change your example to have the square root over the entire discriminant, b^2 – 4ac, to make it correct.
July 1, 2012 at 3:29 pm
rossisen – Many thanks for noticing the error. I hope I’ve got it right how. I make no claims to knowing much math. I just know that many learners are frustrated by their inability to do their work with pencil and paper. Long ago, I was one such learner who could never make my work legible. I would erase until there were holes in my paper, but could never get it to be legible enough for myself, let alone my teachers. –Paul
July 1, 2012 at 4:56 pm
The formula is now a thing of beauty. I meant to tell you that there was no need to accept the comment – it just seemed the easiest way to let you know about it. I don’t know if you have had a look at the Math resources that I help to produce for the Ontario Ministry of Education mathclips.ca, but they have been of help to struggling students. There is a numPad available to help with entry on an interactive whiteboard, narration, and the ability to replay scenes at will.