Todo ser humano, como ser social, vive em constante interação com o meio. É nessa interação que os seres humanos se constituem como pessoas, construindo as relações que estruturam suas vidas (relações sociais, afetivas, cognitivas, entre outras). Este princípio de desenvolvimento estudado por vários autores é principalmente abordado pela Teoria Sócio- Histórica como um processo dialético e complexo de inter-relações que se tecem entre o meio social e as bases biológicas e que promovem o desenvolvimento cognitivo e social dos sujeitos em interação. No Autismo, por outro lado, parece que vemos a “imagem negativa” da interação social, como o negativo de um filme (HOBSON, 1993, p. 21). É certamente uma das síndromes mais desconcertantes e desafiadoras da atualidade. Considerada de origem múltipla, os pesquisadores, na sua maioria, concordam que os déficits apresentados na interação social e na comunicação são suas principais características. Partindo de uma concepção sócio-histórica da interação social, na qual participam não somente os sujeitos envolvidos, mas todo o contexto sócio-cultural ao qual pertencem, e que evidencia-se principalmente pela linguagem, uso de ferramentas, ações e significações atribuídas pelos sujeitos em interação e considerando as Tecnologias de Comunicação e Informação (TICs) disponíveis atualmente, procuramos com este estudo preencher um espaço de pesquisa no qual inexistem dados relacionados com a compreensão do fenômeno de interação social mediado pela tecnologia com pessoas com autismo. Assim, a presente pesquisa propõe uma outra visão sobre os processos de interação que se estabelecem em ambientes digitais considerando o espectro do Autismo. A pesquisa foi estruturada como um estudo multicasos, composta por dois grupos de sujeitos com autismo cuidadosamente escolhidos para melhor representar o espectro da síndrome. Observados e 6 acompanhados em atividades de interação mediadas em diferentes ambientes digitais. Posteriormente, com os dados coletados na fase de observação o processo de interação social foi analisado através de um arcabouço teórico construído sob a teoria Sócio-Histórica que permitiu identificar os elementos relevantes que emergem na mediação em tais ambientes digitais. Este arcabouço, definido para o estudo da interação social, estabeleceu várias categorias que possibilitaram uma análise multidimensional da interação, focada principalmente na intencionalidade da comunicação a mais importante. Com relação ao processo de mediação, os sujeitos apropriaram-se de signos e ferramentas de mediação em níveis próximos do autocontrole e auto-regulação. As ações mediadoras estruturadas na forma de projetos com objetivos claros e explícitos e subdivididas em atividades e procedimentos menores assim como o uso de instrumentos mediadores visuais tornou-se eficiente no trabalho com sujeitos com autismo, evidenciando um forte relacionamento entre o processo de apropriação e a interação social. Assim, o uso de ambientes digitais de aprendizagem acompanhado de estratégias de mediação adequadas e adaptadas aos sujeitos mostrou-se relevante no desenvolvimento da interação social de sujeitos com autismo porque permitiram modelar níveis de complexidade controláveis de forma s ajustar seu uso à ZDP de cada sujeito. Como conseqüência o presente estudo trouxe contribuições importantes para a área de Autismo, e da Educação ao estender e integrar os estudos sobre interação social e ações mediadoras no contexto do autismo. Este trabalho, também ofereceu contribuições diretas para a Ciência da Computação na construção de um ambiente digital de aprendizagem, (EDUKITO). projetado para levar em conta os resultados obtidos na análise da interação social e da mediação de pessoas com autismo. / All human beings, as social beings, live in constant interaction with their environment. It in this interactions that we humans constitute ourselves as people, building the relations that give structure to our lives (social, emotional, cognitive and other relations). This is a principle of development that was studied by several authors and it is approached by Socio-Historical Theory essentialy as a complex dialetical process composed of a "fabric" of inter-relations built upon the social environment and the biological basis and promote social and cognitive development of the subjects in interaction. However, in autism, it seems that we se the "inverted image" of social interaction, like the photographic film negative. Surely today, autism it is one of most disconcerting and challenging mental disorder that exists. Researchers generally agree that autism, albeit derived from multiple causes, has as main characteristics the deficit in social interaction and communication presented by autistic subjects. Our study starts from the socio-historical conception of social interaction, were the socio-cultural environment of the subjects participating in a interaction must be taken into account when analysing this interaction. We also consider that the social character of any interaction is put in evidence by the use of language, tools, actions