Giuseppe Ritella

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.

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

The role of context in a collaborative problem-solving task during professional development

This article analyses how a group of teachers managed the resources available while performing computer-supported collaborative problem-solving tasks in the context of professional development. The authors video-recorded and analysed collaborative sessions during which the group of teachers used a digital environment to prepare a pedagogical scenario for subsequent implementation in their schools. The findings provide evidence that some aspects of context management can be explained in terms of explorative (opening problem space) and focused (closing problem space) actions. The results indicate that (a) the focused problem-solving took place when the problem space reached a provisional stability and problem-solvers developed a plan for proceeding with the task, (b) the individual exploration of the context was associated with the process of appropriation of a digital educational environment, and (c) the collective exploration of the context fostered the advancement of collaborative problem-solving and the introduction of new elements in the joint problem space.

Investigating Chronotopes in a Media Design Course

Space and time are fundamental aspects of educational practices, but their analysis has occupied a marginal place in literature on the subject. A few authors claim that investigating space and time is crucial for contemporary educational theory because we are living in an era of profound change, where the space-time of schooling is transformed both by policy makers (Renshaw, 2014) and by the advent of digital technology (Kumpulainen et al., 2013).

(In)visible technology: appropriation in professional training

In questo articolo esploriamo l’evoluzione del processo di appropriazione di ambienti virtuali durante un percorso di training rivolto ad una imprenditrice di una PMI, impegnata in un progetto di innovazione delle pratiche aziendali verso la sostenibilita e lo scambio delle cosiddette “esternalita”. Attraverso la distinzione tra tecnologia come oggetto di attivita e come strumento e tre livelli di schemi di utilizzo (d’uso, di azione mediata e di attivita collettiva) e stato osservato il ruolo propulsore svolto dal ricercatore che conduce il training e la sostanziale differenza tra livello narrato e livello agito nell’uso della tecnologia. L’analisi permette di concludere che l’appropriazione delle tecnologie non e necessariamente un processo lineare, ovvero non procede sempre da un determinato livello di schemi d’utilizzo a quello successivo. Inoltre, la tecnologia non diventa uno strumento, “invisibile” nello svolgimento di attivita reali: il passaggio da uno schema a quello successivo e fortemente mediato dal supporto del ricercatore e l’appropriazione degli schemi avviene al livello narrativo da parte del partecipante, a cui pero non sempre corrisponde un livello agito.