2. Guidelines for a Computer-mediated Discussion in the Classroom

Abstract

In this article we discuss the design of the collaborative tools that are part of CoFFEE. The discussion is centered around two issues – equal participation and coherence – that affect the performance of student groups. We relate these two issues to properties of the medium whereby the focus is on how the medium organizes the sequence of individual talk into a meaningful whole. We argue that improvements do occurs because the collaborative tools as a digital medium for communication organize the ongoing interactions differently from their verbal counterpart.