Re: education, technology & chat

[phil_chappell@access.inet.co.th]

Bill: some comments (mainly questions) on your notes, especially the block below

Quoting Bill Barowy <xmcageek@comcast.net>:
If indeed there are zopeds to be found here,
they seem more likely to be found where there are buddies, in part because a
buddy can offer assistance when needed and this math software is highly
limited in offering assistance.

But if this activity is still successful for the 4 displaced  children, it's
in large part due to Jane's savvy with picking partners who can work
together.  One might think that Jane is a good teacher because she knows how
to pick partners, but it goes even deeper than that.  What Jane knows is that
she has to figure out who will be good partners at the beginning of the year,
and she spends a good part of the year working at this task, noting the
results each time she or her children choose partners.  And here is the
insight that focussing on Jane's learning offers.  When she picks partners
she is thinking in an integrated way of the children's social and cognitive
development and what sort of mutual zoped will emerge between the two
partners.  The zoped is highly multidimensional as well as bidrectional.

My comments:
You mention some criteria for picking good partners, and that Jane notes
"results" each time partners are formed. I wonder what results she is noting? Is
it the kinds of collaborative dialogue that occur during the task? And/or is it
the outcomes of the task that are noted? I agree with you that it goes deeper
than an intuition on who will be good co-learners, and am interested in
understanding peer interactions mediating learning in much more depth.

Phil Chappell





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