Understanding collaborative creativity: An observational study of the effects of the social and educational context on the processes of young children's joint creative writing

Drawing on socio-cultural theory, the research presented here examines the nature of productive group work in the context of children's collaborative creative writing. The thesis explores the role of friendship in mediating the processes of joint creative writing, and examines the effects of other contextual features in the classroom-context - task design, instructions and writing medium - in structuring and supporting shared creativity. The study draws on preliminary observations of Year 5-Year 6 classrooms (children aged 9-11) and longitudinal observational data of ongoing classroom activities in Year 3 and Year 4 classrooms (children aged 7-9) in England. It offers a contextualised, qualitative analysis of the social and cognitive processes linked to shared creative text composition via the in-depth study of verbal interaction. For the analysis of joint creative writing discourse a functional model was developed. The research study contributes to the theoretical debate on collaborative learning by studying peer processes in the context of creative writing and by exploring the mediational role of friends and features in the learning context in influencing classroom-based collaboration. The findings show that the pairs' discourse varied in the level of collectivity and individualism they displayed and that, for most part, the variations can be explained by the differences in their relationships. Thus the study demonstrates the potential affordances of friendship pairing for shared creativity. Furthermore, the research presented in the thesis shows the mediating effects of task design, instructions and the writing medium, highlighting the inextricably linked nature of contextual features in structuring shared work in the classroom

Child development and the aims of road safety education

Pedestrian accidents are one of the most prominent causes of premature injury, handicap and death in the modern world. In children, the problem is so severe that pedestrian accidents are widely regarded as the most serious of all health risks facing children in developed countries. Not surprisingly, educational measures have long been advocated as a means of teaching children how to cope with traffic and substantial resources have been devoted to their development and provision. Unfortunately, there seems to be a widespread view at the present time that education has not achieved as much as had been hoped and that there may even be quite strict limits to what can be achieved through education. This would, of course, shift the emphasis away from education altogether towards engineering or urban planning measures aimed at creating an intrinsically safer environment in which the need for education might be reduced or even eliminated. However, whilst engineering measures undoubtedly have a major role to play in the effort to reduce accidents, this outlook is both overly optimistic about the benefits of engineering and overly pessimistic about the limitations of education. At the same time, a fresh analysis is clearly required both of the aims and methods of contemporary road safety education. The present report is designed to provide such an analysis and to establish a framework within which further debate and research can take place

Social networking and digital gaming media convergence : classification and its consequences for appropriation

Within the field of Information Systems, a good proportion of research is concerned with the work organisation and this has, to some extent, restricted the kind of application areas given consideration. Yet, it is clear that information and communication technology deployments beyond the work organisation are acquiring increased importance in our lives. With this in mind, we offer a field study of the appropriation of an online play space known as Habbo Hotel. Habbo Hotel, as a site of media convergence, incorporates social networking and digital gaming functionality. Our research highlights the ethical problems such a dual classification of technology may bring. We focus upon a particular set of activities undertaken within and facilitated by the space – scamming. Scammers dupe members with respect to their ‘Furni’, virtual objects that have online and offline economic value. Through our analysis we show that sometimes, online activities are bracketed off from those defined as offline and that this can be related to how the technology is classified by members – as a social networking site and/or a digital game. In turn, this may affect members’ beliefs about rights and wrongs. We conclude that given increasing media convergence, the way forward is to continue the project of educating people regarding the difficulties of determining rights and wrongs, and how rights and wrongs may be acted out with respect to new technologies of play online and offline

Online network use in schools: Social and educational opportunities

Most state governments in Australia have banned popular online networking sites from public schools after these sites were accused of supporting a broad host of threats to young people. This paper questions the effectiveness of these bans in light of recent empirical research that highlights the social and educational benefits that can accrue from young people's online network use. In doing so, this paper argues for a more informed policy debate that considers not only the risks involved in using online networks, but also the opportunities online networks afford and the capabilities young people require to use them effectively

Children’s Peer Interaction While Playing the Digital Emotion Detectives Game

Collaborative learning and collaborative use of digital technologies are essential skills in the twenty-first century. The aim of this study was to explore the features and types of interaction that can be identified during children’s digital gameplay while playing in pairs. The following research questions were addressed: 1) What are the interactional play features that characterize the play sessions? 2) Which play types can be identified based on these interactional play features? 3) How do the interactional features and play types change during the eight-week play period? In this study, 16 children aged 5–6 years played the Emotion Detectives (ED) game in pairs at day care centres for 15–30 minutes per week. During the eight-week period, the children’s gameplay was video-recorded, and three play sessions from each pair were explored using content analysis. The results of this study deepen our understanding of the features of children’s playing in pairs and extend our knowledge of the suitability of the ED game for joint gameplay. On this basis, we make some recommendations for educational settings