Digital Technology in Higher Education: Identification of Surfaces in Space Generated by Functions of Two Variables

Abstract

This forms part of a research project to characterize the mathematical work performed by higher education students in developing a didactic sequence, through digital technology, in which they mobilize the concept of surfaces in space. One task proposed in the didactic sequence is presented that is constituted by a GeoGebra applet that allows the graphic representation of different surfaces to be obtained, including planes, cylinders, and quadrics (elliptic and hyperbolic paraboloids) from the manipulation of the parameters of a real function of two variables. The expected results of the task are analyzed in the context of theory of the Mathematical Working Space (MWS) to demonstrate how the use of a digital artifact promotes the execution of semiotic, instrumental, and discursive processes that are present in the student’s mathematical work.