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The Use of Computational Tools within Mathematical Work Practices
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Abstract
There has been little investigation of how professional mathematicians use computational tools for mathematics within their work practices. We overview a pair of qualitative studies examining the role of computational tools within the workflow of twenty professional mathematicians in a research setting. While these studies revealed a number of ways in which the interaction design of such tools is failing to integrate with existing work practices, moving to the designs of improved versions presents a number of challenges. These challenges pertain to interfacing with those who possess the mathematical expertise necessary to build functional tools and whether or not improved computational tools should be pursued as replacements to physical media. We discuss these challenges and present some preliminary ideas for solutions.
Citation
Andrea Bunt, Michael Terry and Edward Lank. (2010) The Use of Computational Tools within Mathematical Work Practices. Workshop on Bridging the Gap: Moving from Contextual Analysis to Design, CHI 2010.
