From artifacts to instruments: a theoretical framework behind the orchestra metaphor

International audienceThe large-scale distribution of PCs and handheld devices made software for use in mathematics education available to both students and teachers. Currently, programming languages, graphing software, spreadsheets, geometry software, computer algebra systems, and other kinds of new tools for the learning of mathematics are widely disseminated. Originally, optimism dominated the debate: technology would free the student from calculation and procedural drudgery, and would enable mathematics education to focus on more relevant issues such as realistic applications, modeling, conceptual understanding, and higher order skills. An–often implicit–underlying idea was that technical skills and conceptual understanding could be separated in the learning