Back to Paper

Nick and Alex were in the advanced writing class. Though they came to the computer laboratory in the last period of a school day, they were always energetic and appeared eager (at least they both looked so for the first five minutes) to work on their project. Nick and Alex share several things in common. They are of the same height; they both have curly hair; and both like to talk. 

Nick and Alex quickly decided to create a multimedia project about the Centennial Olympic Games. After weighing the resources and the amount of time they had, they then decided to focus their discussion on Olympic souvenirs. (Nick did not want to miss the opportunity to show some of his more than 250 Olympic pins to others.)

On a typical lab day, Nick would start up the application and get everything ready for work. While Nick proceeded to work on their project, Alex would provide feedback and sometimes serve as an assistant. After working on their project for a short time, Alex would leave his seat to begin his conversations here and there or to play with neighboring groups. Undoubtedly, everybody in the lab loved to talk to Alex.

Without much contribution from Alex, Nick still managed to produce a good multimedia project. As a matter of fact, among twelve students in this section of the experiment, Nick was the first one who learned how to record sound, capture pictures, and create buttons in HyperStudio. It was obvious that as time progressed, Nick seemed to enjoy working on the project more and more. He would sing while working and would play the Olympic song he recorded on the computer again and again to express his sense of achievement.

My job as a research assistant in the study was to help students organize their ideas, provide technical support for the operation of computers, and observe students' learning processes. In retrospect, I feel that I was more of an observer than a facilitator though I did answer two or three spelling questions and offer some suggestions. These students in the advanced writing class were bright enough to work on their own once they learned the basics.

There were, however, behavioral and motivational issues that are noteworthy. As a whole, these students were full of curiosity and tended to have short attention spans. Consequently, dialogue between group members often became an ongoing conversation among other groups. In addition, one group in this section of the study was unmotivated to work hard on their project owing to a lack of good partner relationships. Oftentimes, the girl in the group would lie down on a table after finishing her part of the work and the boy would read his novel or even throw pencils and clay to other students after he completed his part. I feel that to a certain extent the attitudes and behaviors demonstrated by these two partners did affect the rest of the students.

Despite the problems stated earlier, it is fair to conclude that the majority of students in this section of the study were motivated and worked hard on their projects. As for me, I am really glad to be a member of this research team for I have not only learned how to use HyperStudio but also had my first experience of working with public school students.

Return to "Stories"