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Drawing on Diverse Social and Cultural Resources in Technology-Mediated Classrooms
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Elevators Participatory Simulation used in this study, the system collects students’ input to individual calculators through the network (arrangement of blocks, Fig. 1, left), and displays the emergent system formed from their collective contributions in an “up front” public space (an array of all students’ elevators moving together, along with position and velocity graphs; Fig. 1, right).
QuickTime™ and a
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Figure 1. A sample delta blocks arrangement (left) and projected elevators screen, with position and velocity graphs (right).
Among others, qualitative understandings of the mathematics of change (Kaput, 1994; Stroup, 1996, 2002) that start from the integral and then move to the derivative are goals of this activity. Features of this system that may offer avenues for enlarging the social, cultural and academic practices used as resources include: 1) multiple modes of contribution (language, text, physical and electronic gestures), 2) multiple representations (texts, graphs, visual displays of emergent systems, language), and 3) inquiry-oriented discussion and analyses, “in which students are supported in making public the strategies they are employing as well as the evidence and reasoning they are using, … [and] where instructional conversations are not solely directed by teachers’ intentions” (C. Lee, 2003, p. 48, 49).
Examining ways to draw on the varied, often untapped, resources available in heterogeneous
classrooms can support important advances in classroom technology development by pinpointing features of their design and use that can become culturally responsive and that support the achievement of underserved students. Further, it can provide important information to teachers as they consider whether and how to incorporate networked and other classroom technologies into their teaching.
Methodology
We focus on social activity, discourse, networked technology, and learning in a sociocultural
theoretical framework (Vygotsky, 1987). Learning is viewed as being mediated by social activity involving both people (teachers, peers) and tools (networked technology). Further, learning involves co-constructing mathematical knowledge and meaning through appropriation of discipline-specific content, discourses and practice. Discourse analysis (Gee, 1999) enables us to analyze students’ appropriation of the content, discourses and practices of mathematics as a discipline. We situate that appropriation within the social space of classrooms that is formed by the intersection of dual dimensions of 1) social and cultural resources, and 2) content and representations. Thus, network-mediated learning in the social space of the classroom is shaped by the dynamic, mutually constitutive roles of mathematics-specific content and representations, and participation and cultural resources in learning (Stroup, Ares, & Hurford, 2004, in press).
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| | Authors: Ares, Nancy. and Stroup, Walter. |
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Elevators Participatory Simulation used in this study, the system collects students’ input to
individual calculators through the network (arrangement of blocks, Fig. 1, left), and displays the
emergent system formed from their collective contributions in an “up front” public space (an
array of all students’ elevators moving together, along with position and velocity graphs; Fig. 1,
right).
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Figure 1. A sample delta blocks arrangement (left) and projected elevators screen, with position
and velocity graphs (right).
Among others, qualitative understandings of the mathematics of change (Kaput, 1994; Stroup,
1996, 2002) that start from the integral and then move to the derivative are goals of this activity.
Features of this system that may offer avenues for enlarging the social, cultural and academic
practices used as resources include: 1) multiple modes of contribution (language, text, physical
and electronic gestures), 2) multiple representations (texts, graphs, visual displays of emergent
systems, language), and 3) inquiry-oriented discussion and analyses, “in which students are
supported in making public the strategies they are employing as well as the evidence and
reasoning they are using, … [and] where instructional conversations are not solely directed by
teachers’ intentions” (C. Lee, 2003, p. 48, 49).
Examining ways to draw on the varied, often untapped, resources available in heterogeneous
classrooms can support important advances in classroom technology development by pinpointing
features of their design and use that can become culturally responsive and that support the
achievement of underserved students. Further, it can provide important information to teachers as
they consider whether and how to incorporate networked and other classroom technologies into
their teaching.
Methodology
We focus on social activity, discourse, networked technology, and learning in a sociocultural
theoretical framework (Vygotsky, 1987). Learning is viewed as being mediated by social activity
involving both people (teachers, peers) and tools (networked technology). Further, learning
involves co-constructing mathematical knowledge and meaning through appropriation of
discipline-specific content, discourses and practice. Discourse analysis (Gee, 1999) enables us to
analyze students’ appropriation of the content, discourses and practices of mathematics as a
discipline. We situate that appropriation within the social space of classrooms that is formed by
the intersection of dual dimensions of 1) social and cultural resources, and 2) content and
representations. Thus, network-mediated learning in the social space of the classroom is shaped
by the dynamic, mutually constitutive roles of mathematics-specific content and representations,
and participation and cultural resources in learning (Stroup, Ares, & Hurford, 2004, in press).
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