Types of Technology in Mathematics Education 869

Lester F (2007) Second handbook of research on mathe- technologies. By using the term “technology,”
matics teaching and learning. Information Age Publish- we mainly mean “new technology,” as we refer
ing, Reston/Greenwich
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1989) Cur- to the “most prominent,” recent, and “modern
riculum and evaluation standards for school mathemat- tool” in the teaching of mathematics that is
ics. NCTM, Reston labeled with terms “computers,” “computer soft-
Popper K (1963) Conjectures and refutations: the growth ware,” and “communication technology,”
of scientific knowledge. Routledge, London
Sriraman B (2008) Mathematics education and the legacy according to Laborde and Sträßer (2010),
of Zoltan Paul dienes. Information Age Publishing, p. 122. Another term “digital technology”
Charlotte which denotes a wide range of devices including
Sriraman B, English LD (eds) (2010) Theories of mathe- a hardware (such as processor, memory,
matics education: seeking new frontiers, Advances in
mathematics education series. Springer, Heidelberg input–output, and peripheral devices) and soft-
Steffe LP (1995) Alternative epistemologies: an educa- ware (applications of all kinds: technical, com-
tor’s perspective. In: Steffe LP, Gale J (eds) Construc- municational, consuming, and educational) is
tivism in education. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, used by Clark-Wilson et al. (2011). This is
pp 489–523
Steffe LP et al (1996) Theories of mathematical learning. contrasted with yet another term information
Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale and communications technology (ICT) widely
Vygotsky L (1986) Thought and language. The MIT press, used in a variety of educational contexts and
Cambridge describes the use of so-called generic software
which means word processing and spreadsheets,
along with presentational and communicational
tools (such as e-mail and the Internet) (2011).
Types of Technology in
Mathematics Education
Historical Background
Viktor Freiman
Faculté des sciences de l’éducation, Université de Historically, technology and mathematics go
Moncton, Moncton, NB, Canada alongside by mutually influencing each other’s
development (Moreno and Sriraman 2005). His-
tory does provide us with many technologies that
Keywords enhance people to count (stones, pebbles, bones,
Computers · Computer software · fingers), to calculate (abacus, mechanic devices,
Communication technology · Handheld · electronic devices), to measure (ruler, weights,
Mobile · E-learning calendar, clock), to construct (compass, ruler),
and to record statistical data (cards with holes,
Terms and Definitions spreadsheets) (Fig. 1).
As example of such devices, we can name the
Many of today’s mathematics classrooms around famous Ishango bone, an artifact of ingenious T
the world are nowadays equipped with a variety of mind of our ancestors recently analyzed by

Types of Technology in
Mathematics Education,
Fig. 1 Ishango bone.
https://commons.
wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Os_d%27Ishango_IRSNB.
JPG
870 Types of Technology in Mathematics Education

