Patterns of Collaboration: Towards Learning Mathematics in the Era of the Semantic Web

Abstract

With current digital technologies there are a number of networked computer-based tools that provide ways for users, be they learners or teachers, to collaborate in tackling visual representations of mathematics, both algebraic and geometric. For learners, there are various ways of collaborating that can occur while the learners are tackling mathematical problems. In this chapter we use selected outcomes from recent innovative research on this aspect of learning and teaching mathematics with digital technologies to review the patterns of collaboration that can occur in terms of teacher and learner experience. Given that such patterns of collaboration are via current digital technologies, this chapter goes on to offer a view on the likely impact on the cyberlearning of mathematics of progress towards the next generation of Web technologies that seeks to make use of ideas related to the web of data and the semantic web. Such impact is likely to be in terms of enhancing the learning applications of digital technologies, improving ways of administrating the educational programmes that they support, and potentially enabling teachers to maintain involvement in technological development and use over the longer-term.KeywordsArgumentationAlgebraCollaborative learningSemantic webWeb 3.0