Whole class technology for learning mathematics: the case of functions and graphs

This paper draws on research being developed within the teaching and learning strand of the Economic and Social Research Council InterActive Education Project, which is examining how new technologies can be used in educational settings to enhance learning. It focuses on the ways in which mathematics teachers can use digital tools for enhancing the learning of functions and graphs within a classroom setting. It includes a comparison of two teachers working with information and communications technology within their own particular contexts and circumstances, and by comparing and contrasting the two situations gives an indication of the complexity of their learning environments. It emphasises the role of the teacher in bringing together the potential disparate possibilities of exploration that ICT might allow for students and concludes that thinking about the effective use of ICT for learning requires an holistic understanding of how ICT is integrated within the classroom milieu as determined by the teacher, environment, software, individual students and collective activity.