Pletser and Huylebrouck (1999) who point at its First Computers and Their Use in
possible function as one of the oldest known Education
computational tools along with its other possible
uses (calendar, number system, etc.). The inven- Computers themselves can be seen as “mathemat-
tion of mechanical counting devices takes its ical devices,” and their timeline goes back to
origins from different kinds of abacus, such as abacus and is further marked by names of
Greek abax, meaning reckoning table covered Leonardo da Vinci who conceived the first
with the dust or later version with disks moving mechanical calculator (1500), followed by
along some lines (strings) (Kojima 1954). It is “Napier’s bones” invented by Napier for multipli-
interesting that in some cultures, abacus was used cation (1600), based on the ancient numerical
till very recent times, as in Russia, in the everyday scheme known as the Arabian lattice, and then
commerce to do calculations with moneys (Fig. 2). comes the Pascaline, a mechanical calculator
(for more details about Russian abacus, see Volkov, invented in 1642 by Pascal. Leibnitz (1673) and
2018, in press). Today, they may appear as educa- Babbage (1822) were among others who signifi-
tional support to enhance reasoning about quanti- cantly contributed to the advancement in creation
ties, such as rekenrek (Blanke 2008). Punch cards of automatic calculators (see for more details
were invented by Hollerith, and his machine was about this development in Freiman and
used by the US Census Bureau to process data from Robichaud 2018, in Press) which led, in the first
1890 till the 1950s when it was replaced by com- half of the 1920s century, to the construction of
puters (http://www.census.gov/history/www/inno the first computers, such as ENIAC (Electronic
vations/technology/the_hollerith_tabulator.html) Numerical Integrator and Calculator), by
(Fig. 3). Mauchly and Eckert, in 1946, mainly for military
purposes. The second half of the twentieth century
was marked by the rise of the IBM (International
Business Machines); one of its models was used
to prove the famous four-color theorem (Appel
and Haken 1976) (Fig. 4).
The time period after 1950 and till the early
1980s was marked by as rather slow but sure
penetration of mainframe and minicomputers in
education, including mathematics education.
With the main focus on accessibility of such
devices for schools (question of costs and
space), other questions arose by mathematics edu-
cators at that time regarding the purposes of its use
and impact on learning. Zoet (1969) pointed at
several dilemmas, namely, (1) about the capacity
of computers to process data, like in business
management to produce bills for millions of cus-
tomers, on the one side, and to compute data, like
in mathematical modelling where scientists need
to do large amount of calculations in a short period
of time; (2) about the time needed to master a
Types of Technology in Mathematics Education,
particular part of technology (to solve mathemat-
Fig. 2 Russian abacus (schoty). https://upload.wikimedia. ical problems), which will soon be replaced with a
org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Schoty_abacus.jpg new one; and (3) about the possibility of computer
Types of Technology in Mathematics Education 871

Types of Technology in Mathematics Education, Fig. 3 Used punch card. https://www.flickr.com/photos/

93001633@N00/5151286161

Types of Technology in
Mathematics Education,
Fig. 4 IBM mainframe.
Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory. L.
Seaver, LLNL Public
Affairs Office, 4 May 2005
https://commons.
wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
IBM_704_mainframe.gif

to assist a greater number of students to grasp use computers effectively including mathematics
principles of mathematics, as well as strengthen calculations and modelling of mathematical pro- T
and broaden students’ understanding, about cesses, thus enhancing learning. One of such lan-
whether mathematics learned by the students guages (LISP) was used to create the LOGO, a
will be more functional, once they see how it is programming language designed by Papert (1980)
used in computers, or if small computers can be specifically for educational purposes. According
integrated into mathematics programs as the slide to Pimm and Johnston-Wilder (2005), a common
rule in the training of engineering students. starting point in creating LOGO programs was
In the 1970s–1980s, special languages, like writing commands allowing for directing and con-
FORTRAN, PASCAL, BASIC, were used as the trolling a “turtle” on the screen. This idea led to
first software, and their mastery was necessary to the construction of specific mathematically rich
872 Types of Technology in Mathematics Education

