THE MATHEMATICAL WEB-CLASS In recent years we are witnessing a shift towards the development of webbased content in advanced educational

systems and the emergence of new digital means of instruction, learning, assessment, and professional development. This paper depicts this shift and presents Ofek (Horizon in Hebrew) an integrated web-based multimedia system for mathematics education. In Israel in 2005, in a document that outlined a strategic program for computerizing the education system, the main aim was defined as a need "to strengthen and expand the culture of online teaching and learning and to position ICT as a lever for educational innovation". The goals, defined on the national level, dealt with, among other things, the following needs: to suit the standards in Information Literacy to each of the subjects; to develop measures for the assessment of computerized learning processes; to construct a uniform standard of meta data of digital content; and to ensure the conditions for the narrowing of the digital gap (Israeli Ministry of Education, 2005). The Israeli policy follows that of other countries. The United States presented a detailed plan for computerizing schools. This plan included seven guiding principles: strengthening the leadership of ICT on the national level and on the school level; creativity and flexibility in the school budget (for the purchase of innovative learning environments); extensive teacher training in ICT and its uses; support of online learning; expansion of technological access through wide band for all students; development of digital content and construction of information systems for school management; development of learning processes in ICT settings as well as student assessment (US Department of Education, 2004). In 2005 Britain published a national strategic plan for integrating technology in the education system (DFES, 2005). This plan proposed five courses of action: access to information constructing technological solutions that would provide information services to the whole education system (K-12, higher education, parents, etc.); development of technological environments that support teaching, learning, and assessment at all levels of education technological content that is suited to the curricula and the standards, computerized systems for assessment, a personal, digital space for each teacher and each student; development of processes for quality implementation training and professional development of teachers in ICT literacy and in the integration of ICT in teaching; cultivating school leadership for ICT implementation through a national network for leadership training; constructing a national, digital infrastructure connecting all schools to the Internet through wide band and thus allowing for access anywhere and anytime as well as use of rich-media content.
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In the following section we would like to present an integrated web-system for learning and teaching mathematics for primary school. The system, named Ofek (Horizon in Hebrew) (http://ofek.cet.ac.il), is an ICT environment for instruction, learning assessment, and professional development. It addresses the need for improving processes of learning and assessment within schools and deals with many different subjects from the main curriculum in Israeli primary schools. Here we will present only the mathematics section of Ofek. The Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (U.S. Department of Education, 2008) states, "Research on Instructional software has generally shown positive effects on students' achievement in Mathematics as compared with instruction that does not incorporate such technologies" (pp.50). Following this report, and under the assumption that we would like to promote all the learning activity in the mathematics class, we began by designing different sorts of activities for the main topics of the curriculum. The site is under development and as yet not all the topics are covered. Different facets in the mathematics section are: Math-labs these enable the teacher to choose which ideas to present, and to move freely according to the class discussion. Activities each activity is designed at different levels to ensure that students at every ability level will be challenged All the activities are "generator-based" arithmetic activities defined algebraically, thus ensuring that each time a student works with an activity he encounters different numbers.. All students receive feedback on their work. The activities are embedded in a rich context , and are often presented as games. Most of the activities develop into high-order thinking problems to promote the high achievers. Non-Routine Problems Once in two weeks, we present a new, challenging task. The task may have many solutions or may include a contradiction and therefore have no solution. It may require non- routine heuristics. Some of the tasks are interactive and others are non-routine word problems. Most of the tasks are connected to a forum where students can present their results and discuss them with each other. Combination with textbooks Since teachers in Israel are used to working with textbooks we help them by integrating the activities into our books to make the connections easier. Professional development An important part of the site is a special section for teachers, which provides teachers' resources and discussion forums. Assessment - A web-based bank of high quality assessment items represents the curriculum and is designed for ongoing uses at school. A central theme of the curriculum, the development of higher order abilities, is catered for by the inclusion of such items as inquiry tasks and problem solving.

