[Maths-Education] Mathematical concepts and ICT

[Jones D.K.]

This sounds like an interesting project, Tandi (as well as Logo, and
Peter's mention of GeoGebra, and other geometry software, learning
algebraic notation in a spreadsheet environment, and learning
exploratory data handling with something like Fathom or Tinkerplots
comes to mind), actually what I'm thinking about is to what extent
digital resources are affecting what mathematics is taught (in schools).
The example of the angle concept reminds me that, as teachers preparing
pupils for high-stakes examinations, we are always in the position of
balancing between teaching the concept (perhaps using Logo) and enabling
pupils to answer the type of static examination questions which are
currently the norm (maybe this will change as testing becomes online,
though I guess we'll have to see). 

Maybe the question could be how the availability of digital resources
might encourage us to rethink what we take to be the key mathematical
concepts (Seymour Papert's plenary at the ICMI study conference last
week in Hanoi - and good to hear some positive news after his terrible
accident - being about this very issue).

Keith
--------
Keith Jones
University of Southampton
UK
http://www.crme.soton.ac.uk