The 1980s and 1990s were also marked by

widely spread use of educational games, on
small floppy disks, and later multimedia on
CD-ROMs and DVDs, helping even the very
young students to learn basics about numbers
and shapes and develop mathematical thinking
while playing with patterns. Another kind of the
software specifically designed for mathematics
Types of Technology in Mathematics Education, classroom based on a constructionist’s ideas
Fig. 5 LOGO Turtle executing repeat 3 [forward 50 leads to the development of dynamic and interac-
right 60] command. https://www.calormen.com/jslogo/ tive computer environments in geometry
(dynamic geometry systems) and algebra
learning environments called microworlds (Pimm (computer algebra systems). Different types of
and Johnston-Wilder 2005) (Fig. 5). virtual manipulatives thus become available to
In 1984, the NCTM (National Council of teachers to make learning more visual, dynamic,
Teachers of Mathematics) produced a yearbook and interactive (Moyer et al. 2002).
entirely devoted to the topic on computers in math- Computer networks – systems of
ematics education (Hansen and Zweng 1984) interconnected computers and systems of their
portraying newest types of technologies called support called intranet and the Internet – emerge
microcomputers as having endless list of applica- and spread out in the 1990s and 2000s. The first
tions available for mathematics teachers and (intranet) allows to connect computers with a
learners which are becoming widely accessible for restraint number of people having access to it;
schools at low cost; it also adds graphics capabili- often it is used within an organization, like school
ties to support mostly two-dimensional representa- or school board or university. The second (the
tions (Fey and Heid 1984). Again this technology Internet) is open to a much wider audience, in
development interacts with pedagogical use as many cases worldwide, although it can serve
tutor, tool, and tutee (Fey and Heid 1984, referred closed groups/communities built with different
to Taylor 1980) with questioning whether “tradi- purposes. This technology, with the time becom-
tional collection of mathematical skills and ideas ing more rapid (high speed), wireless, and hand-
needs” to be acquired by students to enable them held, enhances communication of people or
“to operate intelligently in the computer-enhanced machines with other people or machines to share
environment for scientific work” or one must have information and resources in all areas including
“new skills or understandings” to get prepared “for mathematics. As example of such kind of technol-
mathematical demands that lie in the twenty-first ogy, we will analyze Web 2.0 tools.
century” (Taylor 1980, p. 21).
Regarding the format of integration of such
technology in the process of teaching, educational E-learning: Web 2.0 Tools and Their Use
institutions usually put computers in one classroom in Mathematics
(computer lab) shared by several groups of stu-
dents, or they can put a number of desktop com- Solomon and Schrum (2007) use the year 2000 as
puters (1–4) in a regular classroom, so teachers and a turning point in the development of a new
students can work with them individually or in Internet-based technology called Web 2.0. They
small groups. On those computers, teachers could begin their timeline with year 2000 when the
find general software, including spreadsheets (like number of web sites reached 20,000,000. The
SuperCalc, Lotus, or Excel) that could be used in year 2001 was marked by the creation of
multiple teaching and learning purposes, for exam- Wikipedia, the first online encyclopedia written
ple, to conduct probabilistic experiments and sim- by everyone who wanted to contribute to the
ulations (Anand et al. 2012). creation of the shared knowledge. In 2003, the
Types of Technology in Mathematics Education 873

