From SynergyNet to Haymay

 Event 

From SynergyNet to Haymay: Developing the pedagogy of computer supported collaborative activities

SynergyNet (now called Haymay) began as a project to explore the technology and pedagogy necessary to support meaningful collaboration in a Primary School classroom. Early studies explored the relative merits of computer and paper based conditions of comparable collaborative activities. These showed some interesting differences, in favour of SynergyNet, in students' on-task talk, complexity of reasoning and uptake of ideas. Later studies explored how groups collaborated internally as a class in a series of History and Mathematics tasks.

The Haymay project has taken this further, exploring interaction remotely, where individuals and groups of participants are linked to explore non-collocated, synchronous, collaborative problem solving. Early studies explored the emergence of intra- and inter-group collaborative working practices in Primary age students. Most recent studies have explored time taken to task completion and retention of information among undergraduate participants.

In this seminar Andrew will survey the contribution made by previous SynergyNet studies. He'll then present current studies including early data from pilot data collection in December and January of this academic year.

About the speaker

Andrew Joyce Gibbons’ research interests include high-tech and low-tech remote collaborative learning (in the UK, Peru and Sierra Leone), professional learning networks and school leadership in the pandemic. Andrew is a former primary school teacher who previously worked at Durham and UWE. His PhD focused on computer supported collaborative learning in a primary classroom.