Smartphones and children’s mathematics

This article aims to show how children act in the world full of media, while presenting some smartphone applications that can help children learn mathematics.

In Poland it is still believed that some of us are “humanists,” while others are “science-minded.” Gruszczyk-Kolczyńska states that, in the opinion of many people, “to learn school mathematics special skills are required.” Despite the fact that more and more people are aware of how unfair and unjust this assertion is, very few people remember that “well-designed opportunity to learn mathematics can help improve mathematics achievement,” and the best opportunities to develop children’s mathematical skills occur during spontaneous play which is full of fun, and a smartphone is an excellent tool for that. In fact, it seems that smartphones physically implement the famous words of Hugo Steinhaus’ student – Józef Łukaszewicz, who wrote the following in the introduction to a Polish edition of the classic book Mathematic Kaleidoscope: “In the ‘world of mathematics’ which is full of charm, reality is like a fairy tale and wonders become real.” Let us use smartphones and give our children a chance (which we did not have when we were kids) to see math as a friendly fairy tale. (Przybyła T., Basińska A., Klichowski M. (2014). Smartphones and children’s mathematics. [in:] Children in the Postmodern World. Culture – Media – Social Inequality, ed. H. Krauze-Sikorska, M. Klichowski, A. Basińska, Poznań: AMU Press, p. 18-19).