site iTunes allowed creating and sharing musical sequence was viewed by more than 1 million
fragments. In 2004, the Internet bookstore users within 2 weeks. The environment offers
Amazon.com allowed buying books entirely not only an opportunity to view the video but
online. In 2005, the video-sharing site Youtube. also to assess it (using a five-star system) and to
com appeared, allowing producing and sharing share it with others, as well as publish a comment.
short video sequences. The authors state that by Photo sharing is yet another form of creating
the year 2005, the Internet had grown more in and sharing knowledge, available on several
1 year than in all the years before 2000, reaching dynamic sites with photo galleries like Flickr.
1,000,000,000 sites by 2006. Regrouped by categories that can be found by an
The result of this tremendous growth of easy-to-use search engine, the photos can be
Internet-based environments and the educational published and discussed by the members of a
resources generated by them is a transformation of community, for example, the community that dis-
e-learning itself. According to O’Hear (2006), the cusses geometric beauty which numbers almost
traditional approach to e-learning was based on 5,000 members. Each photo is provided with a
the use of a virtual learning environment (VLE) kind of ID card that documents useful information
which tended to be structured around courses, such as the date of its publication, the author’s
timetables, and testing. That is an approach that (or publisher’s) username, as well as the list of all
is too often driven by the needs of the institution other categories to which the photo belongs, the
rather than the individual learner. In contrast, the date when the photo was taken, and how many
approach used by e-learning 2.0 (a term intro- other users added it to their albums.
duced by Stephen Downes) is “small pieces, Discussion forums allow building online com-
loosely joined,” as it combines the use of discrete munities that talk to each other by posting ques-
but complementary tools and web services – such tions and giving answers. This collective work
as blogs, wikis, and other social software – to may enable a student who is struggling with math-
support the creation of ad hoc learning communi- ematical homework to address other people and
ties. Let us look at several features of these tools ask for help, as illustrated by the following exam-
as we analyze a few examples of mathematical ple from the math forum site (mathforum.org).
opportunities they create (adapted from Freiman The message posted by one user says that “after
2008). having asked a teacher and having read a book,”
Wiki is an Internet tool allowing a collective she “still had a feeling” that she needed more
writing of different texts as well as sharing a explanation, so she appealed to the whole virtual
variety of information. Everybody can eventually community asking for help. The discussion on
be a contributor to the creation of a web site on a some questions can take the form of multiple
certain topic (or several topics, as it is in the case exchanges between members.
of the Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org/). Blogs may provide multiple educational oppor-
Podcasts can be used to audio-share mathe- tunities as they are built by means of easy-to-use
matical knowledge among a larger auditorium software that removes the technical barriers to T
than one with people sitting in a traditional class- writing and publishing online. The “journal” for-
room. It can be used as a method of delivering mat encourages students to keep a record of their
mathematical lectures online as well as for the thinking over time facilitating critical feedback by
promotion of mathematics. letting readers add comments – which could be
Video-casting opportunities are provided by from teachers, peers, or a wider audience. Stu-
multiple Internet sites, allowing the creation and dents may use blogs for different purposes: to
sharing of video sequences produced by the users. provide a personal space online, pose questions,
For example, an article published in one local publish work in progress, and link to and com-
newspaper informs the readers about one univer- ment on other web sources.
sity professor who put a 2-min video about a The learning model that can be extracted from
Mobius strip on the Youtube.com site. The our examples features three major educational
874 Types of Technology in Mathematics Education

trends related to the Web 2.0 technology: knowl- technology that enhances anytime anywhere
edge building/co-constructing, knowledge shar- learning. Taking its roots from different types of
ing, and socialization by interacting with other calculators, it provides today’s mathematics class-
people. Moreover, further development toward rooms with several types of portable devices, such
semantic web (Web 3.0) technology has a poten- as laptop computers, iPads, iPhones, and other
tial to enhance self-learning, critical thinking, and types of mobile technology (Fig. 6) (Jones et al.
collaborative and exploratory learning. 2013).
There is a clear need of in-depth study on social According to Burrill et al. (2002), the first type
media in mathematics education. As latest devel- of handheld technology mentioned as a part of the
opments, it is worth to mention a working group at secondary school curriculum in 1986 was a Casio
the Canadian Mathematics Education Study fx-7000G model. Even if the appropriate role of it
Group 2017 conference (see for details at https:// in mathematics classroom was at that time (and
judylarsen.ca/2017/06/03/cmesg-2017-wgc-social- still remains) debatable, it supported the creation
media-and-mathematics-education/ and in the WG of new visions for mathematics education while
report, Larsen et al. 2017). calling for broader access to deeper mathematics
for all students (Burrill et al. 2002). Regarding the
newest development of this type of technology,
M-Learning: Anytime, Anywhere with Burrill (2008) sees its potential to combine vari-
Laptops and Other Handheld Devices ous learning environments like computer algebra
systems (CAS) and dynamic geometry computer
Another recent trend is related to the rapid software, such as dynamic geometry Sketchpad or
changes brought by the so-called mobile Cabri: “new technologies such as TI-Nspire bring