and meanings attributed by subjects in the interaction, including tools built using Information and Communication Tecnologies (ICT) currently available. Based on these assumptions we try to fullfil a research space, on there not exist data about ICT mediated interactions between autistic subjects. The present research proposes a new vision about interaction processes that are established in digital environments, considering the spectrum of autistic disorders. The research was structured as a multi-case study, composed by two groups of subjects with 8 autism, carefully chosen to represent the spectrum of the disorder. They were observed and monitored in interaction activities mediated by several digital environments. Posteriously, with the data collected in the observation phase, the social interaction process was analysed in a categorical framework built upon the Socio-Historical Theory, that shows what kind of elements emerge in the mediation in digital environments. The categorical framework, defined for the social interaction study, established several categories that allowed a multi-dimensional analysis of the interaction, foccused mainly on the intentionallity of the communication. In the mediation process was observed that the participant subjects internalized the signs and mediation tools at levels near of self-control and self-regulation. The mediation actions were structured as study projects with clear and explicit goals and subdivided in small activities and procedures Visual mediation tools were efficiently used in the work with autistic subjects, showing a strong relationship between internalization processes and social interaction. Thus, the use of digital learning environments, together with appropriate mediation strategies adapted to each subject, was shown to be relevant to the development of social interaction in subjects with autism, because it allows to model controllable complexity levels of interactions and allows to adjust their use to the ZPD of each subject. As a consequence the present study brings significant contributions to the Autism research area and also to the Education research area, because it extends and integrates the studies about social interaction and mediations actions in the autistic context. This work also offers a direct contribution to the Computer Science studies, presenting a digital learning environment (the EDUKITO system) designed taking into account the results obtained in the analysis of social interaction and mediation actions of autistic subjects.

Todo ser humano, como ser social, vive em constante interação com o meio. É nessa interação que os seres humanos se constituem como pessoas, construindo as relações que estruturam suas vidas (relações sociais, afetivas, cognitivas, entre outras). Este princípio de desenvolvimento estudado por vários autores é principalmente abordado pela Teoria Sócio- Histórica como um processo dialético e complexo de inter-relações que se tecem entre o meio social e as bases biológicas e que promovem o desenvolvimento cognitivo e social dos sujeitos em interação. No Autismo, por outro lado, parece que vemos a “imagem negativa” da interação social, como o negativo de um filme (HOBSON, 1993, p. 21). É certamente uma das síndromes mais desconcertantes e desafiadoras da atualidade. Considerada de origem múltipla, os pesquisadores, na sua maioria, concordam que os déficits apresentados na interação social e na comunicação são suas principais características. Partindo de uma concepção sócio-histórica da interação social, na qual participam não somente os sujeitos envolvidos, mas todo o contexto sócio-cultural ao qual pertencem, e que evidencia-se principalmente pela linguagem, uso de ferramentas, ações e significações atribuídas pelos sujeitos em interação e considerando as Tecnologias de Comunicação e Informação (TICs) disponíveis atualmente, procuramos com este estudo preencher um espaço de pesquisa no qual inexistem dados relacionados com a compreensão do fenômeno de interação social mediado pela tecnologia com pessoas com autismo. Assim, a presente pesquisa propõe uma outra visão sobre os processos de interação que se estabelecem em ambientes digitais considerando o espectro do Autismo. A pesquisa foi estruturada como um estudo multicasos, composta por dois grupos de sujeitos com autismo cuidadosamente escolhidos para melhor representar o espectro da síndrome. Observados e 6 acompanhados em atividades de interação mediadas em diferentes ambientes digitais. Posteriormente, com os dados coletados na fase de observação o processo de interação social foi analisado através de um arcabouço teórico construído sob a teoria Sócio-Histórica que permitiu identificar os elementos relevantes que emergem na mediação em tais ambientes digitais. Este arcabouço, definido para o estudo da interação social, estabeleceu várias categorias que possibilitaram uma análise multidimensional da interação, focada principalmente na intencionalidade da comunicação a mais importante. Com relação ao processo de mediação, os sujeitos apropriaram-se de signos e