Transmission, transformation and ritual: an investigation of students’ and researchers’ digitally mediated communications and collaborative work

Abstract

This article explores the use of multiple digital tools for mediating communications, drawing on two recent empirical studies in which students and researchers in UK higher education worked on collaborative activities: how different tools were used and the quality of the communications and their contributions to collaborative working and knowledge construction are outlined. We draw on Pea’s proposition that communications can be understood as transmissive, ritualised or transformative depending on their impact on other participants. Most of the students’ communications were either transmissive or ritualistic, although there were also generative conversations offering mutual support. Researchers’ conversations were more often transformative, using tools consistently, for specific purposes. Researchers matched the tool to the specific needs of the task, whereas the students chose tools based on friendship groups and lifestyles. Transformative communications were powerful in co‐configuring new knowledge and resources, and the importance of the ritual communications in maintaining the social order was also essential to communications in collaborative settings. We conclude that close attention to protocols, social norms and patterns of use in digitally mediated ‘conversations’ is required to develop collaborative partnerships and support transformation practices amongst higher education ‘workers’.

Keywords:

• communication
• digital tools
• socio‐cultural theory
• reciprocity
• meaning‐making
• transformation
• social interaction

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was presented at the Sixth International Conference on Networked Learning 2008, Halkidiki, Greece, on 6 May 2008. The authors would like to acknowledge the valuable feedback received from this presentation in developing the article. The authors would also like to acknowledge that some of the work reported here derives from the MIMEG (Mixed Media Grid) project, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (grant number RES149250033).

Notes

1. Virtual learning environment.

2. Skype is a synchronous communication tool which includes both instant chat (text) and voice functionality. http://www.skype.com

3. The limited of use of Facebook and other social networking tools can be explained, in part, by the timing of this study. In 2007, Facebook was still a relatively new phenomenon.

4. We use the first person plural to report this research to maintain an authentic voice when reporting autoethnography.

5. http://www.ncess.ac.uk/research/video/mimeg