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The Use of Large-Format Displays for Supporting Collaborative Knowledge Construction and Classroom Orchestration

Fri, April 5, 12:00 to 1:30pm, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Floor: 800 Level, Room 801B

Abstract

Theoretical Framework
When students are engaged in a KCI curriculum, they are expected to draw content from a shared knowledge base, towards improving it or using to address their own inquiry needs (Authors, 2013). While in soma cases this can be done on individual tablets or laptops, their limited screen size can make collaborative discussion difficult (Authors, 2012). In response, there is an interest in the role that large-format vertical displays can play in supporting students' shared attention and collaborative knowledge building (Liu & Kao, 2007; Kreitmayer et al, 2013). These displays also hold promise for supporting teachers during real-time orchestration of activities. By allowing teachers to see easily the work of the students, we can better support them as a wandering facilitator (Hmelo-Silver, 2004; Authors, 2010).

Objectives
This poster examines the use of large-format vertical displays during the culminating smart classroom activity from a 12-week KCI physics curriculum (Authors, 2014) to support student knowledge construction and teacher orchestration. During the activity, students were tasked with collectively solving ill-structured physics problems pulled from Hollywood movies.

Methods and Data Sources
Student discourse at each screen was coded to understand the quality and quantity of students collaborative discourse within groups (Bachour, Kaplan, Dillenbourg, 2008). Groups' solutions were further analyzed to understand how much they leveraged the collectively constructed knowledge developed on the large format displays. Using captured video, the teacher's movement in the classroom were coded to understand how the displays supported his orchestrational decisions.

Results
While some additional coding of student discourse is underway, current results show fairly even distribution among group members, indicating that the large format displays did support equitable and even collaboration. Analysis of the final products showed that groups effectively drew and collaboratively used existing content from the knowledge base to support their problem solving. From the collaborative displays, groups on average used 54.6% of the collectively negotiated equations and 76.8% of the variables and assumptions. Exit interviews indicated that groups liked keeping extra on the large displays as "tool belt" that they could refer to until they knew exactly what they needed.
Video coding of the teacher revealed that he actively moved around the class, using the large displays to help him know when and where he was needed. In one session, the teacher made 127 moves during the 60-minutes, spread fairly evenly across the zones in the room. Many of these moves involved the teacher simply walking up to a group and observing their work, making a comment or asking a question and moving on; however, as the activity progressed and the students’ got deeper into their problem solving the teacher tended to spend more time with each group, indicating the teacher was able vary his “wandering” in the room in response to student needs.

Significance
This study shows how the reorientation of student work, from traditional horizontal and small-format approaches, to large vertical visualizations can simultaneously support student collaboration, knowledge construction, and teacher orchestration in open-ended inquiry designs.

Author