Abstract

Is it feasible for middle school students to use component-oriented software tools to construct their own mathematical explorations and experiments? In order to explore the potential of a new constructive educational technology for mathematics, a program of guided collaboration between middle school students on Bowen Island near Vancouver Canada and researchers at Simon Fraser University was established. Novel and recently developed bridging methodologies were introduced to overcome the lack of maturity in the software. The goal was to predict its feasibility as an in-class resource for learning mathematics and to engage the students in the software design process.

Keywords constructionism, mathematics education, JavaBeans(TM), collaboration, telelearning, applets, participatory design