Types of Technology in
Mathematics Education,
Fig. 6 Learning math with
mobile technology. http://
www.bracketbasics.co.uk/
Types of Technology in Mathematics Education 875

together both of these environments in one hand- mathematical learning environments, such as
held, providing the opportunity to create an even dynamic geometry (Güçler et al. 2013).
wider variety of dynamic linked representations, One of the latest volumes of the book series
where a change in one representation is immedi- Mathematics Education in the Digital Era
ately and visibly reflected in another” (http://tsg. co-edited by Calder et al. (2018) does provide an
icme11.org/document/get/218). in-depth investigation at the last development in
Several laptop studies report about a variety of research on mobile technology and its use for
teaching and learning opportunities to use 1:1 mathematics teaching and learning which reveals,
portable technology for several subjects including among others, its potential for app developers,
mathematics. Freiman et al. (2011) developed and mathematics educators, and researchers of “iden-
implemented problem-based learning (PBL) inter- tifying and enacting opportunities for enhancing
disciplinary scenarios (math, science, language mathematical thinking” but also eventually
arts) to measure and document students’ actual changing the nature of mathematical activity by
learning process, particularly in terms of their evoking a “variety of understanding and ways of
ability to scientifically investigate authentic prob- thinking mathematically” (Calder et al. 2018,
lems, to reason mathematically, and to communi- p. 1). For instance, one of the contributing authors
cate. In a rapidly changing world of technology to this book, Attard (2018), analyzes potential of a
and infinity of educational applications, mathe- specific kind of programs that educational institu-
matics teachers can now try to integrate newest tions trying to implement the so-called BYOD
technology, like iPads, in mathematics lessons. (bring your own device), thus targeting improve-
While only few research are available, first pilot ment of students’ engagement and eventually
studies, like one reported by HMH (2010–2011, learning outcomes.
http://www.hmheducation.com/fuse/pdf/hmh-fuse-
riverside-whitepaper.pdf), seem to have a positive
impacts on students’ performance. In this study, New Technologies and Literacies for the
individual iPads were used along with the HMH Twenty-First-Century Classroom:
Fuse: Algebra 1 programs. The application helped Robotics, 3D Printing, Virtual Reality,
students use its multimedia components whenever Minecraft, Scratch, and More
and wherever they saw fit, regardless of Internet
availability. In addition, students could take the Today’s mathematics classrooms are increasingly
device home and “customize them,” adding their becoming equipped with novel technologies
own music, videos, and additional applications which are closely connected with two new trends
(Freiman et al. 2011). in education: (1) STEM (science, technology,
Among other types of technologies to be men- engineering, mathematics) or STEAM (science,
tioned are interactive whiteboards which, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics)
according to Jones (2004), might encourage focus stressing interdisciplinary connections and
more varied, creative, and seamless use of teach- integrative teaching approaches and (2) twenty- T
ing materials, increase student’s enjoyment and first-century soft-skills. At the end of the day, the
motivation, and facilitate their participation both trends appear to be closely connected
through the ability to interact with materials. (Freiman et al. 2017). For example, Ardito et al.
While the whiteboards support and extend (2014) have found that robotics-based challenges
whole-class teaching in a more interactive way, using LEGO Mindstorms, Robotics, Program-
haptic (in-touch) devices have a potential to ming kits “can be used to reshape the classroom
enhance multimodal learning in 3D spaces, on environment in terms of student collaborative
the individual base, or working in small groups, work and problem-solving skills” (p. 85). While
as the technology becomes less costly and more looking into the assessment issue within this novel
flexible in terms of usability, with better feedback type of tasks, Savard and Freiman (2016), while
options, allowing for better merging with other pointing at difficulties to assess students’
876 Types of Technology in Mathematics Education

