From multiple perspectives to shared understanding

The aim of this study was to explore how learners operating in a small group reach shared understanding as they work out joint research questions and build a theoretical framework and to identify the resources and tools they used in the process. The learners’ own interpretations of their group activities and learning were also taken into account. The data, consisting of group discussions and the documents produced by the group, were subjected to a qualitative content analysis. The group members employed a variety of resources and tools to exchange their individual perspectives and achieve shared understanding. Summaries of relevant literature laid a foundation for the group’s theoretical discussions. Reflective comparisons between their book knowledge and their personal experiences of online interaction and collaboration were frequent, suggesting that such juxtapositions may have enhanced their learning by intertwining the content to be mastered and the activities entailed by this particular content

Digital technologies and the mediation of undergraduate students’ collaborative music compositional practices

Music education is supported by an increasing range of digital technologies that afford a remarkable divergence of opportunities for learning within the classroom. Musical creativities are not, however, limited to classroom situations; all musicians are engaged in work that traverses multiple social and physical settings. Guided by sociocultural theory of human action, this paper presents a case-study analysis of two computer-based composers creating one soundtrack together. Analysing how collaborative work was undertaken in all of the naturally occurring settings, this paper shows how the students' interrelationships with technology constituted their understandings, creative output and their ecology of practice. The research contributes new knowledge about how digitally resourced creating is shaped by remote, remembered, hypothetical and imagined digital technologies. It also shows how technology-mediated co-creating is a complex interactional accomplishment, implicating the value of long-term multisetting digital co-creating to higher mental development through discourse within music education

Engagement in Mathematics MOOC Forums

The research focuses on mathematics MOOC discussion forums, how affective instances emerge from written interactions and how they can be measured. Interactionist research, as well as the intertwining of affective and cognitive components in students\u2019 interactions, represents the theoretical background of our investigations. In particular, we refer to engagement as the main affective element in discussion forums. The affective lens is paired with network analysis to examine how and to what extent forums may represent an occasion for a deeper understanding of mathematics for the students. This paper reports on a pilot phase of the research and considers two examples of discussion forums that involved around ten students each. The findings from a small scale analysis serve as a basis for first, general conclusions