Real-time conferencing and collaborative computing is a great way to make developers more effective. This project is a collaborative framework development comprising configurable client and server components.

In this inquiry, I use ethnographic research methods to uncover the tensions that a selected group of military officers and students from Central and Eastern Europe and Asia experienced learning English in Canada and in Europe. In both settings, I use a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach to the inquiry to critically explore with the participants their experiences using computers for second language learning. We negotiate changes to their current perceptions of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) through the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC). This communication involved writing-based exchanges at the Canadian site and using state-of-the-art audio video transferring technology, in a multi-site videoconferencing setting with Europe. The study took place between 2001 and 2004. During the four phases of the study, I collected data through observations of online interchanges, collaborative dialogic interviews and participants' written texts in the form of journals and e-mails. Other important data sources included videotapes and field notes taken at the Canadian site and during three field trips to the European sites. I draw on Vygotsky's socio-cultural approach to language, Bakhtin's concept of learning as dialogic and Weedon's notion of identity as dynamic, constructed and contested through Discourses. The work of these three theorists helps to frame my understanding of the historical, political, cultural, pedagogical and personal influences on this multicultural group of English language learners as they negotiated their learning in a unique setting. The participants' stories suggest that video-based computer technology not only supported some of their investment in using their second language orally but also enabled them to construct more powerful subjectivities. The identity construction that took place in English online is an important consideration for these individuals from evolving democracies that are struggling for international connection and recognition. I argue that more stories need to be told so that SL researchers can re-examine their understanding and theories of language learning and communicative practices to include computer technology. I suggest that stories such as these also have important implications for learners, educators and policy makers as they consider their teaching and learning practices with computers in their second language learning contexts.

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Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Information and Communication Sciences, Computing Department, 2008. / Bibliography: p. 503-514. / This study investigated learning design in a web-conferencing environment based on three semesters of lessons conducted as part of an introductory programming subject. As well as characterizing the nature of discourse and interaction, the study focused on how the design of the interface, activity and task type affected collaboration and learning. Engeström's (1987) Activity Theory based upon a socio-constructivist view of learning was used to frame the analysis. --Interface designs incorporated theory relating to graphical user interface design, multimedia learning, and findings from the cognitive sciences. Activity designs were differentiated based on the degree of student ownership, from teacher-centred (transmissive) approaches, to teacher-led (guided interaction) approaches, to student-centred (collaborative group-work) designs. Types of tasks were considered on the basis of their level of knowledge (declarative, procedural and conceptual), their character (authenticity, situatedness) and their domain specific nature (in the field of computer science education). The effects of the different interface, activity and task designs on collaboration and mental model formation were explored. --A mixed method approach to analysis was adopted, incorporating a design-based research study and a multimodal discourse analysis. The design-based research allowed a broader, more interpretivistic and process focused analysis to be conducted, based on the strategic redesigns that occurred between iterations of the subject. The multimodal discourse analysis enabled more detailed, objective and outcomes based measurements of the subject of discourse, the nature of interactions and the types of modalities used to mediate learning. Triangulating data from the design-based research study and the multimodal discourse analysis provided a more complete description of phenomena and promoted greater reliability. --Results include the way in which different modalities afforded different possibilities for representing, and how combinations of those modalities could be effectively integrated by applying multimedia learning principles. Student-centred learning designs increased student involvement, allowing them to take greater ownership over the content and to more fully share their mental models. Authentic, meaningful problem solving tasks promoted greater student engagement. The capacity to dynamically redesign the interface based on the collaborative and cognitive requirements of the learning episode supported more effective implementation of conversational (Laurillard, 2002) approaches to learning. --More effective interaction and collaboration resulted from prescribing patterns of engagement, managing activity and technology so that student discourse could focus on content, and providing guidance regarding semiotic representational forms so that students could concentrate on applying those representations rather than inventing them. Teacher and student virtual classroom competencies critically influenced collaboration and learning. --Based on the findings in this study, a framework of nine pedagogical patterns for teaching and learning in web-conferencing environments is proposed. The framework provides an integrated approach to learning design that relates the interface design with the activity design and the level of knowledge (task type). / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / vii, 514 p. ill. (some col.)

The purpose of this study was to better understand student learning in asynchronous computer-conference discourse (ASD) for non-native speakers of English in India through the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework. The study looked at ASD from an online course taught in the fall of 2015 to 25 students in a seminary in South India. All but one of the students were non-native speakers of English. The class consisted of 22 men and 3 women. Eight students spoke languages from the Dravidian family of languages (Malayalam, Tamil, Telegu and Kannada). Eight students were from the Northeastern states of Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, where most languages are from the Sino-Tibetan family. Three students were native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages (Odiya and Assamese). Five students were from Myanmar representing several Sino-Tibetan languages. The COI is a framework used to understand learning in ASD, often used in online learning. To study the ASD of this group, critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used with the COI to capture the unique socio-cultural and linguistic conditions of this group. The study revealed that non-native speakers of English often reach the Exploration phase of learning but rarely show evidence of reaching the Resolution phase. This phenomenon was also observed in native English speakers as reported in the literature. Also, the structure of ASD showed that students took an examination approach to discussion shaped in part by their epistemology. This examination approach shaped how knowledge was constructed. CDA also showed that the discourse acquired an instructor-centered structure in which Resolution and Repair were initiated and finalized by the instructor. The study advances the COI framework by undergirding it with a theory of asynchronous discourse using critical discourse analysis and capturing cognitive, social and teaching presence phenomena for non-native speakers that were not observed through the traditional COI framework. These phenomena were driven by cultural, epistemological, and linguistic forces and require a rethinking of the COI for contexts outside of North America. The study also demonstrates that learning for non-native speakers in ASD is challenged by these very same forces. Therefore, design for online learning should account for these phenomena.

This project extended COLLDESIGN, an interactive collaborative modeling tool that was developed by Mr. Hara Totapally. The initial version included a collaborative framework comprised of configurable client and server components. This project accomplished a complete implementation of the Class Diagram view. In addition, extending the framework, text messaging and audio conferencing features have been implemented to allow for real-time textual and audio communication between team members working on a particular project. VideoClient is the GUI of the application.