ABSTRACT
Chapter 10 discussed some of the many exciting ways in which Information Technology (IT) could support classroom teaching in ways particularly relevant to mathematical literacy. Sections 10.5 and 10.6 started to look at some examples of how the widespread use of technology was making new demands on mathematical literacy. In this chapter we approach the more complex question of what mathematics should students know about to help them engage in more depth with the technology that is now part of everyday life. Developments in computers, communications, and information processing have been profoundly changing our private lives and workplaces since the mid-twentieth century, and ‘computer science’ is now an important field of both pure and applied mathematics, yet this has had little impact on school mathematics curriculum. Here we aim to pick out a few examples where accessible and widely taught mathematics topics can be made relevant to the challenges of an increasingly digital world.
