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iDEA: DREXEL LIBRARIES E-REPOSITORY AND ARCHIVES

iDEA: DREXEL LIBRARIES E-REPOSITORY AND ARCHIVES

Main sections

Virtual math teams: How small groups create and use mathematical objects to do collaborative problem solving online

Details
Title
Virtual math teams: How small groups create and use mathematical objects to do collaborative problem solving online
Author(s)
Cakir, Murat Perit
Keywords
Collaborative learning; Dual interaction spaces; Intersubjective meaning making; Math objects
Date
2007-04-17
Abstract
Dual Interaction Spaces (DIS), which typically bring together two synchronous communication technologies such as a text-chat and a shared workspace, have been widely used to support collaborative learning activities online. The way such systems are designed as a combination of two technologically independent communication mediums bring significant interactional consequences for the users. Despite the popular use of DIS in educational applications, there are only a few studies about how small groups organize their interaction in these virtual environments. Existing approaches mainly rely on Clark and Brennan’s theory of grounding and the economy of conversational repairs across various communication mediums. However, the notion of common ground as an abstract placeholder for registered cumulative facts has been critiqued for treating meaning as a denotative entity transcendental to the meaning making activities of inquirers. Moreover, this framework falls short in explaining the combined uses of DIS for achieving shared understanding during joint problem solving work. As an alternative to treating shared understanding as alignment of pre-existing individual opinions, we have begun to develop an interactional perspective to study the intersubjective meaning making activities of small groups mediated by DIS environments. In particular we focus on the sequence of actions in which participants co-construct and make use of semiotic resources distributed into DIS of a system called VMT Chat to sustain their collaborative problem solving work on open-ended math tasks. We also highlight how students enact the affordances of dual mediums in complementary ways to co-construct and make sense of shared mathematical objects.
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1860/1583
In Collections
Drexel Research

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