Learning mathematics on the Internet

Abstract: The Internet offers new opportunities for school students to learn mathematics. This paper analyses these opportunities, based on presently available web sites that do not involve subscriptions by users. A typology of six different sorts of opportunities is described, justified and exemplified: (i) Interactive opportunities allow students to interact directly with mathematical objects; (ii) Reading interesting materials allows supplementation of available textual resources; (iii) Reference materials provide more extensive and accessible sources than usually available to students; (iv) Communication permits students to communicate with other students or with teachers about mathematics across existing barriers; (v) Problem solving opportunities are more extensive than normal classrooms can offer; and (vi) webquests provide structured investigational opportunities that specifically exploit Internet opportunities. The ways in which the Internet is accessed in practice are recognised to be of significance to the prospects for successful educational use of these resources, as are the pedagogies invoked by teachers