Computerized Aided Learning of Mathematics for Senior Secondary School

1.1 Introduction

Computerized Aided Learning (CAL) of Mathematics is a computer application that assists the learning process for students in educational and training institutions. In many universities, students use traditional handbooks, which include numerical files, which are transferred to a digital CAL format for portable and accessible materials. Mathematics Tutor is the process of capturing, developing, sharing, and effectively using organizational, it refers to a multi-disciplinary approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge in mathematics. The students learning Algebra in secondary school make use of the Computerized Mathematics Tutor. It is being accessed or used via the internet. If a student needs a help, a guide or wants to make a complaints or contribution to a specific topic he or she visit the uniform resource locator of the website. Navigates on the necessary link created for students to make complaints or contribution and thereafter wait for a feedback response from the administrator.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

In the world today, the computer has made a great impact. The computer has so influenced our life so much that people believe that the computer came from the underground world. Some say that the computer is a witch in form of a machine. This is due to the fact that the computer gives information, which is not expected of a machine. These people do not know that programs are written to be used friendly so that it will look as if it knows their problem. Mathematics education is one of the human disciplines that have influence on man’s cultural, social and economic life. Mathematics is essential for the prosperity of a nation in providing devices for comprehending science, engineering, technology and other related subjects. According to the author in (Michellefleming, 2010) mathematics provides students with great and powerful ways to describe analyze and transform the world. It is defined as the science of numbers and shapes (Hornby, 2001).

The term Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) covers a range of computer-based packages, which aim to provide interactive instruction usually in a specific subject area and many predate the internet. These can range from sophisticated and expensive commercial packages to applications developed by projects in other educational institutions or national initiatives to simple solutions developed by individuals with no funding or support to tackle a very local problem. The amount of time and money invested in development is high and partly because of the very subject specific nature of the education market as well as the very personalized nature of the teaching process- particularly at FE and HE level- means that commercial success is difficult to achieve and work done in one subject area rarely transfers to others subject areas.

In general, the use of computer in education through CAL has been sporadic a great deal of effort was expended with little general impact. Many of those academics that took part in that earlier crusade are now cynical about effectiveness of computers in teaching.

There are still good reasons to use CAL rather than internet based technologies. CAL is run either straight from a CD or floppy disk drive or over a local network so the constraint of the internet-slow download times for multimedia materials may not apply. This, couple with the fact that CAL technology has been around a bit longer, means that CAL packages have the potential to offer more advanced, interactive, multimedia learning experience than it is currently reasonable to expect from the web. This has been changing as web technologies develop and bandwidths improve but there are currently many things that can only be achieved with CAL rather than the web and CAL has been an integral part of the curriculum in many departments at Warwick for some time.

Mathematics is one of the core subjects that students are expected to have credit to further their studies in institutions of higher learning (Adejumo, Oluwole & Muraina, 2015). However, Mathematics is one of the subjects that is taken very seriously in the school system, irrespective of country or level of education. It has been described as a model of thinking which encourages learners to observe, reflect and reason logically about a problem and in communicating ideas, making it the central intellectual discipline and a vital tool in science, commerce and technology (Uwadia, 2014). Mathematics has been conceived as a difficult subject and hence this hegemony may have contributed to creating problems in mathematics teaching collaborative learning method in teaching mathematics.

The challenges encountered that led to the execution of the research work is that there is no assurance that challenges or enquiry stated by the students will be attended to at the same time interval, the issue of misplacement of complaints forms or suggestion book, limited time constraints in solving student’s complaints and other related issues, and lack of feedback to students with regard to their complaints or enquiry.

1.3 Statement of Problem

The problem encountered by the case study and its environment while trying to implement the activities of the topic;

1. The difficulties people face during learning
2. Lack of conducive environment of learning
3. Time consuming due to the calculative nature of mathematics
4. The vast scope of mathematics
5. Inability of some people to understand mathematics during classroom learning due to lack of concentration
6. The need arise for the development of software for computerized aided learning system on mathematics in order to solve these problems.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to design and implement a Computerized Aided Learning of Mathematics for Senior Secondary School. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to develop an application software that will:

1. Develop a systematic way to make the study of mathematics more enjoyable
2. Create an interaction through the tutor, which gives the student the feeling of being aided by a teacher.
3. Eliminate time wasted when educating people on mathematics.
4. Facilitate instant feedback to students with challenges of Algebra in Mathematics.
5. Help the students improve in mathematics. This is possible by making user-solve questions at different steps while the answers to frequently asked questions are stored in the software to aid the student.

1.5 Significance of Study

The study is very significant as it is tailored to meet the students’ needs in a specific area. Particularly, it will help the undergraduate students of computer science department to have a better understanding of mathematics in the areas covered by the study. With the growth in information technology, the study offers numerous examples in software tutor. People do not need to depend totally on mathematics lecturers to know more about mathematics but slot aided learning system software on mathematic to learn it. Time wasted in educating people on mathematics is reduced to the bare minimum as the software help to facilitate work. Individuals on their own can also buy the software in order to know more about mathematics.

1.6 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Design and Implementation of a Computerized Aided Learning of Mathematics for Senior Secondary School using algebraic learning as a case study.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

1.8 Definition of Terms

This are the technical terms you will see in the concept of writing this project.

Internet: A network that links computer networks all over the world by satellite and telephone, connecting users with service networks such as e-mail and the World Wide Web

CD Plate: This is optical disk on which sound is recorded in a digital format by assigning numerical value to measurement of the sound.

Computer: Electronic device that accepts processes, stores and output data at high speeds according to programmed instruction.