ferramentas de mediação em níveis próximos do autocontrole e auto-regulação. As ações mediadoras estruturadas na forma de projetos com objetivos claros e explícitos e subdivididas em atividades e procedimentos menores assim como o uso de instrumentos mediadores visuais tornou-se eficiente no trabalho com sujeitos com autismo, evidenciando um forte relacionamento entre o processo de apropriação e a interação social. Assim, o uso de ambientes digitais de aprendizagem acompanhado de estratégias de mediação adequadas e adaptadas aos sujeitos mostrou-se relevante no desenvolvimento da interação social de sujeitos com autismo porque permitiram modelar níveis de complexidade controláveis de forma s ajustar seu uso à ZDP de cada sujeito. Como conseqüência o presente estudo trouxe contribuições importantes para a área de Autismo, e da Educação ao estender e integrar os estudos sobre interação social e ações mediadoras no contexto do autismo. Este trabalho, também ofereceu contribuições diretas para a Ciência da Computação na construção de um ambiente digital de aprendizagem, (EDUKITO). projetado para levar em conta os resultados obtidos na análise da interação social e da mediação de pessoas com autismo. / All human beings, as social beings, live in constant interaction with their environment. It in this interactions that we humans constitute ourselves as people, building the relations that give structure to our lives (social, emotional, cognitive and other relations). This is a principle of development that was studied by several authors and it is approached by Socio-Historical Theory essentialy as a complex dialetical process composed of a "fabric" of inter-relations built upon the social environment and the biological basis and promote social and cognitive development of the subjects in interaction. However, in autism, it seems that we se the "inverted image" of social interaction, like the photographic film negative. Surely today, autism it is one of most disconcerting and challenging mental disorder that exists. Researchers generally agree that autism, albeit derived from multiple causes, has as main characteristics the deficit in social interaction and communication presented by autistic subjects. Our study starts from the socio-historical conception of social interaction, were the socio-cultural environment of the subjects participating in a interaction must be taken into account when analysing this interaction. We also consider that the social character of any interaction is put in evidence by the use of language, tools, actions and meanings attributed by subjects in the interaction, including tools built using Information and Communication Tecnologies (ICT) currently available. Based on these assumptions we try to fullfil a research space, on there not exist data about ICT mediated interactions between autistic subjects. The present research proposes a new vision about interaction processes that are established in digital environments, considering the spectrum of autistic disorders. The research was structured as a multi-case study, composed by two groups of subjects with 8 autism, carefully chosen to represent the spectrum of the disorder. They were observed and monitored in interaction activities mediated by several digital environments. Posteriously, with the data collected in the observation phase, the social interaction process was analysed in a categorical framework built upon the Socio-Historical Theory, that shows what kind of elements emerge in the mediation in digital environments. The categorical framework, defined for the social interaction study, established several categories that allowed a multi-dimensional analysis of the interaction, foccused mainly on the intentionallity of the communication. In the mediation process was observed that the participant subjects internalized the signs and mediation tools at levels near of self-control and self-regulation. The mediation actions were structured as study projects with clear and explicit goals and subdivided in small activities and procedures Visual mediation tools were efficiently used in the work with autistic subjects, showing a strong relationship between internalization processes and social interaction. Thus, the use of digital learning environments, together with appropriate mediation strategies adapted to each subject, was shown to be relevant to the development of social interaction in subjects with autism, because it allows to model controllable complexity levels of interactions and allows to adjust their use to the ZPD of each subject. As a consequence the present study brings significant contributions to the Autism research area and also to the Education research area, because it extends and integrates the studies about social interaction and mediations actions in the autistic context. This work also offers a direct contribution to the Computer Science studies, presenting a digital learning environment (the EDUKITO system) designed taking into account the results obtained in the analysis of social interaction and mediation actions of autistic subjects.

