Abstracts - Earli

C 2329 August 2007 08:30 - 10:30Room: 1.60SymposiumComputer support for face-to-face collaborative problem solvingChair: Jerry Andriessen, Utrecht University, NetherlandsOrganiser: Maria Beatrice Ligorio, University of Bari, ItalyOrganiser: Jerry Andriessen, Utrecht University, NetherlandsDiscussant: Richard Joiner, University of Bath, United KingdomComputer mediated collaborative learning (CSCL) is already a solid stream of research. Manyresults and insight are gathered based on a quite conspicuous amount of researches performed.One of the reason CSCL covers such a large part of the educational research is becauseencompasses quite an array of settings involving computers; from users interacting in front of ascreen, to users at a distance; from impact on cognition and metacognition to influence on theeducational context intended as a large cultural environment. A particular situation yet notadequately inquired is how students (in their school practice) can be supported by technologywhen they face-to-face solve collaboratively open-ended problems. This symposium addresses thisparticular aspect. Thanks to a European Community funding, a project called LEAD is in progressin order to define the crucial aspects to obtain computer mediated face-to-face collaborativeproblem solving. As it can be easily assumed, many dimensions contribute to the definition ofsuch specific setting. Each paper included into the symposium addresses a particular dimension.Maroni et al. inquiry about teachers expectations and representations. Gelmini et al. studyteachers’ activities related to problem solving and to use of computers in educational practices.Overdijk and Diggelen look at educational community’s ways of appropriating the technology.Dyke et al. describe a tool able to perform parallel analysis of a multi-modal corpus. The ultimategoal of the LEAD project is to come up with educational and pedagogical directions to design asoftware aimed at supporting and improving face-to-face interaction when students (from primaryto higher education) collaboratively solve problems. In fact, De Chiara’s et al. papers discuss howthe results gathered by the pedagogical partners can be implemented into such a software.Analysing face to face computer-mediated interactionsGeorge Dyke, Association pour la Recherche et le Developpement, FranceJan-Jack Girardot, Association pour la Recherche et le Developpement, FranceKristine Lund, University of Lion, FranceAnnie Corbel, Association pour la Recherche et le Developpement, FranceDetailed analysis of face to face computer mediated interactions implies a study of a corpuscomposed of the interaction traces produced by the collaborative tool and video and audiorecordings. Because of their separate nature, it is frequently difficult to perform this joint analysis.In order to facilitate such analyses we propose a model for describing corpora composed ofsources from different media; we also describe how certain types of analyses can be modelled andreified for future use. We show how a tool based on these models facilitates a number of analysismethodologies by simplifying situations where entities are multiple: several researchers (intercoderreliability), several sources for the corpus (multi-modal interactions) or several analyses (forre-use of prior analyses or for the confrontation and comparison of two different analyses. We– 180 –