Digital approaches to researching learners' computer interactions using gazes, actions, utterances and sketches

When learners use computers, they typically look at the screen, type, use the mouse, talk, write, sketch and make gestures. This paper identifies technical, practical, ethical and methodological challenges associated with traditional methods for studying such interactions. It examines the potential of recent technologies for identifying learners’attention, recording real-time writing and sketching, and analyzing multiple data feeds in an integrated way. A study of learners’ interactions with multiple representations is used to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of digital approaches to collecting, coordinating and analyzing observational data. The paper argues that there is a need for research into frameworks for analyzing digital data of learners’ computer interactions in systematic and principled ways

Assessing the Adoption of Virtual Learning Environments in Primary Schools: An Activity Oriented Study of Teacher’s Acceptance

International audienceThis article studies the conditions of use of a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) by primary school teachers. It first presents a triangulated model to explore Virtual Learning Environments’ adoption in primary schools. The theoretical models cover three approaches: the social acceptance, the practical acceptance and the situated acceptance. The situated acceptance of teachers is studied according to the model by using activity theory and qualitative methods (individual and collective interviews). Our study describes how teachers (8 participants) perceived the role of the VLE in the evolution of their working practices (maintaining, transforming or restricting existent practices), in their relationship with parents and in the follow-up of their students