Characterizing and unpacking learning to learn together skills in a wiki project in primary education

This is the author accepted manuscript.The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.Learning to learn together (L2L2) skills are widely acknowledged as some of the most important 21 st century skills that enable learners to participate in a digital and global society. This paper examines how L2L2 skills emerged in a small-group wiki-based collaborative project and in the context of face-to-face real-classroom practice, in order to conceptualise L2L2 and identify the key features of the skills involved. To this end, our paper reports on an empirical study with primary school students who worked in two different modes of interaction, namely face-to-face in-pair discussion and on-line wiki-based between-pair discussion. The study identified and defined key features of four L2L2 skills, namely distributed leadership, mutual engagement, group reflection and group assessment, all of which emerged to a similar extent during the wiki project. It was found that a few distinctive features of L2L2 skills are related to different stages of task resolution, wiki affordances and different modes of collaboration. Therefore, this empirical study argues that technology and pedagogy are equally important and required to promote L2L2 skills in primary school classrooms and also it discusses some educational implications for the design of more effective technology-enhanced pedagogy.This research was funded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of the Spanish Government (projects number: EDU2012-32415 and EDU2016-80258-R)

Making L2 learners' reasoning skills visible : the potential of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Environments

AbstractThis paper explores the use of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Environments (CSCLE) as multimodal spaces for promoting critical thinking for English as Second Language Learning (L2) education from multiple perspectives (Technology, Thinking Skills and Interaction). The exploration focuses on the use of a multitouch tabletop, and an accompanying application called Digital Mysteries, as affordances in CSCLE’s for making reasoning skill-based thinking visible for L2 learning in Higher Education.Despite the worldwide promotion of teaching thinking in L2 education, it is not always easy for teachers to identify the types of thinking skills being targeted in L2 pedagogical tasks. To the authors’ knowledge, little empirical interactional evidence is available to demonstrate critical thinking in L2 learner talk during group work. This paper examines interactions among three groups of Chinese English Language learners at a higher education institution in a CSCLE. Video data were collected of students’ thinking-in-action whilst engaging in multimodal interactions in the environment. Results show that new technologies can provide innovative and empirically driven ways in which L2 learners’ thinking is externalised and how critical reasoning can be tracked, promoted, evaluated and self-regulated. The findings suggest that collaborations in a CSCLE can support the completion of tasks embedding high levels of cognitive complexity by L2 learners with effective use of limited cognitive resources. This leads to a number of recommendations about integrating the teaching of critical thinking skills into the L2 classroom using CSCLE technologies

Electronic Devices as a Resource for Getting ‘On-Task’ and Deepening Group Knowledge: A Multimodal Conversation Analytic Investigation of a Self-Organized Learning Environment at a UK University

Ph. D. Thesis (Integrated)Mitra’s concept of Self-Organized Learning Environment (SOLE) has gained worldwide attention after receiving the $1 million TED prize in 20131 . In SOLE environments, students interact with each other, often using internet-enabled electronic devices (IEEDs) such as a tablet or laptop, and learn in a collaborative manner with little or no input from the teacher. While there is a growing body of theoretical and perception-based research discussing the affordances of SOLE environments (e.g. Mitra and Dangwal, 2010; Dolan et al., 2013; Mitra, 2014), only very few studies investigate unfolding interactions amongst students in such environments (e.g. Burgess, 2006). Using a Conversation Analytic methodology (CA) with a particular focus on multimodal resources, this study deepens our understandings of the ways IEEDs are utilized by students in a SOLE environment at a British university. The data collected for this study comprises of 12 hours of video-recorded SOLE sessions where small groups of Chinese Masters’ degree students in the UK collaboratively investigate topics related to ‘British culture’. In these sessions, students rely on both Chinese (Mandarin) and English and routinely use an IEED. Analysis reveals that students make use of various affordances of the laptop during the SOLE discussion. Firstly, IEEDs are manipulated to help carry out social actions. Students routinely use the device as a resource for ending non-pedagogical activities and getting back on-task. Secondly, the IEED is used as a resource for knowledge to the SOLE topic question. Additionally, though, it presents various challenges. The linguistic and/or topic-related contents presented on the IEED frequently prompts students to display ‘unknowing’ or ‘less knowing’ (K-) epistemic positions. Students’ claims of K- epistemic positions can trigger the relatively more knowledgeable (K+ epistemic status) student to offer assistance, with them serving as a resource for knowledge to the students with K- epistemic status. In the absence of a participant with ‘knowing’ (K+) epistemic status, the group can use the relevant contents presented on the IEED screen as a resource to work towards achieving a group understanding. 1 https://blog.ted.com/a-school-in-the-cloud-sugata-mitra-accepts-the-ted-prize-at-ted2013/ ii In summary, this thesis argues that without the presence of a teacher, interpreting and internalising information activated by an internet-connected device is a collaborative endeavour, in which participants draw on multimodal resources, including the employment of linguistic and bodily resources, the manipulation of artefacts, the use of technology, and a transition between different spatial realities. These findings add to the body of CA and Multimodal research in SOLE context, as well as the growing body of educational technology-related research and research on the uses of objects in interaction

