Technology-supported innovations in mathematics education during the last 30 years: Russian perspective

The political changes in the USSR and Russia almost coincided with the beginning of an unprecedented leap in the development of information technologies in the country (and to a certain extent spurred it). Gradually, many different initiatives emerged to apply these technologies in education in general, and in mathematics education. In the paper, we discuss several examples of didactical innovations in teaching and learning mathematics with technology, namely, LOGO-based microworlds, dynamic geometry and computer algebra systems, as well as verifiers. The examples we provide, along with the theoretical perspective of productive learning and thinking, seem to demonstrate the innovative potential of new tools to make learning more visual, dynamic, and interactive. However, the issues of aligning with curriculum and standard examinations, teacher professional development, and rapid changes in technologies, require more attention by mathematics educators. The presence of such opposite trends makes the task of analyzing the history of the development of mathematics teaching technologies and underlying pedagogies relevant and important for predicting the development of this field in the near (and far-extended) future, and eventually preventing the repetition of errors in this new direction for mathematics education. In the paper we focus primarily on problems and processes in Russia, but they are investigated in connection with and against the backdrop of global trends.