Media in Mathematical Writing

Introduction It is generally acknowledged that computers, as a new medium for writing, facilitate a new kind of writing process, and, at least in the Western world, the computer is currently replacing pen and paper as the most used tool for writing. Furthermore, has universal access to email and the Internet made it easier to use computers to support various forms of collaboration, including collaborative writing? Computers seem to have had considerable success as support for writing in many areas but are typically not adopted with ease in mathematics education (Larsen, 2002). Moreover, even though mathematical research in the last decades has moved towards a more collaborative nature (Burton, 1999), computer systems to support collaboration seem to be especially problematic to use in mathematics education (M Guzdial, Lodovice, Realf, Morley, & Carroll, 2002). The reason for the lack of success in introducing computer systems to support both writing and collaboration in mathematics education could be that mathematical notation is difficult or impossible to write in many computer systems. This problem was approached in Guzdial, Lodovice et al. (2002) by constructing a formulae editor for a very successful computer system to support collaboration among students (the CoWeb). The mathematics students did not adopt this improved system which suggests that either the students did not want to collaborate or that the possibility of writing formulas was somehow insufficient to facilitate collaboration through such a system. Since collaboration, according to Burton (1999), is increasingly common among mathematicians and computers seem to support collaborative writing well in many areas, but not in mathematics education, it seems reasonable to look at what medias mathematicians use to support their mathematical writing process1 in order to understand how technology can support collaborative writing among students of mathematics.