Philippine E-Journals

Children's Design at the Computer: Computer as Resource for Social Alignments

Miguel Q. Rapatan

 

Abstract:

Many studies in computer-based collaborative work describe the pragmatic dimensions of group talk and how certain speech acts influence and contribute to group coordination at the computer and knowledge formation. Although these studies track the interaction between group discourse and individual enactment of tasks, the effect of this relationship upon the group's social structure is not extensively discussed. This article examines how participants change the social structures they create within the group as they deploy the technology to sustain collaboration. More specifically, this article will demonstrate, through transcripts of the participants' talk and actions, the participants' active use of the technology, in this case the computer, to maintain or alter emergent social relations. Such a study will emphasize the view that aside from discourse, the group's social structure is another important variable to consider when analyzing group collaboration at the computer.