Research contents
Learning objects and learning design
Learning interaction and networked communities
Informal eLearning
Funded projects

Digital dialogue games for learning

Development of a ‘state-of-the-art’ socio-cognitive tool to support and scaffold digital dialogue games in education. Funded by round 2 of the JISC e-learning tools programme (£63,500). Project partners: London Metropolitan University (lead site), UK Open University, University of Southampton, Oxford University and University of Bolton. This project is a development and continuation of AcademicTalk.

The tool incorporates an environment which supports a multi-phased activity and structures the dialogue interaction in ways that lead to more ‘reasoned’ discussion and debate. Discussions are structured according to particular pedagogical styles through choosing a suitable dialogue game. The dialogue games (for critical discussion and reasoning, exploratory dialogue and creative thinking) promote and support deeper engagement between participants and help induct them into a style of ‘academic’ discourse.

The structured discussion environment is particularly suited to groups of 4-8 students, learning through peer discussion. Each phase of an activity can be tailored to the requirements of the individual group and the teaching-learning context.

Key features of the tool:

• a game design
• multimedia dialogues
• structured interactions through coordinating activities, dialogues, conversations and replies
• message openers (e.g. “I think...”, “I disagree because...”, “Is there any evidence?...”) to structure and scaffold reasoned discourse
• reusable activity and dialogue game templates.

See the InterLoc website: http://www.interloc.org.uk

Contact details

Dr. Andrew Ravenscroft (C.Psychol, PhD, MSc, BSc)
Project Director (Dialogue Games and InterLoc)
Deputy Director and Principal Research Fellow
London Metropolitan University
35 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8AA
Email: a.ravenscroft@londonmet.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)207 749 3753
Fax: +44 (0)207 749 3781
WWW: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/ltri

Last updated 21 December, 2010