Dialogue, Knowledge Work and Tabletops: Lessons from Preservice Teacher Education

This pilot study is concerned with the exploration of tabletops in preservice teacher education, through the lens of sociocultural theories. An educational tabletop application designed to facilitate dialog and collaborative decision making, so called IdeasMapping, was enacted in the context of proposing a solution plan for a case study classroom problem. Students' responses to a questionnaire showed that they positively endorsed the technology for this type of collaborative activity. Moreover, analysis of video recordings of groups' discussions and interactions showed that the technology enhanced students' communication as they took turns in sharing their ideas, and provided structure and organization of these ideas linked to possible solutions on the problems embedded in the case. 1 Introduction The emergence of technologies as part of our increasingly networked world has influenced higher education offering new exciting approaches to collaborative activities. Multitouch interactive tables (or tabletops) have been extensively discussed for their potential to support collaboration and learning. As discussed by [15], tabletops afford cooperative gestures which can enhance users' sense of teamwork, while the technology 'invites' interaction and willingness to participate in group work [17]. Despite its promise, integration and appropriate use of this technology in everyday school settings and in higher education classrooms is very limited.