Learning Via Distributed Dialogue: Livenotes and Handheld Wireless Technology

This paper introduces a new learning technology for in-classroom and remote learning. The system and practice is called "Livenotes" and is motivated by the empirical success of peer learning methods, and by theoretical considerations of distributed dialogue among student peers as a facilitator of learning. The technical part of Livenotes is a collaborative whiteboard running on wireless handheld computers. We describe the system and the affordances we have developed for it to support the distributed dialogue model. We then examine the interactive dialogue that resulted from two classroom trials, using transcript captures, and analyze how users developed ways to navigate between pages, organize space on screens, determine whether the system was operational, and create social rapport. Finally, we suggest several issues that researchers can consider in designing collaborative software.