From Acorns to Oak Trees: Charting Innovation Within Technology in Mathematics Education

Technology has created an expectation in all levels of education that requires us to understand how we can harness its potential for improving the depth and quality of mathematical learning. It is highly unlikely that there is a universal recipe or formula for how technology should be used that would satisfy every context or culture, but there have been recurring trends in the process of designing and implementing such innovative environments. By considering the papers included in proceedings of the past International Conferences on Technology in Mathematics Teaching (ICTMT), this chapter aims to highlight how a few key innovations have been seeded and taken root within this community. We begin by describing the ways in which innovation has been presented at ICTMT conferences with a view to exploring this from the perspectives of technology designers, researchers and teachers/lecturers from all levels of education. Given the extensive literature on this topic, it is not feasible to carry out a comprehensive survey of the complete literature base, however it is anticipated that the analysis of key ICTMT papers will be sufficient to present an informative and insightful picture and highlight some important knowledge and experience that has been elicited and disseminated.