Todo ser humano, como ser social, vive em constante interação com o meio. É nessa interação que os seres humanos se constituem como pessoas, construindo as relações que estruturam suas vidas (relações sociais, afetivas, cognitivas, entre outras). Este princípio de desenvolvimento estudado por vários autores é principalmente abordado pela Teoria Sócio- Histórica como um processo dialético e complexo de inter-relações que se tecem entre o meio social e as bases biológicas e que promovem o desenvolvimento cognitivo e social dos sujeitos em interação. No Autismo, por outro lado, parece que vemos a “imagem negativa” da interação social, como o negativo de um filme (HOBSON, 1993, p. 21). É certamente uma das síndromes mais desconcertantes e desafiadoras da atualidade. Considerada de origem múltipla, os pesquisadores, na sua maioria, concordam que os déficits apresentados na interação social e na comunicação são suas principais características. Partindo de uma concepção sócio-histórica da interação social, na qual participam não somente os sujeitos envolvidos, mas todo o contexto sócio-cultural ao qual pertencem, e que evidencia-se principalmente pela linguagem, uso de ferramentas, ações e significações atribuídas pelos sujeitos em interação e considerando as Tecnologias de Comunicação e Informação (TICs) disponíveis atualmente, procuramos com este estudo preencher um espaço de pesquisa no qual inexistem dados relacionados com a compreensão do fenômeno de interação social mediado pela tecnologia com pessoas com autismo. Assim, a presente pesquisa propõe uma outra visão sobre os processos de interação que se estabelecem em ambientes digitais considerando o espectro do Autismo. A pesquisa foi estruturada como um estudo multicasos, composta por dois grupos de sujeitos com autismo cuidadosamente escolhidos para melhor representar o espectro da síndrome. Observados e 6 acompanhados em atividades de interação mediadas em diferentes ambientes digitais. Posteriormente, com os dados coletados na fase de observação o processo de interação social foi analisado através de um arcabouço teórico construído sob a teoria Sócio-Histórica que permitiu identificar os elementos relevantes que emergem na mediação em tais ambientes digitais. Este arcabouço, definido para o estudo da interação social, estabeleceu várias categorias que possibilitaram uma análise multidimensional da interação, focada principalmente na intencionalidade da comunicação a mais importante. Com relação ao processo de mediação, os sujeitos apropriaram-se de signos e ferramentas de mediação em níveis próximos do autocontrole e auto-regulação. As ações mediadoras estruturadas na forma de projetos com objetivos claros e explícitos e subdivididas em atividades e procedimentos menores assim como o uso de instrumentos mediadores visuais tornou-se eficiente no trabalho com sujeitos com autismo, evidenciando um forte relacionamento entre o processo de apropriação e a interação social. Assim, o uso de ambientes digitais de aprendizagem acompanhado de estratégias de mediação adequadas e adaptadas aos sujeitos mostrou-se relevante no desenvolvimento da interação social de sujeitos com autismo porque permitiram modelar níveis de complexidade controláveis de forma s ajustar seu uso à ZDP de cada sujeito. Como conseqüência o presente estudo trouxe contribuições importantes para a área de Autismo, e da Educação ao estender e integrar os estudos sobre interação social e ações mediadoras no contexto do autismo. Este trabalho, também ofereceu contribuições diretas para a Ciência da Computação na construção de um ambiente digital de aprendizagem, (EDUKITO). projetado para levar em conta os resultados obtidos na análise da interação social e da mediação de pessoas com autismo. / All human beings, as social beings, live in constant interaction with their environment. It in this interactions that we humans constitute ourselves as people, building the relations that give structure to our lives (social, emotional, cognitive and other relations). This is a principle of development that was studied by several authors and it is approached by Socio-Historical Theory essentialy as a complex dialetical process composed of a "fabric" of inter-relations built upon the social environment and the biological basis and promote social and