In R. Hunter, B. Bicknell, & T. Burgess (Eds.), Crossing divides: Proceedings of the 32nd annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (Vol. 1). Palmerston North, NZ: MERGA. © MERGA Inc. 2009 The Master, Servant, Partner, Extension-of-self Framework in Individual, Small Group and Whole Class Contexts Vince Geiger Australian Catholic University <vincent.geiger@acu.edu.au> This paper reports on an aspect of a three year longitudinal study which investigated students’ use of technology in individual and collaborative classroom settings. A socio-cultural perspective was adopted to develop the MSPE framework which identifies modes of student technology use and describes the student-student-technology relationships that developed as students worked in individual, small group and whole class settings. Implications are discussed for how the framework might lead to more sophisticated technology rich pedagogies in mathematics classrooms. Introduction While there have been attempts to theorise students’ usage of technology in the process of mathematical learning (e.g., Doerr & Zangor, 2000; Guin, Ruthven & Trouche, 2005), these appear to be founded on individualistic notions of knowledge development and so fail to incorporate the role of collaboration between classroom participants, in concert with technology, during learning, reasoning and understanding. This paper reports on aspects of a study that takes a socio-cultural perspective on the use of technology to learn and teach mathematics within both individual and collaborative contexts. Because socio-cultural theory places interaction and activity at the centre of theory development, the relationships that develop between both human and non-human agents are seen as central to an attempt to theorise the nature of the practices of both individual students and of collectives of learners when they work on mathematical ideas and tasks within collaborative, technology rich classroom environments. Specifically, this paper aims to examine the role of technology in mediating both individual and collaborative student learning. This will be done by proposing a framework for students’ use of technology in individual contexts and illustrating the categories within the framework with representative student comments drawn from five Technology Questionnaires administered during the study. The remainder of the paper will then extend the framework to small group and whole class settings. Theoretical Framework The perspective offered by socio-cultural theory was chosen to frame the study as it emphasizes both the role of students’ own activity and interaction in intellectual development, and the importance of tools in mediating learning. How tools, such as the digital technologies, mediate learning, particularly in collaborative contexts, is an area of limited attention in current research literature. Some studies have concluded that while the formation of technology as a tool for learning requires interaction and negotiation between students and teachers, the use of technology after this formation can inhibit productive, collaborative interaction in the mathematics classroom (e.g., Doerr & Zangor, 2000). Other investigations have attempted to incorporate a social dimension to how students learn in concert with technology by theorising the role of the teacher as an “orchestrator” of social interaction (e.g., Guin, Ruthven & Trouche, 2005). Neither of these positions, however, place social interaction at the centre of the process of thinking, reasoning and learning, nor do they support theory that suggests technology can be seamlessly integrated into ongoing collaborative processes.