Abstract
In this paper, I introduce Sfard’s discursive framework to examine secondary-school calculus students’ communication during exploratory activities mediated by the use of touchscreen dynamic geometry environments (DGEs). Six pairs of secondary-school students participated in an open-ended task to explore calculus relationships using touchscreen-DGEs. Qualitative data capturing the students’ linguistic communication (speech) and hand movements (gestures and dragging) were analysed when the students interacted with the touchscreen-DGEs used during the task. Findings suggest that new forms of communication were mobilised through the act of dragging on a touchscreen-DGE. In particular, routines for comparing, reasoning, conjecturing and verifying emerged within the use of the haptic DGE interface. In this paper, potentials of the touchscreen-DGEs in facilitating new forms of gestural thinking, as well as theoretical and methodological considerations that recognise the changing ways in which the hand and media interact, are discussed.
Notes
Transcript conventions used in this study: S-ing = Speaking; G-ing = Gesturing; D-ing = Dragging; Underlined transcript = utterance spoken simultaneously with gesturing; Double-underlined transcript = utterance spoken simultaneously with dragging; Question mark (?) = utterance that ends with a high intonation
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Ng, OL. Examining Technology-Mediated Communication Using a Commognitive Lens: the Case of Touchscreen-Dragging in Dynamic Geometry Environments. Int J of Sci and Math Educ 17, 1173–1193 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-018-9910-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-018-9910-2