Interactive video: A bridge between motion and math

This paper examines the characteristics of interactive digitized video as a medium in which motion is presented to students learning graphical representations. We situate graphs of motion as early topics in learning calculus, the bugaboo of many math students. In comparing video to both everyday perceptions and mathematical representations, we construct a conceptual framework that compares these three contexts along several dimensions: object extent, scale, time, and space. We then examine one student's experience constructing graphs of her own design from a video image and describe her work in the context of the our conceptual framework. To further specify the unique characteristics of video, we compare it as a medium with that of computer simulations of motion, in particular as studied by diSessa et al. (1991).The authors are listed in alphabetical order.