THE NATURE AND FUTURE OF CLASSROOM CONNECTIVITY: THE DIALECTICS OF MATHEMATICS IN THE SOCIAL SPACE

New theoretical, methodological, and design frameworks for engaging classroom learning are provoked and supported by the highly interactive and group-centered capabilities of a new generation of classroom–based networks. This discussion group situates networked learning relative to a dialectic of (1) seeing mathematical and scientific structures as fully situated in socio-cultural contexts and ( 2) seeing mathematics as a way of structuring of our understanding of and design for group-situated teaching and learning. Acknowledging (1), significant classroom examples are then used to illustrate the reciprocal process (2) of mathematics structuring the social sphere (MS3). The mathematically informed ideas of space-creating play and dynamic structure are then used to update our ideas of generative teaching and learning and to situate these classroom examples. Then, returning again to the dialectic, this current work is critiqued from a socio-cultural perspective (1). Participation and agency are highlighted in this critique. The session closes with a discussion of future possibilities for classroom connectivity.

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