Talk for collaborative learning in computer-based music production

Abstract

This article presents a case study exploring the interrelationship between talk and learning in collaborative computer-based music production. Framed by Neil Mercer and Karen Littleton’s Sociocultural perspective on collaborative learning, research on talk and ‘thinking together’ for learning, this study observed two undergraduate composers as they co-produced a contemporary dance film soundtrack across one academic term. The composers recorded their collaboration, providing data for a systematic moment-by-moment micro-analysis focusing on the audio-visual aspects of this project over twelve weeks. Sociocultural discourse analysis methods were used to explore how social, cultural and concrete situations shaped the students’ developing common knowledge. Interaction analysis has been used to code turn functions and display talk characteristics and patterns. This research found that collaborative computer music production is a ‘cumulative conversation’, comprised of many ‘thinking spaces’ that foster ‘post-dialogic’ activity’ and ‘connection building’. In this case the students developed new ‘tools for progressive discourse’ providing them access to the remote and private ‘thinking spaces’ that are characteristic of longer-term co-creating. This research argues for the development of new pedagogies that focus on understanding how talk shapes collaborative learning within music technology.