Interactive mathematics online for school and home

A paper by Bryan Dye. This has been submitted to the International Conference ICME-9 in Tokyo on July 31st to August 6th 2000. The section on dynamic geometry forms the basis of a presentation at the conference "Good Practice in the Use of ICT in Schools" at the RSA, London on March 6th 2000.

Abstract
1. A vision for future online materials
2. Current examplars: A Techologies, B Websites
3. Issues affecting the success of Online education
4. Conclusion

4 Conclusion
With a medium as fluid as the World Wide Web and expanding at the rate that it is, it is virtually impossible to take any kind of accurate snapshot at one time of the state of its development. No doubt there are further excellent exemplars of technological and website development on the Web now that this paper has not included or which will become available at any time soon. The proliferation of websites is a great strength of the Internet but also a weakness.

For this wealth of resources to become useful to education, for Interactive mathematics online for school and home to become a positive and viable medium, there must be some streamlining or focussing of content. Future technological developments like digital TV must remain compatible with current technologies, in order that the wheel is not continually reinvented. Above all the central idea of interactivity will increasingly dominate the nature of these developments.

Inevitably also, there will have to be changes in the way conventional education is delivered and assessed. If full academic courses become accessible to students world-wide, then so must assessment and certification. How soon will it be before the first student obtains their O-Level or GCSE or degree certificate in a major academic discipline by completing a 100 percent online course?