cognitive development, raise “questions about Monetary System, the application affords visual-
developing critical thinking and meta-cognitive ization and manipulation of all coins, association
skills when implementing complex STEM tasks” of coins, and notes with the corresponding
(p. 110). LeBlanc et al. (2017) studied several amount, all within a scenario where students
school makerspaces where new types of technol- can solve mathematical problems in a virtual
ogies might afford the development of higher- shopping simulation game (Cascales-Martínez
order mathematical processes (such as mathemat- et al. 2017, p. 359).
ical reasoning, communication, and problem- Interaction between STEM-related types of
solving). technologies and different sets of soft-skills
Higher levels of thinking, innovation, and crea- draws attention of mathematics educators to new
tivity were also mentioned by Huleihil (2017) types of literacies, namely, computational think-
referring to the context of the use of 3D printing ing, financial literacy, and data literacy while
technology which is becoming increasingly popu- introducing new learning spaces (Freiman and
lar in STEM education while providing important Chiasson 2017). A recent boom in introducing
connections to teaching geometry applications. By computer programming and coding to the school
applying design thinking, learners use computer- curricula (including mathematics curriculum)
aided design software to create their own objects returns to the debates on the 1980s where
and watch the action on the screen, thus giving the Russian computer scientist Ershov (1981) called
students a sense of ownership of the work and for considering computer programming as “sec-
increasing their understanding. ond literacy” which, being combined with the
Another novel technology, still underused in traditional (or first) literacy, contributes to
our schools and under-researched, called geo- forming a “new harmony of human mind.” Later
graphic information systems (GIS), according to on, in 1996, Papert used again the term “compu-
Edelson (2014), can, along with the development tational thinking” when analyzing an approach
of fundamental spatial reasoning skills, also con- used by Wilensky and Resnick in building a geo-
tribute to deepening of such very important and metric model of a Rugby game to investigate the
challenging concepts in mathematics as scale and question: Where should the kick be taken from to
density which, according to the author, are essen- maximize the chance of a score? At the time,
tial to the natural and social sciences. Wilensky and Resnick were using the StarLogo
Minecraft game-like web-based environment environment, which was an extension of LOGO.
that can be installed on different types of mobile In Papert’s interpretation, this was an illustration
devices can stimulate students’ interest, curiosity, of how geometric thinking can use computational
and creativity (Dawley and Dede 2013, cited by thinking “to forge ideas that are at least as “expli-
Bos et al. 2014). One of the mathematical connec- cative “as the Euclid-like constructions (and hope-
tions analyzed by Bos et al. (2014) is exploring fully more so) but more accessible and more
area and perimeter by primary students from powerful” (Papert 1996).
Grade 3. Recently debated at the 2017 Symposium on
Within the increasing attention to the aug- Computational Thinking in Mathematics Educa-
mented reality (AR) technology, such as tabletop tion (http://ctmath.ca/computational-thinking-in-
system, researchers and practitioners target stu- mathematics-education-symposium/), researchers
dents’ motivation, along with opportunity to dif- looked in how computer languages are used to
ferentiate mathematics instruction according to connect the ideas of computational thinking and
students’ needs and capacities, as is recently learning and teaching mathematics. Based on their
shown by Cascales-Martínez et al. (2017). The work with Scratch programming blocks, Brennan
researchers used a set of interactive 3D educa- and Resnick (2012) define three dimensions of
tional materials related to the European monetary computational thinking (CT): computational con-
system developed specifically for a tabletop sys- cepts, computational practices, and computa-
tem. In a context of learning about the European tional perspectives.
Types of Technology in Mathematics Education 877

