ICT in France: development of usages, institutional hesitations and research questions

In France as in other countries, it is acknowledged that tools evolve faster than their usages, particularly in school mathematics, despite institutional pressure. However, evidence of deep changes is appearing, fostered by the Internet and handheld technologies. For example: teachers design and share resources on a large scale and innovative assessment procedures and teacher training devices are promoted by the French education ministry. Portraying a comprehensive picture of such an evolving landscape is difficult; therefore we present here three snapshots to give an idea of the main current trends: the Sesamath online association; the experimental mathematics practical test at the end of secondary school in France; the online teacher education program Pairform@nce. We also consider the development of new theoretical tools required to analyse these new phenomena.