Working hard in the 'office': an ethnomethodological study of on-line workshops

This paper presents a case study of two on-line workshops conducted using a real-time distributed, web based communication technology, OfficeHoursLive. The study is intended to introduce, ethnomethodology, a different perspective for studying CSCL. Ethnomethodogical studies place a particular emphasis on studying the details of situated activity as-it-happens. For the accomplishment of collaborative learning it is necessary that those involved can usefully interact with one another. Ethnomethodology, in its study of the detail of practical action and interaction provides a particularly useful way of understanding whether and how CSCL technologies support such action and interaction. The paper presents detailed analyses and highlights important issues both for the design of technology and the organisation of these events.