Students can answer quiz questions by sending SMS messages to a server that grades students' answers automatically and keeps students' grade books. This is a very powerful tool in education. Using Real Times Quizzes completely changes the dynamics of the classroom. Students are more focused. Real time Quizzes support learning also in the way that, with proper use of these quizzes, it is possible to catch students' misconceptions before they have time to root into students' thinking.

Information and Communication Technology has the potential to make education more effective and more efficient. Various projects and persons have created sophisticated tools, like ActiveMath, MathDox, OMdoc, STACK. These systems incorporate very advanced tools that can revolutionize education. Yet they are not being widely used. In fact, all the efforts to develop systems, services and content have resulted to mere scratches on the surface of traditional education if measured by revenues of eLearning and those of traditional instruction.

The number of students studying sciences in Europe has steadily declined to such an extent that this is seen as a threat to the competitiveness of Europe. In France the decline has been about 5% each year during the past several years. Inquiry Based Study, IBS, is the paradigm that is generally seen as a possible way to increase students’ interest in sciences.

Problems that an instructor faces when using technology in his or her everyday work are discussed. Standards are crucial, but such is the ease of use as well. A consequence of the latter is that PowerPoint emerges as probably the most important tool facilitating the job of an instructor. In synchronous on-line teaching situations, there is almost no choice today. The development of instructional technology is very fast and current technical solutions may become obsolete in several months rather than years. Will PowerPoint still prevail?

This video is based on the talk given by M. Seppälä at the JEM Workshop in Barcelona on June 9, 2009. The video discusses the potential of Real Time Quizzes in class rooms, and describes the TSARQ system, developed by the WebALT Company, which allows the instructor to administer quizzes to which students respond by sending SMS messages with their cellular telephones. This is a very powerful notion, and allows one to integrate Assessment for Learning to instruction in a completely new way. The WebALT Team, Dr. Lebedev, Dr. Caprotti and Dr. Pauna, is responsible for the work presented here.

The attached file is the anonymous evaluation of a calc I course at Florida State University in spring 2007. The course was, for most of the students, obligatory, and they were not motivated to study. The response rate to the survey was about 70%. The attachment contains also a summary of students responses.

With proper use of information and communication technology, ICT, we can industrialize instruction by making the delivery of education more effective, and by offering instructors tools that alleviate routine things such as grading of papers. ICT has the potential to industrialize instruction.

We have not, however, seen the right applications and services, which really make the difference in education. On the contrary, sometimes the use of ICT in education has resulted to worse outcomes.

The presentation will discuss proper use of technology to improve mathematics education in general and to make the delivery of education affordable. The introduction of calculators in high schools have had an adverse effect in mathematics education. What should be done now?

The opening remarks of the JEM Workshop on "New and Emerging Technologies in Mathematics Education" discuss the potential impact that virtual reality systems, like the Second Life, may have for educational online services and content.

This paper describes the experiences of synchronous on-line teaching of a basic calculus course at the University of Helsinki. Based on the problems encountered, the company WebALT Inc. (webalt.com) has developed services and publishes content (see a preview of the WebALT Calculus Course) which are tailored to support synchronous on-line teaching.