Enhancing Free-text Interactions in a Communication Skills Learning Environment

Learning environments frequently use gamification to enhance user interactions.Virtual characters with whom players engage in simulated conversations often employ prescripted dialogues; however, free user inputs enable deeper immersion and higher-order cognition. In our learning environment, experts developed a scripted scenario as a sequence of potential actions, and we explore possibilities for enhancing interactions by enabling users to type free inputs that are matched to the pre-scripted statements using Natural Language Processing techniques. In this paper, we introduce a clustering mechanism that provides recommendations for fine-tuning the pre-scripted answers in order to better match user inputs

Design-activity-sequence: A case study and polyphonic analysis of learning in a digital design thinking workshop

In this case study, we report on the outcomes of a one-day workshop on design thinking attended by participants from the Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning conference in Philadelphia in 2017. We highlight the interactions between the workshop design, structured as a design thinking process around the design of a digital environment for design thinking, and the diverse backgrounds and interests of its participants. Data from in-workshop reflections and post-workshop interviews were analyzed using a novel set of analytical approaches, a combination the facilitators made by possible by welcoming participants as coresearchers

UDL for inclusive higher education—what makes group work effective for diverse international students in UK?

International students face many challenges transitioning to post-graduate study in UK institutions. Students often need to adapt to a range of cultural practices and curricular norms, often without the differences between UK and their home countries being made explicit. Building on Vygotskian concepts of scaffolded learning and the importance that group interaction plays within learning, this research reports on an initiative to embed Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles through group work to develop research skills within a research methods module on an international Masters in Education programme. This small-scale case study across two campuses, with 11 survey respondents and nine focus group participants, analyses questionnaires and focus group interviews and yields important theoretical insights into the interaction of UDL components. The three UDL principles of multiple choices of learning materials, learning activities, and expression of learning outcomes each impacted on the other. The study also provides significant findings about hybrid learning at a crucial point in its development post COVID-19. Technology played an enabling role as students used a range of modalities to negotiate social and cultural diversity. However, the study indicates that on campus learning time is indispensable for students to fully access the power of digital technology. This paper contributes to advancing the understandings of international education and its interactional challenges and opportunities.<br/

Sustaining group cognition in a math chat environment

Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning (RPTEL), 1(2)Learning takes place over long periods of time that are hard to study directly. Even the learning experience involved in solving a challenging math problem in a collaborative online setting can be spread across hundreds of brief postings during an hour or more. Such long-term interactions are constructed out of posting-level interactions, such as the strategic proposing of a next step. This paper identifies a pattern of exchange of postings that it terms math proposal adjacency pair, and describes its characteristics. Drawing on the methodology of conversation analysis, the paper adapts this approach to investigating mathematical problem-solving communication and to the computer-mediated circumstances of online chat. Math proposals and other interaction methods constitute the collaborative group as a working group, give direction to its problem solving and help to sustain its shared meaning making or group cognition. Groups sustain their online social and intellectual work by building up longer sequences of math proposals, other adjacency pairs and a variety of interaction methods. Experiences of collaboration and products of group cognition emerge over time

Academic literacies and attitudes of EFL students in a CMC environment

There is a growing volume of research showing that academic literacy is discipline specific. To become proficient in a specific discipline and be a part of a discourse community, learners have to learn ways of communication acquired through understanding and practising the necessary genres associated with that discipline. Both synchronous and asynchronous Computer-mediated communication (CMC) provides opportunities for learners to be a part of that discourse community and learn particular ways of discourse in a collaborative environment. This research investigated how a group of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in a Saudi Arabian university was introduced to academic writing by completing CMC tasks collaboratively. Learners' interactions were examined via a descriptive design to explain how students negotiate academic literacy using synchronous chat and asynchronous discussion boards. Data were gathered from 6 sources: observations, survey questionnaires, texts of participants' online discussion entries, online peer feedback, students' assignments, and interviews. Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively to investigate how these EFL undergraduate students negotiate their academic literacy in a CMC environment in terms of language functions and focus; how CMC influences both the process and the product of student's academic writing activities; and what EFL students' attitudes were towards CMC in the process of acquiring academic literacy. Data analysis revealed the various discourse functions EFL learners used in their online discussions. Results indicated that computer-mediated communication facilitated students' understanding of tasks and performance of writing activities and promoted collaboration. Analysis of the students' draft and revised essays in the online peer review activities showed that students integrated peers' feedback into their revisions and benefited from such activities although they were not satisfied with the quality and quantity of feedback. A comparison of the students' participation in the face-to-face classrooms with their participation in both synchronous and asynchronous CMC activities afforded through Blackboard® learning management system (LMS) revealed more active interaction during CMC activities in terms of its content and quality. Finally, the EFL students perceived that CMC facilitated their acquisition of academic literacy in academic writing and promoted collaboration despite some limitations