The Emergence of Mathematical Collaboration in an Interactive Computer Environment

We present a case study of two students engaged in an investigation of number theory concepts in the computer environment, Geoboard. The two students struggle with significant problems to communicate mathematics, and the computer plays a vital role in helping them overcome these difficulties. In fact, the students constantly use the screen images to help them make sense of each other's vague ideas and incomplete utterances. Using the qualitative research methods of discourse analysis, we construct the learning profiles of the two students and show how the characteristics of each contributed to the shared process, and how they used the computer presence to enable this process. We trace this process through the students' construction of two mathematical concepts that arose in their activities, the n-star and common denominators.This revised version was published online in September 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.