Projet TECHNE : vers un apprentissage collaboratif dans une classe virtuelle bilingue

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) opens up the frontiers of the classroom. The use of CMC as a pedagogical tool has led to the creation of a number of language learning projects which call on the socio-cultural theories of learning. Activity Theory, originating from Vygotsky’s work, can help us to understand the mediation role of tools and artefacts in a collaborative learning environment while, at the same time supplying a framework for the description of the factors which come into play within such an environment. TECHNE, which was designed to promote collaborative learning in a virtual and bilingual environment, is an example of this approach. Once we have described the project we shall examine some aspects of the on-line collaboration observed. We shall present the preliminary results of a quantitative analysis of the on-line communication, followed by a qualitative analysis of one of the communicative situations which took place over a number of days or a number of hours