The development of new technologies has introduced novel capabilities into every aspect of our lives. The continuous improvement of these technologies is part of society’s development by breaking barriers to access to knowledge and by introducing new tools and solutions that are a permanent part of the modern world. This technological revolution affects the educational system bystressing the need to retrofit the infrastructure in terms of technology supporting the educational process. These technological developments allow people to engage themselves in the immersion of new technologies, presenting them with a wide range of opportunities. On the one hand, this is a factor that determines the luxury of a modern, prosperous and developing world, on the other hand, it is a challenge of how one should use information and communication technologies to improve their lives in a society, so as not to be excluded and being moved to the margins of digital illiteracy. These facts pose challenges to the designers of new applications and new technologies, who should consider the needs of modern society based on the new information and communication. Today’s mediatized space requires people to have the necessary competencies to use it efficiently and skilfully. Moreover, the educational system should support and prepare the young generation to be able to function in this area, in which the mere use of web portals and social media does not guarantee any success in a person’s future professional or private life.

In this paper, we discuss the images of mathematics and its teaching, as expressed by mathematics teachers, in reaction to educational programs broadcasted by Polish public television channels during the first lockdown in 2020. For our analysis, we deployed a theoretical framework mostly drawn from the work of Paul Ernest. Our data came from a variety of sources such as educational fora, social networks, websites and email exchanges. Our results, based on an interpretative analysis, revealed four overarching images of mathematics and its teaching which, although related to the specificities of television, resembled images found by other relevant studies. The first image of mathematics views it as an unambiguous discipline in which there is no room for more than one point of view. The second image refers to the teacher as a presenter who is expected to possess particular verbal and non-verbal skills, especially given the fact that the television programs did not involve any live audiences. The third image refers to the unappealing nature of the broadcasted lessons, while the fourth image refers to the underlying approach of crude memorization associated with ‘traditional’ mathematics teaching. Our study’s contribution is twofold: in the improvement of televised educational programs (and possibly online courses) and in the improvement of the public’s image of mathematics.