Conversational learning integration in technology enhanced classrooms

Today's college students have grown up with technology. These digital natives typically gravitate toward group activities in technology embedded social contexts. However, despite this multidimensional evolution, little has changed in conventional classrooms where they build their education experience. We investigate learning models in a classroom environment which still remains the main driver of education today. We describe a conversational learning model based on group activities which involve multi-party conversations. We implement this model in a technology-enhanced studio-classroom to "visualize" conversations which otherwise would remain abstract to learners. Teachers are empowered with instructional patterns to guide their changing role in this novel classroom environment. Based on standard assessment indicators, we conduct an experimental analysis which results show interesting tradeoffs of learning performance that favor the proposed conversational learning approach compared to those obtained from conventional instruction. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.