As key computational concepts, the authors interest (to themselves) and then use programming
give the following list: sequences, loops, paral- to investigate whether it may hold true or not.
lelism, events, conditionals, operators, and data. Another literacy which can also be incorporated
When defining components of computational into mathematics curricula (also connected to
practices, Brennan and Resnick (2012) used mathematical modelling) is so-called data literacy,
data from interviews with children about the which relies, among others, on a relatively new
strategies they adopted while developing inter- concept of big data technology. According to Gil
active media. From the variety of such strategies, and Gibbs (2017, p 168), the use of Gapminder and
four main categories were identified: being iNZight technologies within an interdisciplinary
incremental and iterative, testing and debugging, collaborative activity can contribute to the devel-
reusing and remixing, and abstracting and opment of secondary school students’ understand-
modularizing. The third dimension of CT, one ing of big data and scaffold the development of
of gaining computational perspectives, describes skills needed to create meaning from complex data.
the different roles people can play when working According to the authors, this type of learning
with interactive media, roles that go beyond provides a promising response to numerous chal-
“pointing, clicking, browsing, and chatting.” lenges in extracting useful information from big
Although this role of being consumers is impor- data, related to volume, velocity, variety, and
tant for learners, it is not sufficient in terms of the veracity, thus contributing to the development of
development of CT. According to Brennan and modelling capacity and covariational reasoning,
Resnick’s (2012) framework, working with which are important for educating statistically lit-
design tasks encourages more active roles, erate twenty-first century citizens.
which emphasize expression, connection, and Along with computational and data literacies,
questioning. digital financial literacy makes its way into the
While arguing for a more equitable focus on twenty-first-century classrooms as challenges of
each of the STEM disciplines, English (2017) sees “managing in a cashless (or near cashless) world,
particular value in the approach to CT adopted by maintaining online security, navigating digital
Gadanidis et al. (2016). This approach focuses on currencies such as bitcoin, utilizing alternative
investigating, depicting, and learning “from cases online banking/lending platforms, or understand-
of ‘what might be’ (or ‘what ought to be’), to ing digital wallets, asset and securities
disrupt common conceptions of what CT and tokenization, and a multitude of other new digital
mathematics are accessible to young children, technologies” need to be addressed by educators
how they might engage with it, and how CT while preparing students to deal not only with
affordances may affect mathematics teaching financial industry but in many others, rapidly
and learning.” In the case of mathematics, this adopting automation and blockchain technology
approach can open the door to higher-level math- (https://dnotesedu.com/2018/04/financial-literacy-
ematics even to a very young learner. Extending needs-to-include-knowledge-on-cryptocurrency/).
these sentiments to the broader scope of STEM While quite an advanced mathematical cryptog- T
education, English (2017) suggests that equal raphy is involved in conceptualizing digital
access to a high-quality STEM education that cryptocurrency (Dlahaye 2014), some ideas o
integrates CT is a “key issue for future research, blockchain technology can be (and should be)
not only with respect to socioeconomic, gender, integrated already at the primary school level
and ethnicity factors, but also in terms of capital- (Hunter and Pillai 2018).
izing on and extending the capabilities of all One of the latest developments of educational
learners.” As concrete example of how such innovations that appeal to three literacies men-
ideas can work within a mathematics modelling tioned above is related to the Internet of Things
course for teachers, we can cite the study of Broley (IoT), new types of technology consisting of
et al. (2017) who asked their students to select smart connected devices which could use data to
an open mathematics conjecture or a question of transform the way we live (McKinsey Global
878 Types of Technology in Mathematics Education

Institute, 2015, cited by Davis, 2017). As an Brennan K, Resnick M (2012) Using artifact-based inter-
example of how this technology can be used in a views to study the development of computational
thinking in interactive media design. Paper presented
primary STEM education, Davis (2017) at annual American Educational Research Association
conducted a project engaging Grade 4 students meeting, Vancouver
in inquiry and creation of a plant pot, a traditional Broley L, Buteau C, Muller E (2017) (Legitimate periph-
engineering design challenge “that is grounded in eral) computational thinking in mathematics. Proceed-
ings of the Congress of European Society for Research
collecting, analyzing, and communicating data.” in Mathematics Education, Dublin/Ireland, pp 2515–23
According to the author IoT took the challenge to Burrill G (2008) The role of handheld technology in teach-
the next level by “adding data to the mix–create a ing and learning secondary school mathematics. Paper
smart plant pot” (Davis 2017). presented at ICME-11, Monterrey
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