Negotiating time-space contexts in students’ technology-mediated interaction during a collaborative learning activity

Abstract

In this article, we build on the notion of the chronotope to investigate how students create and manage time-space contexts in their technology-mediated interactions during a collaborative learning activity. Drawing on a dialogic approach, the study defines chronotopes as socially constructed time-space configurations with a specific narrative character that represent cultural practices and values, and that operationalize the framing of the interactional situation and its actors. The empirical data derive from a case study of students’ technology-mediated interactions while collaborating in writing a school musical script. The findings show how chronotopes offer a useful conceptual heuristic for researching the creation and management of often contradictory time-space contexts in students’ technology-mediated interactions intertwined with institutional, relational, and personal spheres of activity.