Cré@tion is the code name for an inno­v­a­tive research project in col­lab­o­ra­tive work (among stu­dents). The field obser­va­tions are made in a spe­cif­ic col­lab­o­ra­tive work area at the UTC Dig­i­tal Hall. There are 5 sets, com­pris­ing the tac­tile tables, mul­ti­point screens and spe­cif­ic, asso­ciate soft­ware pack­ages. The equip­ment is designed to be used in simul­ta­ne­ous group formations. 

The research project code-named Cré@tion (acronym in French for Col­lab­o­ra­tion, reflec­tion, activ­i­ties and inno­v­a­tive dig­i­tal work began at UTC in its Costech Lab. “Project Cré@tion focus­es on col­lab­o­ra­tive work and learn­ing pat­terns in this mode which calls for some large-scale tac­tile pieces of equip­ment where sev­er­al per­sons can inter­act simul­ta­ne­ous­ly on the same, shared sur­face. Our gen­er­al hypoth­e­sis is that the intro­duc­tion of devices like these will change the way we col­lab­o­rate and lead to explor­ing and adopt­ing spe­cif­ic col­lab­o­ra­tive prac­tices and thus induce a spe­cif­ic form of ped­a­gogy,” explains Thier­ry Gidel, senior lec­tur­er in man­age­ment stud­ies in the Depart­ment of Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties (THS) at UTC and in charge of the Dig­i­tal Hall infra­struc­ture and the CRI team (Net­work com­plex­i­ties and Inno­va­tion) at the UTC-Costech Lab. This work is a col­lab­o­ra­tion in part­ner­ship with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lille, the CIREL lab­o­ra­to­ry and is financed by the French min­istry in charge of Edu­ca­tion, High­er Edu­ca­tion, Research & Inno­va­tion, via the Region­al Edu­ca­tion­al Author­i­ty based at Amiens.

Encouraging and enhancing interactions…

Cré@tion aims at devel­op­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive ped­a­gog­i­cal prac­tice using nov­el, tac­tile tools that embody dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies. “In the project”, under­scores Andrea Tuck­er, an Amer­i­can PhD stu­dent in edu­ca­tion sci­ences,; “the dig­i­tal tools do not replace humans; they serve them, some­times facil­i­tat­ing the work,; some­times act­ing as a mem­o­ry as the project work pro­gress­es, or again as a method­olog­i­cal aid, inter alia. What is observed and ana­lyzed is the sequence of inter­ac­tions among the table actors, ver­bal and non-ver­bal exchanges, crossed per­cep­tions, cre­ative con­flicts, nego­ti­a­tions for the pur­pose of seek­ing a con­sen­sus, a co-con­struct­ed solu­tion to the prob­lem at hand”. Andrea comes from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lille where she pre­sent­ed her the­sis in the frame­work of Cre@tion and the influ­ence of dig­i­tized devices on col­lab­o­ra­tive process­es and the devel­op­ment of asso­ciate skills. 

… making way for pedagogical innovation

Project Cré@tion also inno­vates in the way it asso­ciates the teach­ers. The idea here is to see method­olo­gies co-evolve, in a close rela­tion­ship with the dig­i­tal tools and soft­ware as they become avail­able. Upstream of the table-side ses­sion with stu­dents, the teach­ers also par­tic­i­pate or to orga­nize team projects and pre­pare the ped­a­gog­i­cal exer­cis­es. Accom­pa­nied by Andrea Tuck­er, they learn how to adopt the approach and the col­lab­o­ra­tive prac­tice as they pre­pare for ses­sions with their stu­dents. “The ques­tion is not to see an over­in­vest­ment in dig­i­tal tools and the role of the teacher must remain cen­tral and pri­mor­dial but it will evolve too. With tools like these, we can facil­i­tate learn­ing and col­lab­o­ra­tion. You can manip­u­late ideas and con­cepts in a game-ori­ent­ed, intu­itive way”, con­cludes Thier­ry Gidel. The advent of dig­i­tal tools paves the way to the future — we must just make sure that it is serv­ing the needs of Mankind.