cognitive development of the subjects in interaction. However, in autism, it seems that we se the "inverted image" of social interaction, like the photographic film negative. Surely today, autism it is one of most disconcerting and challenging mental disorder that exists. Researchers generally agree that autism, albeit derived from multiple causes, has as main characteristics the deficit in social interaction and communication presented by autistic subjects. Our study starts from the socio-historical conception of social interaction, were the socio-cultural environment of the subjects participating in a interaction must be taken into account when analysing this interaction. We also consider that the social character of any interaction is put in evidence by the use of language, tools, actions and meanings attributed by subjects in the interaction, including tools built using Information and Communication Tecnologies (ICT) currently available. Based on these assumptions we try to fullfil a research space, on there not exist data about ICT mediated interactions between autistic subjects. The present research proposes a new vision about interaction processes that are established in digital environments, considering the spectrum of autistic disorders. The research was structured as a multi-case study, composed by two groups of subjects with 8 autism, carefully chosen to represent the spectrum of the disorder. They were observed and monitored in interaction activities mediated by several digital environments. Posteriously, with the data collected in the observation phase, the social interaction process was analysed in a categorical framework built upon the Socio-Historical Theory, that shows what kind of elements emerge in the mediation in digital environments. The categorical framework, defined for the social interaction study, established several categories that allowed a multi-dimensional analysis of the interaction, foccused mainly on the intentionallity of the communication. In the mediation process was observed that the participant subjects internalized the signs and mediation tools at levels near of self-control and self-regulation. The mediation actions were structured as study projects with clear and explicit goals and subdivided in small activities and procedures Visual mediation tools were efficiently used in the work with autistic subjects, showing a strong relationship between internalization processes and social interaction. Thus, the use of digital learning environments, together with appropriate mediation strategies adapted to each subject, was shown to be relevant to the development of social interaction in subjects with autism, because it allows to model controllable complexity levels of interactions and allows to adjust their use to the ZPD of each subject. As a consequence the present study brings significant contributions to the Autism research area and also to the Education research area, because it extends and integrates the studies about social interaction and mediations actions in the autistic context. This work also offers a direct contribution to the Computer Science studies, presenting a digital learning environment (the EDUKITO system) designed taking into account the results obtained in the analysis of social interaction and mediation actions of autistic subjects.

Source criticism is an important part of the national curriculum in the history subject in middle grade schools. This master thesis presents the development of a digital learning activity for teaching students about source criticism concepts. The learning activity was developed by first researching the history curriculum and how source criticism is taught within the subject. A conceptual design was drafted based on these findings and the design of an existing framework for teaching students within the history subject. The existing framework, and the developed learning activity, is based on learning-by-teaching implemented in the form of a teachable agent. The teachable agent act as a tutee that students have to teach themselves, increasing students' motivation and learning. By teaching the agent, students improve their own learning. The final implementation of the activity is integrated into both the technical framework and the narrative of the existing environment.

