A Report on the Four NSF-NIE Regional Conferences on Improving Mathematics Education through the Use of Information Technology.

The material presents: (1) an overview of the Regional Conferences (2) a paper on Mathematics, Microelectronics, and American Education (F. James Rutherford and Joseph M. Dasbach), and (3) individual presentations on the Regional Meetings in Berkeley, Chicago, Newton, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C. The meetings were designed to encourage communication between grantees and persons with an interest in computer use in education. The meetings typically lasted 1.5 days, and consisted of a mixture of presentations by participants and discussion. At a final wrap-up session in Washington, D.C., six interrelated issues were discussed which were viewed to have arisen consistently in the regional meetings. These were: (1) the need for a "new look" at the mathematics curriculum; (2) the need for software and hardware of high quality; (3) the need for support structures that will allow teachers at all levels to use computer technology in their classrooms; (4) the education of educators; and (5) the need for wide dissemination of information about computers and how they can be used in mathematics instruction. The document concludes with lists of the regional meeting participants. (MP)