Mathematics education and digital technologies: from origins to future perspectives

Abstract

This research seeks to understand, describe and evaluate the historical trajectory of the use of digital technologies applied to the Mathematics’ teaching in Brazil. To this end, an experimental and historical-bibliographical study was conducted with the aim of collecting and organizing the information scattered in the literature on the subject. The main results indicate that the first Brazilian initiatives to combine the use of technologies with education occurred in the 1970s, initially in federal universities. The 1990s, however, represented a transitional period, with the increasing democratization of access to computers and their recent arrival in schools, especially private schools. However, the arrival of computers in schools did not in itself immediately represent a revolution in the teaching methods. It was necessary to both teach students digital literacy and train teachers capable of working with digital technologies. In this sense, the major obstacle was adapting the undergraduate courses to the new reality. This research lists two main challenges and future perspectives for the area, namely: i) the new potential of artificial intelligence and its applications to Mathematics’ teaching; ii) training the future teachers to work with digital technologies, which historically remains one of the biggest obstacles for the area, since the constant technological advances and the new curricular directives in frequent change demand constant updates in the curriculum of the undergraduate courses.