Collboard: Collaborative Learning Using Digital Pens and Interactive Whiteboards
Project description
The aim of the Collboard project is to create a learning environment that promotes the development of New Media Literacies (Jenkins et al., 2006) in the classroom, based on collaborative problem solving supported by novel ubiquitous technologies such as digitally augmented pens and interactive whiteboards. Collboard’s pedagogical rationale, based on collaborative solving of open-ended tasks, seeks to elicit collective intelligence, distributed cognition, transmedia navigation and visualization skills in students. The pedagogical rationale is supported by a technological work-flow that incorporates the notion of seamless interactions across different kind of media. Collboard integrates digital pens to support individual work and interactive whiteboards as a collaborative knowledge construction space. The latter supports discussions involving students and the teacher, towards collectively creating shared knowledge and solving the problems.
Why does it matter
Our society is now evolving at a faster pace than ever before, challenging individuals and organizations to deal with changes and, educational institutions to prepare learners for the future. The high-penetration of information and communication technologies in our daily activities renews the question about the type of cognitive capabilities; social practices and skills teachers and learners need to develop.By means of collaborative problem solving mediated by the teacher and seamless technologies like digital pens and interactive whiteboards, Collboard aims at fostering the emergence of active student engagement and a participatory culture in the classroom,changing the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to collective student involvement.
Partners and funding sources
CeLeKT
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Professor Miguel Nussbaum and PhD student Claudio Alvarez)
Local Schools in the city of Växjö
Lekolar AB
Results
On April 2010 we conducted a trial in KronobergSkola, Växjö, Sweden with a group of twelve 7th grade students in the field of mathematics. Our preliminary results provide some indications that the discussions based on the collaborative construction space that is afforded by Collboard elicit active student involvement and greater participation, promoting the development of collective intelligence, distributed cognition, transmedia navigation and visualization skills. However, we are now conducting a thorough analysis on our experimental data to refine our findings, as well as analyzing further potential for developing other new media literacies skills not contemplated in our initial aims.
Methodology
Next steps
In the future, we look forward to experiment with Collboard with larger class groups and different subjects, including science and language. We will focus on asserting the impact of the tool on learning, as well as analyzing the technology adoption process thoroughly.
Publications
