Building Mathematical Objects: Cognition and Technology

Abstract

The use of technology in the teaching and learning of mathematics is influenced by the instructor? competency with respect to the technology within a domain specific area. Furthermore the instructor? beliefs about the role of technology in mathematics will influence the type of tasks generated for the students. Moreover these tasks have the potential to influence how students perceive the role of technology in a mathematical context which may alter the students?beliefs about mathematics and/or the role of technology in mathematics. The data for this project was gathered over a 2.5 year time period through action research in mathematics methods courses for the preparation of secondary mathematics teachers and elementary teachers with middle school mathematics specialty. The use of technology to produce concept maps is not a new idea, but how one can use mapping projects to ?rain?the mind to make connections between and among content/concepts is a fascinating area for mathematics education research. This project examined the notion that as students became more comfortable with the technology as well as the mapping process they began to ?bjectize?large amounts of information and manipulate that information in meaningful ways. The instructional method of producing the concept maps was both individual and group format. The software used included packages specific to the generation of concept maps (Inspiration) as well as non-specific software (Paint, Geometer? Sketchpad).