ERIC Number: EJ1350551
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Nov
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0007-1013
EISSN: EISSN-1467-8535
Available Date: N/A
Supporting Collaborative Classroom Networks through Technology: An Actor Network Theory Approach to Understanding Social Behaviours and Design
British Journal of Educational Technology, v53 n6 p1549-1570 Nov 2022
This paper presents an implementation of Connected Spaces (CxS)--an ambient help seeking interface designed and developed for a project-based computing classroom. We use actor network theory (ANT) to provide an underutilized posthumanist lens to understand the creation of collaborative connections in this Computational Action-based implementation. Posthumanism offers an emerging and critical extension to sociocultural perspectives on understanding learning, by pushing us to decenter the human, and consider the active roles that human and non-human entities play in learning environments by actively shaping each other. We analyse how students in this class adjusted their help-seeking and collaborative habits following the introduction of CxS, a tool designed to foster (more inter-group) collaboration. ANT proposes generalized symmetry--a principle of considering human, non-human and more than human entities with equivalent and comparable agency, leading to describing phenomena as networks of actors in different evolving relationships with each other. Analysing collaborative interactions as fostered by CxS using an ANT approach supports design-based research--an iterative design revision process highlighting understandings about design as well as learning--by providing a temporal and informative lens into the relationship between actors and tools within the environment. Our key findings include a framing of technologies in classrooms as bridging agentic gaps between students and becoming actors engaging in different behaviours; learners enacting new agencies through technologies (for instance a more comfortable non-intrusive help seeker), and the need for voicing and teachers to connect help networks in CxS equipped classrooms.
Descriptors: Social Behavior, Cooperative Learning, Student Projects, Active Learning, Help Seeking, Computer Science Education, Sociocultural Patterns, Interaction Process Analysis, Design, Social Networks, Student Behavior, Computer Software
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A