Graphic calculators and connectivity software

Ornella Robutti has written an article called Graphic calculators and connectivity software to be a community of mathematics practitioners. This article was recently published online in ZDM. Here is the abstract of the article:

In a teaching experiment carried out at the secondary school level, we observe the students’ processes in modelling activities, where the use of graphic calculators and connectivity software gives a common working space in the class. The study shows results in continuity with others emerged in the previous ICMEs and some new ones, and offers an analysis of the novelty of the software in introducing new ways to support learning communities in the construction of mathematical meanings. The study is conducted in a semiotic-cultural framework that considers the introduction and the evolution of signs, such as words, gestures and interaction with technologies, to understand how students construct mathematical meanings, working as a community of practice. The novelty of the results consists in the presence of two technologies for students: the “private” graphic calculators and the “public” screen of the connectivity software. Signs for the construction of knowledge are mediated by both of them, but the second does it in a social way, strongly supporting the work of the learning community.