Activities Connection to textbooks Topics according to the curriculum

Math-labs Non-routine Problems Professional development Assessment

Figure no. 1 Ofek in Mathematics (Horizon in Hebrew) www.cet.ac.il/math Ofek is run under LMS (Learning Management System). This enables teachers to manage the whole process of instruction and assessment by:
1. Choosing the learning or assessment unit in accordance with age level,

topics, skills, and other characteristics and in accordance with educational goals.
2. Assigning the unit to students as an activity or as a test, as class work or as

homework.
3. Monitoring of students' progress on the task. 4. Checking student performance and providing feedback for the

assessment units with the help of an automatic check or through the use of answer keys and detailed rubrics.
5. Teacher-student dialogue based on performance. 6. Data retrieval and reports production presenting achievements on the level

of the individual student or the class by topics or skills over time. These reports can help in planning continued instruction. Ofek was launched a year ago. While continuing in the development of the system we have begun to study its effect in school. We expect changes in the mathematics class. We are observing and documenting new learning possibilities, interactions and discussions between teachers and students in the mathematics

lesson. Another focus of interest is the affective influence of the entire process of learning. We present here an episode from one of the lessons we observed in a third-grade class. The teacher (T), while presenting the 100-table on the whiteboard, instructs the students to color the numbers that are multiples of 9. Student 1 (S-1) is working on a computer that is connected to a projector.

T: Continue please. S-1: Over 100? T: Yes. S-1: (Continues to color)

T: How can you be sure you are right? S-1: If I change the width of the table I will have all the products in the same column. T: Please continue.
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S-1: (Continues to color)

T: What happened? S-1: Strange T: How can we know? S-1: Solve 118:9 = It's wrong. I see. (Correcting himself).

T: Let's go back to the beginning. To the 100-table. How can we describe the products of 9? S-1: The units' digit decrease by 1 with a cycle 9 to 0 S-2: The tens' digit increase by 1 all the way. Even after 10. S-3: The sum of the digits in the number is 9. T: Is it true even for numbers bigger than 100? S-2: I checked yes. S-3: What about 189? S- 2: 1+8+9=18, 1+8=9
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S-1: (Looking at the 100-table, with a width of 10.) The numbers are going down from right to left in a kind of diagonal T: What will happen, if we change the width of the table to 6? S-4: Like before, in a column from up to down S-5: I checked it's not. Look.

S-4: Strange. S-6: Not at all. For 9 you have to go for one and a half rows. T: Let's go back to this board. In which column can we find the number 23?

S-1: In the first column. 3 is the units' digit. T: Please check it. We are using tables with a width of 9. S-1: (Checks by scrolling up the table.)

S-1: Strange. S-2: 23 : 9 = 2 , remainder 5. That's why we can find 23 in the fifth column. . The teacher continued with the numbers 30, 46, 62 by hiding the table and then she asked: T: What about 133? Silence in the class for a short while, then S-6 said, hesitating: S-6: In the third column.. T: How do you know? S-6: 135 can be divided by 9 so I am counting back. (Showed with his fingers.) 134, 133. It is in the seventh column. S-2: (Continued) 138:3 = 14 , remainder 7. S-3: I think it is the sum of the digits in the number. 23 in the fifth column, 30 in the third column, 46 in the first column, 62 in the eighth column, 133 in the seventh column. But why does it happen? At this point the teacher was very surprised and said: T: You are right, I have to think how I can explain it. This episode was a surprise for all of us. We encountered other interesting episodes in that teacher's class, while she was working with her third graders using computerized tools. Her students were accustomed to hypothesizing similarities and checking them. As mentioned above, Ofek was launched a year ago. In our observations we begin to see interesting lessons and excellent students at work. Nevertheless many questions arise, and we are in the process of learning the possibilities, the merits, the advantages, and the difficulties.

Ofek is an integrative system which supports different school activities. Studying its effects is a long term research project. References DFES (2005). Harnessing Technology: Transforming Learning and Childrens Services. Retrieved May 3, 2006, at: http://www.successforall.gov.uk/index.cfm? pg=143 Israeli Ministry of Education (2005), "ICT in Education a Strategic Plan", Jerusalem, Israel (in Hebrew). U.S. Department of Education (2004). National Education Technology Plan: "Toward A New Golden Age in American Education. How the Internet, the law and todays students are revolutionizing expectations". Retrieved March 31, 2006, at: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/plan/2004/plan.pdf U.S. Department of Education (2008). Foundation for success. The Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. http://www.ed.gov/MathPanel