Abstract
In this chapter we intend to show how we learned mathematics in the process of teaching teachers online how to use geometry software in face-to-face classrooms. We emphasize that we need to be open to risks and being pushed beyond our “comfort zone” if we want to use information and communication technology. In particular, we emphasize that the risk is greater once the decision has been made to adopt an interactive-dialogical approach for an online course, but that once the virtual community has become dialogical, the risks diminish. We suggest that one can grow accustomed to the risk and feel more comfortable with it. Before presenting one example about conics, we present our theoretical perspective regarding the use of information and communication technology based on the theoretical construct humans-with-media. We discuss our understanding of dialogical teaching education and the context of the online course. We then show how the problem-solving dynamic we set up for the course led one of the teacher/students to pose a problem that initially none of the participants knew how to solve – a situation that lead to mathematics learning on the part of everyone, including the teachers of the course.
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Notes
- 1.
Technology, other Media and Mathematics Education Research Group. http://www.rc.unesp.br/igce/pgem.gpimem.html
- 2.
Thinking Collective is a term used by Levy to emphasize that knowledge is produced by collectives composed of humans and non-human actors.
- 3.
The Bradesco Foundation is supported by the Bradesco Bank and has social objectives, as their schools are generally located in poor neighborhoods. Although they are a private foundation, their schools are free and they develop intense continuing education activities with their teachers. There is at least one school in each one of the 26 Brazilian states and in the nation’s Capital, Brasília. We would like to thank them for their support for the research project we conducted together with our teaching.
- 4.
To avoid confusion, we will refer to ourselves as the “professors” and to the teachers enrolled in the course as the “students.”
Some figures are from:
http://www.algosobre.com.br/matematica/geometria-analitica-parabola.html
http://www.algosobre.com.br/matematica/geometria-analitica-hiperbole.html
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Acknowledgments
Although they are not responsible for the content of this chapter, we would like to thank Antonio Olimpio and Ricardo Scucuglia, members of our research group GPIMEM, for comments on earlier versions of this chapter. We would also like to thank Anne Kepple for her careful and insightful review of the English. Finally, we would like to thank, in memoriam, Geraldo Duarte, a colleague of the mathematics Department at UNESP, for chatting with us about the possible ways of solving the problem that was at center stage in this chapter.
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Borba, M.C., Zulatto, R.B. (2010). Dialogical Education and Learning Mathematics Online from Teachers. In: Leikin, R., Zazkis, R. (eds) Learning Through Teaching Mathematics. Mathematics Teacher Education, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3990-3_6
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