Gorse, C., Dickinson, I., Walker, C., Whitehead, P. and Shepherd, T. (2009) Virtual maths: Contextualised learning with new and emerging technologies. In: Dainty, A. (Ed) Procs 25th Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2009, Nottingham, UK, Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 495-504. 495 VIRTUAL MATHS: CONTEXTUALISED LEARNING WITH NEW AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES Christopher Gorse 1 , Ian Dickinson, Claire Walker, Paul Whitehead and Tony Shepherd Leeds Metropolitan University, School of the Built Environment, Leeds LS2 8AJ, UK The teaching and learning of mathematics continues to be a problem in schools and one which threatens to affect the construction industry. Leading industrialists have noted that if such problems are not addressed during formative years they will emerge and affect the construction industry in the future. To improve learning, government ministers have advocated a need to develop open, universally accessible educational resources that are engaging and stimulating. The intention of the Virtual Maths project was to provide exemplars of interactive web based maths problems and, through an action research methodology, identify the degree that children are interested and engaged in learning through such media. Maths was applied to the real life construction context using Flash technology. Workshops were set up in schools, and students and teachers explored and worked through the tasks, after which feedback was sought. An evaluation of the tools was provided by a maths consultant. Teachers, practitioners and student groups provided suggestions on the maths tools and identified possible ways of improving them. The findings show that maths, set in a real world context, was more interesting and meaningful than unapplied maths. Keywords: mathematics, teaching and learning, virtual reality, interactive environments. INTRODUCTION The QCA (2006) functional maths proposal calls for application of maths to „real world situations‟. While it would be beneficial to take students out of the cl assroom to experience maths in the „real world‟ such activity is resource heavy and time consuming. Equally, the potential dangers of some environments means that considerable effort is required to ensure risks are sufficiently reduced and controlled so that students can enter them. The practicalities of anything other than the occasional out of school trip makes the real world experience too difficult and costly. However, through the use of multimedia technology, maths can be set in a real world context. Using current Flash technology it is now possible to build interactive environments, with layers of visual and audio information, that embed maths in the real world. The working context also adds meaning and purpose to the maths. As students navigate their way through the activities they can easily be exposed to aspects of life that they would not normally encounter. Working through the interactive work- based problems requires the students and teachers to take in information about the environment within which the maths is set. Although such interactive environments can be developed it is essential that data is collected on how they are received by 1 c.gorse@leedsmet.ac.uk