Harnessing the Power of Digital Resources in Mathematics Education: The Potential of Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence

Many teachers, learners, and parents are already immersed in countless digital technologies, including hardware (e.g. smartphones, tablets, augmented reality (AR) tools, virtual reality (VR) glasses, holography, etc.) and software (e.g. apps, online platforms, artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, etc.). Many of these technologies were not originally designed for educational purposes (e.g. holography, VR glasses, etc.), but most of them are gradually being applied in educational contexts. This raises several opportunities and challenges; for instance, it is a common assumption among teachers, learners, and parents that if digital technologies function efficiently in various other contexts, they should also be able to facilitate teaching and learning when implemented for educational purposes. However, the quality and suitability of integrating digital technologies into the field of education warrant further examination – the current enthusiasm outpaces the empirical evidence available in this area. Against this background, this chapter aims to provide an understanding of how transformative and innovative mathematics learning experiences could be facilitated by such resources, mainly in AR and AI which will be our focus area, while also presenting the main challenges. In particular, we propose some of the potential implementations of AR in mathematics education while also discussing how AI-based tools can enhance the teaching and learning experience in this subject. Inspired by cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), we present a framework offering research-based principles for designing digital resources for effective learning with emerging technologies and highlight main challenges faced by various stakeholders.