Dynamic and interactive mathematics learning environments: opportunities and challenges for future research

New networking and social interaction technologies offer new media for learning and teaching both inside and outside the classroom. How and what kind of learning may take place in these new media is the main focus of this paper. An integrative theoretical framework for investigating these questions is posed based on the Didactic Tetrahedron (Olive and Makar, 2009). This didactic tetrahedron proposes that the student, supported by the teacher, task and technology form a space within which new mathematical knowledge may emerge. Examples of these new media are presented, including single player and multi-player web-based gaming environments; dynamic, web-based, interactive data visualization tools; dynamic computer-based tools for developing number and early algebra concepts; multi-touch apps for the iPad and iPhone; a web-based tutorial that raises a red flag for how mathematically flawed and cognitively dangerous some of this new media can be; and a research-based manipulative for developing children’s fractional knowledge that offers researchers the “possibility to make visible, the thinking of the user.” (Zbeik, Heid, Blume and Dick, 2007)

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Mathematics Learning ,

Dynamic and Interactive Environments ,

new media for learning and teaching ,