The collaborative construction of chronotopes during computer-supported collaborative professional tasks

In this paper, we use the concept of chronotope to analyse the co-construction of 12spatial and temporal frameworks during collaborative interaction. A chronotope is a genre 13of movement or pacing in the space that participants adopt over the temporal duration of an 14activity. We look in particular at the conjunction point of time and space as revealing how 15collaboration works and what role is played by technology. Six sessions during which 10 16teachers prepared a pedagogical scenario to be implemented in school were filmed and 17qualitatively analysed. The tempo of the activity was found to vary considerably depending 18on various factors, such as the features of the tools used, the aims of the activity, and the 19skills employed by the participants to achieve them. Three different tempos were identified, 20which we named, using a musical metaphor, Adagio, Andante, and Allegretto. Some 21representative excerpts of each of these tempos, and of the moving from one tempo to 22another, are selected and discussed. Our results allow an in-depth understanding of 23coordination within a group of teachers working on planning a common educational 24scenario for their classrooms with the mediation of a software tool