Constituting Digital Tools and Materials as Classroom Resources: The Example of Dynamic Geometry

This chapter examines the appropriation of digital resources into the mainstream practice of secondary-school mathematics teaching, taking the particular example of dynamic geometry to illustrate this process. It highlights some crucial but often overlooked facets of the changes in teaching practice and teacher knowledge that accompany the constitution of digital tools and materials as classroom resources. First, the chapter demonstrates the interpretative flexibility surrounding a resource and the way in which wider educational orientations influence conceptions of its use. It does so by showing how such conceptions of dynamic geometry have shifted between pioneering advocates and mainstream adopters; and how these conceptions vary across such adopters according to their wider approaches to teaching mathematics. Second, the chapter outlines a conceptual framework intended to make visible and analysable the way in which certain structuring features shape the incorporation of new technologies into classroom practice. This conceptual framework is then used to examine the case of a teacher leading what – for him – is an innovative lesson involving dynamic geometry, and specifically to identify how his professional knowledge is being adapted and extended. This shows how the effective integration of new technologies into everyday teaching depends on a more fundamental and wide-ranging adaptation and extension of teachers’ professional knowledge than has generally been appreciated.