Den tekniska utvecklingen har varit storskalig i världen och människors vardagsliv har ändrats mycket det senaste seklet. I kontrast till detta har den svenska skolan inte sett samma hastiga tekniska utveckling. Samtidigt visar resultat från PISA att elevers resultat i matematik sjunker. Här identifieras två problem som måste lösas. Därför syftade denna undersökning till att underlätta elevers matematikstudier genom att skapa en ny digital lärmiljö. Lärmiljön kom att kombinera matematiska lösningsförslag med nätcoaching. Det gjordes med hjälp av det digitala läromedlet Mathleaks och lärplattformen TalkMath. Därefter analysera hur entill-en nätcoaching fungerade i denna nya lärmiljö. Undersökningen syftade även ta reda på hur elever uppfattar lärmiljön och om den kan vara ett komplement till lösningsförslag. Lärmiljön skapades med grund i pedagogiska teorier såsom Vygotskijs sociokulturella perspektiv, teorier om coaching, synkron kommunikation samt teorier om en-till-en nätcoaching. Två metoder användes för att samla denna data. För det första sparades alla konversationer automatiskt i en databas. För det andra så användes en enkät för att samla elevernas uppfattning av lärmiljön. Ramverket Undersökande relation användes för att analysera alla konversationerna mellan elev och coach. Studenterna valdes ut från en svensk gymnasieskola där en av författarna jobbar, eleverna var i åldrarna 15-18 år. Resultaten indikerade att denna nya lärmiljö var ett bra komplement till lösningsförslag. Det drogs även slutsatsen att lärmiljön hjälpte elevers kognitiva progression. Undersökningen visar att en digital lärmiljö kan vara ett bra komplement för elever som studerar matematik med lösningsförslag. / The digital and technical development of the world have been large-scale and people’s day-today life has changed immensely the last century. In contrast, the Swedish school system has not been seeing the same rapid technical development. As students’ results in mathematics are declining an approach to battle this trend can be to apply this technological development on students’ studies in mathematics. Therefore, this thesis sought to ease students’ mathematics studies by creating a digital learning environment. By combining workedexamples with online coaching the environment was created through the platforms Mathleaks and TalkMath. Then examine how online one-to-one coaching works in this environment. It also sought to analyse how students perceive this teaching environment and if it can be used as a complement to worked-examples. The environment was created based on pedagogical theories such as Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective, coach theories, synchronous communication as well as theory around one-to-one online coaching. Two methods were used to gather data. First, the conversations were automatically stored in a database. Secondly, a survey was used to gather the students’ opinion of the teaching environment. The framework Relationship of Inquiry was used to analyse all conversations between students and coaches. Students were chosen from an upper secondary school in the ages of 15-18 where one of the authors worked. Results indicated that the teaching environment that was created was a good complement to worked-examples. The environment was shown to help student’s knowledge progression. This shows that digital teaching environments can be a valuable addition for students when studying mathematics.

This research is an attempt to obtain insight in the influence of ICT and the information society on the labour environment of the officers of the Netherlands Defence Organization and to determine the competence of those officers in a number of information, communication and technological areas associated with the changed ways of working in the information society as they are discussed in the literature. What was found is that a substantial number of officers are not fully prepared to participate in the new ways of working required in the information society. The implications of those findings for a digital learning environment for the Netherlands Defence Academy are discussed and a general model for information, communication and technological competencies for managers in the information society is proposed based on the results of the case study. / Thesis (PhD (Computer-Integrated Education))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

In recent years, the adoption of digital learning environments has been proven as a suitable complement to traditional lectures, allowing to involve students more actively. However, current approaches lack at supporting both lecturers' individual teaching scenarios and collaborative activities. Thus, this thesis introduces an adaptable collaborative learning environment that enables lecturers to model and execute customized teaching scenarios. In addition to expressive means of adaptation, it includes collaborative functions which support group and peer interactions. The approach was implemented in a role-based prototype called scenario-tailored Audience Response System (stARS), demonstrating its applicability through seven well-known teaching scenarios. Furthermore, a thorough evaluation based on various user studies and lecture experiments confirmed the ability to support lecturers' individual teaching scenarios and integrate advanced collaborative activities into digital learning environments.

