Secondary theme: Educational Research

Abstract: The paper argues that a distinction needs to be drawn between purposes of teaching and learning and other professional purposes of technology use in undergraduate mathematics. The importance of accessibility of technology for purposes of teaching and learning is emphasised and the advantages of hand-held technologies for this purpose in the early undergraduate years are outlined. Casio’s ClassPad 300, a particular technology with great potential, is described briefly and used to illustrate three important educational roles for technology in undergraduate mathematics: computational, experiential and influential. Examples of these are given. The idea of an eActivity is described and briefly illustrated, as a new way of using technology to help early undergraduate students learn mathematics