It's off the Screen: Unearthing Megagons through Technology

Technology will not inherently make students in any classroom more mathematically inquisitive, however, the use of technology can foster student-centered inquiry. This article explores the impact technology has on mathematics learning when it emphasizes the ways it supports student-centered pedagogies. Through this lens, the authors focus on implementing tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2000, 2014) through the mathematical action technology of GeoGebra and its opportunity for dynamic manipulation of shapes to support the lesson's goals, including mathematical reasoning and conversations, as students explore the Pythagorean theorem. Because the technology alleviates area calculations, the tasks promote equal opportunity by leveling the field for students to access the standard. Embedded into the task's design, GeoGebra supports promoting cycles of proof: creating, testing, revising, and proving mathematical conjectures (Cullen et al., 2020) because students use the technology to test and revise their initial conjectures on the validity of a Pythagorean theorem extension for similar figures.