Oldknow A., Tetlow L., Taylor R. Teaching Mathematics Using ICT

Continuum, 2011. - 328 pages.This book is a revised and updated version of the second edition entitled Teaching Mathematics using ICT published in 2003. We have taken the opportunity to bring both the educational context, and the references to resources up to date. We have also made some changes to the structure. While the mathematics curriculum has changed little in the intervening period, the changes in technology have been dramatic – consistent with ‘Moore’s law’ about the performance doubling every two years, with similar changes in accessibility and price as well.The relationships between mathematics, teaching and computers are long-standing and complex. The actual practice of mathematics has changed its nature considerably because of the availability of powerful computers, both in the workplace and on researchers’ desks. But those very computers themselves are only powerful because of the variety of clever mathematical applications on which their operation relies. These include coding, data-compression, fractals, cryptography and computational geometry. Experiments in the applications of computer technology to teaching have been widespread over the last 30 years or so. The advent of fast and widespread communications
such as e-mail, the internet and video-conferencing are radically changing our access to data and information. The fierce competition and the size of the market for computer-based consumer products has ensured that prices have fallen to a point where it is now quite normal (in some areas of some countries, at least) for students’ bedrooms to be better equipped than their school classrooms. So it is not surprising that many countries are now taking stock of their educational response to this ‘Information Age’.