ICT as opportunities for teaching-learning in a mathematics classroom: the semiotic potential of artefacts

Abstract. My contribution intends to propose some elements of discussion in the debate regarding the use of new technologies in mathematics education and intends to do that from a perspective large enough to take into consideration the idea of artefact without circumscribing it to the case of new technologies. I will present a specific theoretical framework, the Theory of Semiotic Mediation, focussing on the key notion of semiotic potential that will be illustrated by examples drawn form different teaching experiments and involving ancient and modern artefacts.