How to bring a technical artifact into use: A micro-developmental perspective

In order to understand how technical artifacts are attuned to, interacted with, and shaped in various and varied classrooms, it is necessary to construct detailed accounts of the use of particular artifacts in particular classrooms. This paper presents a descriptive account of how a shared workspace was brought into use by a student pair in a face-to-face planning task. A micro-developmental perspective was adopted to describe how the pair established a purposeful connection with this unfamiliar artifact over a relatively short time frame. This appropriation was examined against the background of their regular planning practice. We describe how situational resources present in the classroom—norms, practices and artifacts— frame possible action, and how these possibilities are enacted by the pair. Analysis shows that the association of norms and practices with the technical artifact lead to a contradiction that surfaced as resistance experienced from the artifact. This resistance played an important part in the appropriation process of the pair. It signaled tension in the activity, triggered reflection on the interaction with the artifact, and had a coordinative function. The absence of resistance was equally important. It allowed the pair to transpose or depart from regular procedure without reflection

Dialogical approaches to learning : from theory to practice and back

Non peer reviewe

Instrumental genesis in technology-mediated learning: From double stimulation to expansive knowledge practices

The purpose of the present paper is to examine the socio-cultural foundations of technology-mediated collaborative learning. Toward that end, we discuss the role of artifacts in knowledge-creating inquiry, relying on the theoretical ideas of Carl Bereiter, Merlin Donald, Pierre Rabardel, Keith Sawyer and L. S. Vygotsky. We argue that epistemic mediation triggers expanded inquiry and plays a crucial role in knowledge creation; such mediation involves using CSCL technologies to create epistemic artifacts for crystallizing cognitive processes, re-mediating subsequent activity, and building an evolving body of knowledge. Productive integration of CSCL technologies as instruments of learning and instruction is a developmental process: it requires iterative efforts across extended periods of time. Going through such a process of instrumental genesis requires transforming a cognitive-cultural operating system of activity, thus 'reformatting' the brain and the mind. Because of the required profound personal and social transformations, one sees that innovative knowledge-building practices emerge, socially, through extended expansive-learning cycles. © 2012 International Society of the Learning Sciences, Inc.; Springer Science + Business Media, LLC

Harnessing digital community mapping for the development of primary and secondary students’ civic competences: a case study

In this study, we examine a pedagogical activity centered around the collaborative construction of a digital community map, involving students from 4th to 7th grade. Our primary focus is to explore how engaging students in meaningful activities related to their local environment can facilitate the development of civic and social competences. Furthermore, we propose a methodology for analyzing the digital artifacts created by students, with the goal of examining the connection between the discursive actions carried out through the artifacts and different types of social and civic competences. The analysis enables us to discuss four distinct categories of artifacts: Task-oriented, Reflexive/descriptive, Critical/problematizing, and Transformative/agentic. Each category encompasses artifacts that embody a specific set of discursive actions and corresponds to different competences. We claim that identifying the discursive actions that the students perform by means of the artifacts can help teachers to assess the students’ competences during this type of pedagogical activities

Investigating chronotopes to advance a dialogical theory of collaborative sensemaking

The aim of this paper is to highlight the contribution offered by the dialogical approach in understanding the interconnectedness of the situated sensemaking and situation-transcending processes occurring during the collaborative finalization of a product. We propose a dialogical theory of sensemaking based on the concepts of chronotope, voice and artefact mediation, aimed at investigating how multiple space–time frames are interconnected in collaborative sensemaking. We argue that this analysis is complementary to both the semiotic and the institutional analyses of sensemaking, which constitute the basis of our theorizing. To concretely illustrate our proposal for a chronotopic analysis of collaborative sensemaking, we qualitatively discuss an excerpt taken from a meeting of a multidisciplinary professional team working on the finalization of a web platform meant for enterprises

RE-CONCEPTUALISING THE SPACE–TIME OF TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This chapter discusses how space and time acquire a renewed relevance in contemporary educational research, due to the transformations and challenges characterizing contemporary society. Indeed, the emergence of novel virtual and hybrid space–time configurations across a range of educational activities challenges established conceptions of the space–time of education. It is claimed that a dialogic conceptualization of space–time as chronotope might contribute to the development of a socio-material theoretical framework able to enrich our understanding of contemporary learning and education at the intersection between physical, virtual, social, and semiotic space–times. Two main implications are discussed: a) the social organization of physical and virtual space–time of learning and b) the development of skills related to the management of space–time across educational and informal contexts. Empirical illustrations are used to concretely articulate such framework and to clarify the interdependency between societal changes, theoretical conceptualizations, and methodological solutions adopted for making visible educationally relevant phenomena in the current historical conditions. The chapter is concluded by providing future directions for research in this field

Using chronotope to research the space-time relations of learning and education: Dimensions of the unit of analysis

In this paper, we examine the emergent concept of chronotope and its deployment for the examination of space-time relations in research on learning and education. Chronotopes have been defined in terms of socially emergent configurations of space-time, where space and time are considered as interdependent social constructions. Chronotope is seen as a conceptual and analytical tool that allows reaching a sociocultural and dialogical understanding of human action and interaction in space-time. We argue that the existing chronotopic research has not been sufficiently explicit concerning how units of analysis are selected and conceptualized. To facilitate a wider adoption of this concept, we introduce and discuss four dimensions of chronotopic units of analysis (foregrounding processes, dialogicality, material-discursive features of space-time, and interdependency of space-time). We illustrate these dimensions by discussing how they were implicitly or explicitly included in the conceptualization of the unit of analysis in exemplary studies. In particular, we show how including one or more of these dimensions enabled to make "visible" educationally relevant phenomena and to discuss significant aspects of pedagogical practice. In all, our article contributes to make explicit and discuss the methodological foundations for using chronotope to research the space-time relations of learning

The collaborative construction of chronotopes during computer-supported collaborative professional tasks

In this paper, we use the concept of chronotope to analyse the co-construction of 12spatial and temporal frameworks during collaborative interaction. A chronotope is a genre 13of movement or pacing in the space that participants adopt over the temporal duration of an 14activity. We look in particular at the conjunction point of time and space as revealing how 15collaboration works and what role is played by technology. Six sessions during which 10 16teachers prepared a pedagogical scenario to be implemented in school were filmed and 17qualitatively analysed. The tempo of the activity was found to vary considerably depending 18on various factors, such as the features of the tools used, the aims of the activity, and the 19skills employed by the participants to achieve them. Three different tempos were identified, 20which we named, using a musical metaphor, Adagio, Andante, and Allegretto. Some 21representative excerpts of each of these tempos, and of the moving from one tempo to 22another, are selected and discussed. Our results allow an in-depth understanding of 23coordination within a group of teachers working on planning a common educational 24scenario for their classrooms with the mediation of a software tool

Investigating chronotopes to advance a dialogical theory of collaborative sensemaking

The aim of this paper is to highlight the contribution offered by the dialogical approach in understanding the interconnectedness of the situated sensemaking and situation-transcending processes occurring during the collaborative finalization of a product. We propose a dialogical theory of sensemaking based on the concepts of chronotope, voice and artefact mediation, aimed at investigating how multiple space–time frames are interconnected in collaborative sensemaking. We argue that this analysis is complementary to both the semiotic and the institutional analyses of sensemaking, which constitute the basis of our theorizing. To concretely illustrate our proposal for a chronotopic analysis of collaborative sensemaking, we qualitatively discuss an excerpt taken from a meeting of a multidisciplinary professional team working on the finalization of a web platform meant for enterprises