Web-Based Learning: Using Telecollaboration Models to Enhance Mathematics Instruction

Abstract: The potential impact of web-based learning in school classrooms has grown exponentially in the past two decades. Web-based learning broadens the teaching and learning environment, breaking down the walls of the traditional classroom and allowing for the manipulation and global exchange of ideas and information. Additionally, these telecollaborative activities can create authentic contexts and problem-solving environments for learning mathematics. This paper introduces several examples of telecollaboration projects appropriate for school mathematics and discusses how these activities support the development of students ’ conceptual understanding and strategic competence. These activities also demonstrate how the integration of web-based learning projects can effectively promote new paradigms and provide avenues for future research in the use of technology in mathematics teaching and learning. The World Wide Web (WWW), an exciting and radically different medium infiltrating American pop culture, business, and education, is also a powerful educational tool with teaching and learning potential that teachers are just beginning to realize. By allowing students and teachers to actively and interactively participate in the learning process, Web-based instructional tools can play an influential role in the teaching and learning of mathematics. One of the ways the WWW can be used in teaching and learning is through telecollaboration. Harri