A quick update on Group Scribbles activities by SRI and our colleagues.

New Community Wiki Space

In September, we ported the Group Scribbles Community Wiki to a new public wiki space. Please join the wiki, share your experiences, and contribute ideas for the development and use of Group Scribbles. Just click the Sign Up link to create an account!

ScribbleProv Grant Awarded to SRI

In September 2007, SRI won an NSF grant to investigate how Group Scribbles can support improvisational techniques that middle and high school mathematics teachers use in the classroom. The project, called ScribbleProv, is a 2.5 year effort.

The project team is currently reviewing related literature, analyzing archival video cases (e.g., from the Bridging Project at SRI), and observing classrooms to develop a theoretical framework for the roles of technology in disciplined improvisation. In spring 2008, we will begin testing techniques for supporting disciplined improvisation through extensions and modifications to Group Scribbles, and pilot test new features with small groups of teachers and their students.

Group Scribbles 2.0 in Flash/Flex

As part of the ScribbleProv project, SRI is porting the Java version of Group Scribbles to Adobe Flex, a new generation of the Flash environment, using ActionScript 3. We're porting the back end to use LiveCycle Data Services, which should provide higher bandwidth, lower latency, and more stability than the TSpaces backend. We expect to make a public beta version of "Group Scribbles 2.0" in Flash/Flex available by spring 2008. We'll post screen shots and more information to the Group Scribbles Community Wiki as they become available.

New Publications

Some new publications are available on the Group Scribbles web site.

Check out the Roschelle et al. paper on Ink, improvisation, and interactive engagement - Learning with tablets in Computer, the Brecht et al. book chapter on Coordinating networked learning activities with a general-purpose Interface, and the Dimitriadis et al. CSCL 2007 paper, From socially-mediated to technology-mediated coordination: A study of design tensions using Group Scribbles.

Activities By Our Colleagues

Yannis Dimitriadis is pilot testing Group Scribbles with K-12 teachers in Spain, and is planning sessions with students for 2008. He is also using Group Scribbles in his own classes. His research team is working on traffic analysis and interaction anaylysis based on Group Scribbles log data.

The Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education in Singapore, led by Chee Kit Looi, recently won funding for a new project called "GroupScribbles: Flexible Collaboration for Interactive White Board (IWB) Classrooms". The goals of the project are to research collaboration patterns, develop and implement effective Group Scribbles activities Singapore classrooms, enhance the design of Group Scribbles as a rich digital media collaboration environment, and study the effects in Group Scribbles classrooms. Through the course of the project, SRI staff will collaborate with LSL on technical, design, research, analysis, testing, and implementation issues.

Raj Chaudhury at Christopher Newport Univerisity in Virginia recently used Group Scribbles with 16 students in an introductory physics course. The students (in groups of 4) identified rules for how elementary particles combined with their groups and by using analyses of other groups as displayed on their group boards.

Mike Sharples, professor of Educational Technology at the University of Birmingham, UK, and his colleagues Sarah Sharples (no relation) in Engineering and Gary Burnett in Computer Science have been funded by an HP Technology for Teaching grant to explore tablets to support student learning in HCI and software design. HP has provided a set of tablets, and as a first step they are installing GS to support students in technology design and prototyping sessions. Separatey, they also plan to use Group Scribbles for group idea sharing sessions and to explore joint groupwork (combination of Group Scribbles and videoconferencing) between their Nottingham and China campuses. Mike's PhD student Jitti Niramitranon is working on learning design for 1:1 technology classrooms.

Colleagues at SRI are also using Group Scribbles in undergraduate courses at Stanford University and San Jose State University. Bill Penuel, a senior education researcher at SRI, is using Group Scribbles in Contexts That Promote Youth Development in the School of Education at Stanford University. Judi Fusco, a research social scientist at SRI, is using Group Scribbles in Contextual Influences on Cognitive Development in the Child and Adolescent Development Department at San Jose State University.