Technology Supported Mathematics Learning Environments

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in the teaching and learning of mathematics at all levels. This publication reports on overviews of research and findings on the impact of technology. It furnishes a rich context in which to observe teachers in prekindergarten through grade 12 and teacher educators using technology to help their students better understand mathematics, and gives us all a glimpse of what the future might hold in store for us. The accompanying CD includes electronic features that enhance an understanding of the articles presented in the printed yearbook.

In recent years, the use of technology for the purposes of improving and enriching traditional instructional practices has received a great deal of attention. However, few works have explicitly examined cognitive, psychological, and educational principles on which technology-supported learning environments are based. This volume attempts to cover the need for a thorough theoretical analysis and discussion of the principles of system design that underlie the construction of technology-enhanced learning environments. It presents examples of technology-supported learning environments that cover a broad range of content domains, from the physical sciences and mathematics to the teaching of language and literacy. The emphasis in this book is not on the design of educational software but on the design of learning environments. A great deal of research on learning and instruction has recently moved out of the laboratory into the design of applications in instructional settings. By designing technology-supported learning environments instructional scientists attempt to better understand the theories and principles that are explicit in their theories of learning. The contributors to this volume examine how factors such as social interaction, the creation of meaningful activities, the use of multiple perspectives, and the construction of concrete representations influence the acquisition of new information and transfer.

This book is about the role and potential of using digital technology in designing teaching and learning tasks in the mathematics classroom. Digital technology has opened up different new educational spaces for the mathematics classroom in the past few decades and, as technology is constantly evolving, novel ideas and approaches are brewing to enrich these spaces with diverse didactical flavors. A key issue is always how technology can, or cannot, play epistemic and pedagogic roles in the mathematics classroom. The main purpose of this book is to explore mathematics task design when digital technology is part of the teaching and learning environment. What features of the technology used can be capitalized upon to design tasks that transform learners’ experiential knowledge, gained from using the technology, into conceptual mathematical knowledge? When do digital environments actually bring an essential (educationally, speaking) new dimension to classroom activities? What are some pragmatic and semiotic values of the technology used? These are some of the concerns addressed in the book by expert scholars in this area of research in mathematics education. This volume is the first devoted entirely to issues on designing mathematical tasks in digital teaching and learning environments, outlining different current research scenarios.

This volume provides new insights on creativity while focusing on innovative methodological approaches in research and practice of integrating technological tools and environments in mathematics teaching and learning. This work is being built on the discussions at the mini-symposium on Creativity and Technology at the International Conference on Mathematical Creativity and Giftedness (ICMCG) in Denver, USA (2014), and other contributions to the topic. The book emphasizes a diversity of views, a variety of contexts, angles and cultures of thought, as well as mathematical and educational practices. The authors of each chapter explore the potential of technology to foster creative and divergent mathematical thinking, problem solving and problem posing, creative use of dynamic, multimodal and interactive software by teachers and learners, as well as other digital media and tools while widening and enriching transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary connections in mathematics classroom. Along with ground-breaking innovative approaches, the book aims to provide researchers and practitioners with new paths for diversification of opportunities for all students to become more creative and innovative mathematics learners. A framework for dynamic learning conditions of leveraging mathematical creativity with technology is an outcome of the book as well.

First released in the Spring of 1999, How People Learn has been expanded to show how the theories and insights from the original book can translate into actions and practice, now making a real connection between classroom activities and learning behavior. This edition includes far-reaching suggestions for research that could increase the impact that classroom teaching has on actual learning. Like the original edition, this book offers exciting new research about the mind and the brain that provides answers to a number of compelling questions. When do infants begin to learn? How do experts learn and how is this different from non-experts? What can teachers and schools do-with curricula, classroom settings, and teaching methods--to help children learn most effectively? New evidence from many branches of science has significantly added to our understanding of what it means to know, from the neural processes that occur during learning to the influence of culture on what people see and absorb. How People Learn examines these findings and their implications for what we teach, how we teach it, and how we assess what our children learn. The book uses exemplary teaching to illustrate how approaches based on what we now know result in in-depth learning. This new knowledge calls into question concepts and practices firmly entrenched in our current education system. Topics include: How learning actually changes the physical structure of the brain. How existing knowledge affects what people notice and how they learn. What the thought processes of experts tell us about how to teach. The amazing learning potential of infants. The relationship of classroom learning and everyday settings of community and workplace. Learning needs and opportunities for teachers. A realistic look at the role of technology in education.

Common Core education standards establish a clear set of specific ideas and skills that all students should be able comprehend at each grade level. In an effort to meet these standards, educators are turning to technology for improved learning outcomes. Cases on Technology and Common Core Mathematics provides a compilation of cases and vignettes about the application of technology in the classroom in order to enhance student understanding of math concepts. This book is a timely reference source for mathematics educators, educational technologists, and school district leaders employed in the mathematics education or educational technology fields.

The uses of technology in education have kindled great interest in recent years. Currently, considerable resources are being expended to connect schools to the Internet, to purchase powerful (and increasingly affordable) computers, and on other implementations of educational technologies. However, the mere availability of powerful, globally-connected computers is not sufficient to insure that students will learn--particularly in subjects that pose considerable conceptual difficulties, such as in science and mathematics. The true challenge is not just to put the newest technologies in our schools, but to identify advanced ways to design and use these new technologies to advance learning. This book offers a "snapshot" of current work that is attempting to address this challenge. It provides valuable and timely information to science and mathematics educators, educational and cognitive researchers, instructional technologists and educational software developers, educational policymakers, and to scholars and students in these fields.

This survey addresses the use of technology in upper secondary mathematics education from four points of view: theoretical analysis of epistemological and cognitive aspects of activity in new technology mediated learning environments, the changes brought by technology in the interactions between environment, students and teachers, the interrelations between mathematical activities and technology, skills and competencies that must be developed in teacher education. Research shows that the use of some technologies may deeply change the solving processes and contribute to impact the learning processes. The questions are which technologies to choose for which purposes, and how to integrate them, so as to maximize all students’ agency. In particular the role of the teacher in classrooms and the content of teacher education programs are critical for taking full advantage of technology in teaching practice.