Den tekniska utvecklingen har varit storskalig i världen och människors vardagsliv harändrats mycket det senaste seklet. I kontrast till detta har den svenska skolan inte sett sammahastiga tekniska utveckling. Samtidigt visar resultat från PISA att elevers resultat i matematiksjunker. Här identifieras två problem som måste lösas. Därför syftade denna undersökningtill att underlätta elevers matematikstudier genom att skapa en ny digital lärmiljö. Lärmiljönkom att kombinera matematiska lösningsförslag med nätcoaching. Det gjordes med hjälp avdet digitala läromedlet Mathleaks och lärplattformen TalkMath. Därefter analysera hur entill-en nätcoaching fungerade i denna nya lärmiljö. Undersökningen syftade även ta reda påhur elever uppfattar lärmiljön och om den kan vara ett komplement till lösningsförslag.Lärmiljön skapades med grund i pedagogiska teorier såsom Vygotskijs sociokulturellaperspektiv, teorier om coaching, synkron kommunikation samt teorier om en-till-ennätcoaching. Två metoder användes för att samla denna data. För det första sparades allakonversationer automatiskt i en databas. För det andra så användes en enkät för att samlaelevernas uppfattning av lärmiljön. Ramverket Undersökande relation användes för attanalysera alla konversationerna mellan elev och coach. Studenterna valdes ut från en svenskgymnasieskola där en av författarna jobbar, eleverna var i åldrarna 15-18 år. Resultatenindikerade att denna nya lärmiljö var ett bra komplement till lösningsförslag. Det drogs ävenslutsatsen att lärmiljön hjälpte elevers kognitiva progression. Undersökningen visar att endigital lärmiljö kan vara ett bra komplement för elever som studerar matematik medlösningsförslag. / The digital and technical development of the world have been large-scale and people’s day-to day life has changed immensely the last century. In contrast, the Swedish school system has not been seeing the same rapid technical development. As students’ results in mathematic sare declining an approach to battle this trend can be to apply this technological development on students’ studies in mathematics. Therefore, this thesis sought to ease students’ mathematics studies by creating a digital learning environment. By combining worked examples with online coaching the environment was created through the platforms Mathleaks and TalkMath. Then examine how online one-to-one coaching works in this environment. It also sought to analyse how students perceive this teaching environment and if it can be usedas a complement to worked-examples. The environment was created based on pedagogical theories such as Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective, coach theories, synchronous communication as well as theory around one-to-one online coaching. Two methods were used to gather data. First, the conversations were automatically stored in a database. Secondly, a survey was used to gather the students’ opinion of the teaching environment. The framework Relationship of Inquiry was used to analyse all conversations between students and coaches. Students were chosen from an upper secondary school in the ages of 15-18 where one of the authors worked. Results indicated that the teaching environment that was created was a good complement to worked-examples. The environment was shown to help student’s knowledge progression. This shows that digital teaching environments can be a valuable addition for students when studying mathematics.

With the aim of designing tools, processes and means to support secondary school teachers in maintaining a sense of presence, closeness and immediacy when interacting with their pupils remotely in rapidly appropriated digital learning environments due to Covid-19, this thesis examined the meaning, importance and possibilities of creating a sense of presence, closeness and immediacy in remote digital teaching.The process was based on research for design, encompassing literature study, field research and methods of interaction design to reach conclusions on meaningful tools, processes and means of supporting secondary-school teachers in remote digital teaching.Main findings unveiled a sense of presence as a prerequisite for closeness and immediacy and real-time video lessons as the main approach to remote digital teaching, potentially creating an illusion of presence, closeness and immediacy due to pupils’ choice of black screens and muted microphones.Potentially meaningful approaches to achieving a sense of presence, closeness and immediacy identified in this thesis include the use of digital representations, representational correspondence and the concept of testimony in designing for a sense of presence, closeness and immediacy in remote digital environments.