Towards analysis of group interaction processes mediated by a rapid collaborative learning environment
We have been involved in a 3-year project to introduce rapid collaborative knowledge building practices in two primary 5 classrooms. Lessons in science, mathematics and the Chinese language have been co-designed by teachers and researchers to teach the curriculum by tapping on collaborative work in small groups as well as in the whole class. They incorporate various activities supported by the Group Scribbles (GS) software technology. GS provides representational spaces for individual, group or class work to support collaborative practices. In this paper, we share one process-oriented account of a small group interaction through face-to-face communication over the GS environment. We adapted Suthers, Dwyer, Medina & Vatrapu's uptake analysis framework (2007) to study group interaction and meaning-making mediated by GS as well as verbal talk. Our longer-term goal is to distil patterns that can lead to effective (or ineffective) collaborative knowledge construction, which can enable the teachers and us (researchers) to improve on the socio-technical design of lessons (including lesson and activity design, technology re-design, group creation, group composition, classroom space design, and other factors) to more fully exploit the potential of rapid collaborative knowledge building.