• What do I want to do?

I want to carry out mathematical calculations, create graphs, and analyze graphs, quickly and easily during lectures.

For distance learning classes, I wanted two-way mathematical communication with my students.

• What technology will help me accomplish my goals?

I use several math software programs to carry out the above tasks during lectures. For the math classes I taught for many years through NOVA's Extended Learning Institute (ELI), I required my students to use Scientific Notebook.

• How easy is it to use?

Items can be entered by clicking on toolbar icons, going through menu commands, or using keyboard shortcuts. You can toggle between math input an text input within a line or between lines. This is convenient for inserting comments in the middle of a computation. For my online classes, I emailed students quizzes in Scientific Notebook. They were able to use proper mathematical notation to present their work, and I was able to paste in my solutions and insert detailed comments when I corrected the quizzes to provide individualized feedback.

In lectures, Scientific Notebook is convenient for presenting mult-line calculations. I can produce one line of a derivation. Then, I can copy that to the next line, and make modifications for the next step wtihout having to retype the entire expression. Finally, I can use the computational capability of Scientific Notebook to check my answer quickly.

There is little special syntax in entering mathematical expressions, and Scienctific Notebook can be used as an equation editor.

• How do I learn to use it?

The in-program Help illustrates how to carry out various tasks. This Help provides the conceptual background for each task. Entering mathematical expressions is almost the same as writing them by hand.

• How can I obtain it?

I am not sure if Scientific Notebook 5.5 is still being sold. It is no longer listed on the MacKichan website.

SNB 6 is what is now being sold.

Here is a link to the MacKichan website.

http://www.mackichan.com/

You can download a free 30 day trial version of SNB 6 from the website.

• What does it cost?

I purchased my own copy of version 3 years ago, and I have purchased upgrades since then.

• SN 5.5 vs. SNB 6.0.19

I purchased SNB 6, but I have made little use of it so far. Since its release, there have been 19 upgrades, but I believe that it still has too many bugs for me to recommend it. There are some improvements in graphs, which in SN 5.5 had to be re-rendered whenever they were scrolled over. However, I can no longer drag and drop equations or functions into a graph window, as I could with SN 5.5. Each upgrade has made noticeable improvements, and the overall design is nice, but I still prefer using SN 5.5 until further bugs are removed from SNB 6.