Collaborative information seeking in the wild: Middle-schoolers' self-initiated teamwork strategies to support game design

This study investigates how students learn to collaborate in a guided discovery-based program of game design learning, and how e-learning systems and environmental supports afford collaboration. We address how students self-initiate and strategize collaborative practices to achieve a project-based learning goal, and how they interact with peers, teachers, and technology to develop a shared understanding of the primary game design task. We also consider student engagement in the meta-processes that support this task's completion, such as delegation, teamwork, and resource use. The methods applied include two main steps - categorical analysis of 18 teams' interview transcripts and in depth case study analysis of four teams' interview responses and process artifacts, with a focus on the themes that are identified from the first step. We propose an initial framework outlining general dimensions of collaborative information behavior for knowledge building contexts. And we conclude with questions for future research.

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