The Role of Ethnography in Complex Technology-Enabled Education Partnerships

• In Event: Instructional Technology SIG: Promoting Higher-Order Learning Through Scaffolding and K-12 Technology Integration Projects

Abstract

Increasing access to high speed Internet and the growing array of web-enabled technology tools makes it possible for large numbers of geographically distant partners to interact on an ongoing basis in both face-to-face settings and at a distance in real time. In this paper, we make visible theoretical, conceptual and collaboration factors often invisible in studies focusing on outcomes of technology enabled group projects. The study also makes visible the role of interactional ethnography in the complex two and one-half year technology-enabled education partnership explored as a telling case. In presenting the embedded ethnographers’ logic-in-use, we demonstrate how the ethnographic research contributed to the complex and interdependent processes that made the program studied successful.

Authors

• Stephanie Renee Couch, California State University - East Bay

• Judith L. Green, University of California - Santa Barbara