An Orientation towards Social Interaction: Implications for Active Support

摘要

Collaborative technologies mediate participants' communicative interactions. Because interaction data is stored, it can be used for further analysis. This implies that collaborative technologies can be extended with models that analyse interaction data and provide participants with 'on the spot' information about their performance. These models are based on some formal analysis that aggregates interaction data into meaningful information. However, we state that such a model should not solely focus on the interaction between learners, but that a broader understanding of learner-technology interaction is a prerequisite for development of 'active' support. Moreover, research findings indicate that interaction rules are not stable, but arise and evolve during interaction. The active system should be able to transform data to useful information, and moreover, it has to deal with changes in the way that rules and resources govern users' actions and interactions. This paper presents an exploratory orientation towards learner-technology interaction from a social-conceptual perspective, and discusses some implications for active support.