Static, dynamic and interactive elements in digital teaching materials in mathematics

Abstract

Contemporary comprehensive mathematics teaching material covering whole courses has developed substantially from the early versions that roughly were ‘books as pdf’ with some complementary online material. In teaching materials that are offered in online web portals (digital teaching platforms) a variety of dynamic and interactive elements can be utilised, offering new ways to engage with mathematics. Despite this recent development, the variety of affordances of the digital environment are utilised to a surprisingly small extent. The pros and cons with digital teaching materials in mathematics are debated, and publishers advertise with arguments about algorithms that lay out an ideal learning path and about joyful content. Critical for students’ learning while working with teaching materials is however that they find it meaningful to use the materials, a persistence in the interaction with the materials, and furthermore that the willingness to explore mathematics remains. In this study students’ interaction with digital teaching material with various kinds of dynamic and interactive elements supplementing the static parts in the presentation of new content is explored. Differences in students’ attention to mathematical facts, essential in the problem solving, is captured using an eye-tracker. Analyses of differences in attentive behaviour depending on the kind of digital element that are used for presentation reveal that the type of digital element that students attend the least to is static elements. Differences in what is offered to and what is demanded from a reader when mathematical facts are presented using various digital elements is discussed and potential implications from the results are suggested.