Using the Internet in the Mathematics Classroom

By Terry Garner

We now live in a fast paced electronic world. It seems that computers, and especially the Internet, have grown to be a part in almost every aspect of life. People can buy groceries; do their Christmas shopping, and even order a pizza on the Internet. It was estimated that over 400 billion pages of information existed on the Internet in 1999. With such an enormous amount of information, it seems as though school systems and teachers should be able to harness this information to benefit their classrooms, especially in mathematics. However, even though there are many benefits to using the Internet in the mathematics classroom, there are also some major problems with it.

When speaking of the benefits of the Internet, there are many. First of all, with such a large source of information, it should be almost impossible for a student or teacher to not be able to find information on any particular mathematical concept. Teachers can find information on different instructional techniques and even download worksheets or tests on a particular concept. The Internet has many interactive games and applets that give students visual representations that they may not get anywhere else. There are even online tutors that help students with their homework or any other question that they may have. Any of these components would greatly increase understanding in any mathematical classroom.

Now consider the problems. The first problem in using the Internet in the classroom is difficulty in finding material relevant to the specific needs of the teacher. When speaking of the benefits, it was stated earlier that it “should” be almost impossible for a student or teacher to not be able to find information on any particular mathematical concept. This is true. However, the fact is that it can be difficult at times. Search engines are the most often used tool to search the Internet. These can be both helpful and a problematic. According to John Robertson, if a mathematics teacher or student were to go to the ever-popular search engine, Yahoo, and search for the concept of chaos theory, that teacher would find 32 web sites devoted to it. However, he goes on to say, that when searching for Airy functions, “if you search for ‘airy,’ you may get lots of hits on towns in North Carolina, Maryland, and Georgia.” (Robertson 1999) The problem is that when searching for information, a teacher or student must sift through the relevant information. This can take a great deal of time.

Another major problem with using the Internet in classrooms is the fact that there is no quality control for respective websites. When a person does find a site on, chaos theory, then that person must take time out to explore the site to see if it is exactly what they need. The truth of the matter is that there is no way of knowing whether a site is good or bad other than personally critiquing its content. In addition, there is no guarantee that the information is correct. Websites can contain many flaws and/or opinions rather than facts. When dealing with mathematical concepts, the result of these facts could be horrendous to both students and teachers.

The third problem with Internet use in the classroom is the element of plagiarism. The sad fact is that when doing research on the Internet, it is very easy for students to plagiarize the information that they discover. “Nowadays, it’s just a simple cut and paste, and someone else’s work can be quickly and effortlessly integrated into your own.” (Robertson 1999) Some students may use the online tutors to do all of their homework for them. Students that do this will undoubtedly end up failing any assessment of this concept due to the fact that they never learned it. This is degrading for both the student and the teacher.

Along with the many beneficial websites, there are also many websites that are unsuitable for the classroom. When using the Internet in the classroom, teachers may be “forced to be a watchdog over an excessive number of approved sites.” (Dunne 1999)

Censorship is a big issue. Teachers may need to spend “excessive” amounts of class time in order to monitor what the students are doing on the computers. This again could detract from teaching and learning in the classroom by putting added pressure on the teacher.

In order to successfully use the Internet in the mathematics classroom, teachers will have to be skilled in their abilities to search for particular concepts. They will need to learn techniques to narrow down their searches to more specific results. Teachers will also have to screen a number of websites for the quality of their contents. When doing Internet research, students must be warned and teachers must be watchful of plagiarism. Software can be installed to help with the aspect of censorship.

The Internet can be a useful and valuable tool to student learning. For this to happen, much extra effort will be placed on the teacher. The teacher will have to have a high level of Internet literacy and be watchful of plagiarism. The teacher will have to take extra time to search for “the bread and butter” material in preparation for the class. (Lankes 1997) If all of these things are considered, then using the Internet in the classroom will most certainly benefit student learning.

Resources

Dunne, D. (1999, May). Using the internet as a teaching tool. Principal, 78 (5), 38.

Lankes, D. (1997, Jan.). The bread and butter of the internet. Eric Digest

Robertson, J. S. (1999). The curse of plenty: mathematics and the internet. The Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 18 (1), 3-5.