An exploratory comparison of the roles of representations in face to face and online collaborative learning

The paper reports an empirical study comparing the role of discourse and knowledge representations in face to face versus distance collaborative learning. The study reported in this paper compares proximal (face to face) with distal (synchronous collaboration via networked software) conditions. Two competing hypotheses were evaluated: (1) the influence of representations in the distal condition could be weaker because of the lack of implicit "taken as shared" that results from working together in front of a physically shared display, and because of the greater difficulty of utilizing the representations as a resource for conversation through gesturing. (2) The influence of representations in the distal study could be stronger because participants may rely more on them for their communication in the absence of face-to-face communication. The quantitative data supported the second hypothesis, while other observations supported the first hypothesis. A synthesis is offered.