THE INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY ON MATHEMATICS INSTRUCTION: CONCERNS AND CHALLENGES

Abstract. Given the increasing uses in education of rapidly evolving technolo-gies, some of which include animation and many of which have embedded com-puter algebra systems, we examine how technology can or will influence the ways mathematics is taught, learned, used, and created. This focus on technology pro-vides an important context for addressing critical issues that lie at the heart of mathematics instruction. “Computer Algebra Systems: Issues and Inquiries ” [1] illustrates how computer algebra systems (CASs) can enable students to comprehend rich structures, visualize complicated relationships, breathe life into static representations, pursue limiting cases, and make intuitive leaps. It also includes examples that show a variety of ways that CASs can constrain, misdirect, or in other ways influence how students think and learn mathematics. A major theme of the article was Page’s concern that “CASs can vitiate conceptual understanding if they are permitted to foster an immediacy towards, or overdependence on, computation. CASs can also preclude or thwart creative thinking if we allow them to anesthetize our impulses to conside