Multimodality in multi-representational environments

Abstract The main issue of the paper concerns the way new technologies (TI-Nspire and TI-Navigator) influence the different students’ multimodal production, in terms of words, gestures, inscriptions, and actions on the artefacts. Specifically, it investigates how they can modify students’ processes of mathematics learning, what descriptors are the most suitable for grasping such changes, and what are the new opportunities for the teacher in designing and managing mathematical activities within such environments. Three different lenses (instrumentation, humans-withmedia, multimodality) are used to analyse some classroom activities, where students employ such new technologies. It is also shown how the multi-representations present in the two technological environments can support the students’ multimodal production, interaction, and communication, when they are engaged in constructing mathematical meanings. In particular, the article underlines new features of the ‘‘new technologies’’, such as handheld environments, compared with the older ones.