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Understanding Collaborative Activity Systems: The Relation of Tools and Discourse in Mediating Learning

The goal of the current research was to establish a methodology for examining students' learning processes in online collaborative environments. In particular, we examine the relation between tools, discourse, and learning from the perspective of activity theory. We apply this methodology to examine the interaction and tool use of two groups of pre-service teachers who participated in an online video case analysis activity using STEP system - a collaborative environment designed to guide students through online problem-based learning tasks. The goal of the activity for both groups was to collaboratively analyze the video case and then individually apply learning sciences concepts to a lesson design. To examine how tools shape the activity, while the activity shapes collaboration and discourse during the task, we employed chronological representations of discourse and tool-related activity (CORDTRA) to compare learning processes in two groups.