Johann W. Sarmiento

Polyphonic support for collaborative learning

This paper argues that one reason for the success of collaborative problem solving where individual attempts failed is the polyphonic character of work in small groups. Polyphony, a concept taken from music, may occur in chats for problem solving, transforming dialog into a “thinking device”: Different voices jointly construct a melody (story, or solution) and other voices adopt differential positions, identifying dissonances (unsound, rickety stories or solutions). This polyphonic interplay may eventually make clear the correct (“sound”) construction. The paper illustrates the polyphonic character of collaborative problem solving using chats. It also proposes prototyped software tools for facilitating polyphony in chats.

Group Creativity in Interaction: Collaborative Referencing, Remembering, and Bridging

Understanding collective creativity is crucial for advancing the general study of human creativity as well as for guiding the design of creativity support tools for small teams and larger collectivities. In this article, we present a qualitative case study of collective creativity online, derived from an analysis of collaborative interactions of virtual teams of students working in the field of mathematics. We examine group creative activity broadly, ranging from the micro-level co-construction of novel resources for team problem solving to the evolutionary reuse of ideas and solution strategies across teams. Our analysis focuses on describing the relationship between the dynamics of creative work present in a single collaborative episode of an online group and their evolution across time and across collectivities. Our analysis indicates that the synergy between these two types of interactions and the resulting creative engagement of the teams relies on three fundamental processes: (a) indexical referencing, (b) group remembering, and (c) bridging across discontinuities.

Sustaining and bridging sense‐making across multiple interaction spaces

With “social” technology tools becoming more and more pervasive, new technology-enhanced interaction spaces provide researchers rich opportunities to go beyond studies of “solo” action and investigate the complex and distributed networks of thought, activity, and learning. Supporting fluid knowledge building within these distributed activities -e.g. “bridging” past, present and envisioned interactions, quasi-synchronous and asynchronous communication, and activity across multiple small-groups and larger electronic collectivities- represents a significant challenge for the design of effective online environments. This paper focuses on a preliminary investigation of the dynamics of sustained, technology-enhanced mathematical problem-solving in small online groups of secondary students. In addition, we explore issues related to the design of computer supports for bridging multiple interactional spaces and for distributed knowledge building. This inquiry is contextualized within the Virtual Math Teams (VMT) project at the Math Forum online community (mathforum.org).