ABSTRACT
There are so many areas of mathematics that lend themselves to the good use of ICT that it is difficult to know where to start. It is also surprising that all (or at least most) of school mathematics is currently not done on the computer. This is surprising as mathematics is the one curriculum subject that arguably lends itself to the use of ICT more than any other area of the curriculum. One of the reasons perhaps is that there are just not enough suitable programs, certainly for primary children, and most of what is available seems to fall into the ‘drill and practice’ category, as described in our chapter on planning. There are of course, the range of programs that give us the databases and spreadsheets, which are described elsewhere in this book. However, there seems to be a dearth of programs that provide an exciting introduction to areas of pure or applied mathematics-could this be one result of the introduction of the National Numeracy Strategy? What we are suggesting in this chapter is that, by making use of existing programs, we can either introduce children to some new ideas in mathematics, or at the very least, teach the existing mathematics in a different way. In both cases the mathematics involves a good and effective use of ICT. In this chapter we will give just three examples of mathematics, and how they can be enhanced by the good use of ICT.
