Digital technologies for learning mathematics

I was recently asked the following two questions in an email.  Teachers: What can the mathematics education community do to increase the use of digital resources by KS5 teachers? Students: How can time be found in the KS5 teaching programme to bring up the students’ skills in digital resources? I've reposted my response here: 1. Teachers: What can the mathematics education community do to increase the use of digital resources by KS5 teachers? I have a model for this of 10:80:10 for teachers who are really interested in technology/will use technology if it helps/will rarely use technology.  I think the most effective strategy is to concentrate on the middle 80%.  For these the single most important criterion to judge any resource on, including a digital one, is whether it is the best tool to help students understand the concept.  Many of these teachers don’t have the time to learn complicated software, such as Mathematica, but would use a graph-plotter in fron...

Last week the MEI new A level for Maths was accredited – the first full A level to be accredited of all the specifications.  The specification includes advice on using technology and the sample assessment materials have questions which lend themselves to the use of technology when teaching the topic. Use of graphing tools for families of curves The MEI specification includes guidance for activities that should be carried out during the course.  The first, and possibly most important, of these is: "Graphing tools: Learners should use graphing software to investigate the relationships between graphical and algebraic representations, e.g. understanding the effect of changing the parameter k in the graphs of y = 1/ x + k or y = x ² – kx " The ability to plot a family of curves, and observe the effect on the graphs of dynamically changing a parameter, is an incredibly powerful tool in helping students understand mathematical relationships.  Understanding how a mathemat...