The potential of e-learning platforms to communicate mathematics

This paper presents some ideas for the design of online activities for mathematics blended courses. The focus is on the integration of technology and research in the field of mathematics education, with special concern for language and semiotics. In the section 'Background' we give: • an overview of the outcomes of research that underline the complexity of educational processes, and in particular the need for taking into account not just cognitive, but also meta-cognitive and non-cognitive aspects; • a framework for dealing with language and representations in order to effectively interpret students' behaviors. In the section 'The potential of e-learning' we show how some of the activities provided by a standard e-learning platform can help to implement some of the ideas presented in the 'Background' section. In the section 'Teaching and learning opportunities' we show examples of teaching activities which fulfil some of the requirements sketched in the previous sections and apply some of the ideas and methods discussed there. The section "Future trends and conclusions" includes some discussion of the opportunities for future research. In all the examples described in this paper we mainly refer to Moodle (see Moodle documentation).