Co-action with digital technologies

Circa1895, James M. Baldwin introduced a powerful view regarding Darwinian Evolution. Baldwin suggested that behavioral flexibility could play a role in amplifying natural selection because this ability enables individuals to modify the environment of natural selection affecting the fate of future generations. In this view, behavior can affect evolution but, and this is crucial, without claiming that responses to environmental demands acquired during one’s lifetime could be passed directly to one’s offspring. In the present paper, we want to use this view as a guiding metaphor to cast light on understanding how students and teachers can utilize the environment of digital technologies to scaffold their activities. We present examples of activities from geometry and algebra in high school settings that illustrate the potential role that certain technologies can have in transforming classroom interaction and work.

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