Making classrooms socio-technical environments for supporting collaborative learning: the role of personal devices and boundary objects

The emergence of low-price computers has made possible numerous new ways of classroom learning. The personal devices that are applied in a manner without interoperation with appropriate peripherals may interfere with face-to-face collaboration since the personal devices were design for personal usages. To improve the collaboration that takes place in small face-to-face groups in repeated episodes, we seek to strengthen relationships by encouraging non-verbal contact, which is known to be a key component to increasing intimacy in personal relationships. Through gathering the small group learning interactions in a collaborative learning scenario, this study proposed that classroom environments require, in addition to personal devices, special design of boundary objects to sustain and support social learning activities. An experimental classroom was developed with LCD displays and shared-display groupware. Analysis of student learning activity found that students working with only personal devices tended to learn together in a disjoint interaction pattern. Contrarily, in the environment with shared-displays as boundary objects students demonstrated a joint and coherent interaction pattern since they took more notice of the shared group work.