In four short video clips we look closely at two girls collaborating to write the opening of Alice in Wonderland from the point of view of the White Rabbit. The extracts are taken from the early minutes of the second of six lessons. In the course of the extracts the girls create six lines of their text.
EXTRACT ONE They have already read through what they wrote in the first lesson and are now moving on.
Transcript of Video Extract One
B has typed "I ran into"
A&B: I ran into… I ran into…I ran into a…
B: I ran into the spiral room
A: I ran into… a round room with black and white…
B: …with black and white checked.
A: No with a black and white floor,
B: With squared black…
A: No, with squares…with a floor that looked like a chess board
B: Yes. OK
A&B: I ran into a round
B: (types) “a round with”
A: A round room you want
B: Oh, sorry (corrects by deleting “with” and continuing)
A&B: With a floor that looked like a chess board
B: (types) “with floor that looked like a chess board”
A&B: (reading each word as it appears on screen)
A: Is that how you spell “board”?
B: Yes…. A chess board. (a line appears under “chess board” Word wants it spelled as one word) Whoops.
A: A chess board….You should put a space.
B: (Moves cursor) That is a space.
A: A chess board. What’s that?
B: No, it’s fine, it’s fine. It’s just strange. (line under “chess board” disappears)
A: OK. Now it’s OK….Like a chess board
B: Like a chess board…um….
Commentary
After starting themselves off with repeated utterances of “I ran into”, they turn to each other and together compose a complete sentence before anything is typed.
A changes “spiral” to “round” with no comment from B.
They progress towards the chess board simile with A rejecting but building on B’s contribution.
As B types both repeat the whole sentence and voice the words as they appear. A points out that “room” is missing. Neither notice that “a” is missing before “floor”.
At this stage they are also concerned with the surface features of text. A questions the spelling of “board”. When the ‘correction needed’ line appears beneath “chess board” B assumes that a space is needed, positions the cursor to check and tells the computer that there is a space. They do not try removing the space which is what Word would prefer. B, who has more experience of typing onto a computer (and for that reason has been given that role), is much less concerned then A about the error signal and manages to remove it, at least temporarily.
Interactive Education Project, Graduate School of Education,
University of Bristol
Tel: 01179 287105 Email: mary.oconnell@bris.ac.uk
