Ebook: Discourse, Tools and Reasoning: Essays on Situated Cognition

Not long ago, projections of how office technologies would revolutionize the production of documents in a high-tech future carriedmany promises. The paper­ less office and the seamless and problem-free sharing of texts and other work materials among co-workers werejust around the corner, we were told. To anyone who has been involved in putting together a volume of the present kind, such forecasts will be met with considerable skepticism, if not outright distrust. The diskette, the email, the fax, the net, and all the other forms of communication that are now around are powerful assets, but they do not in any way reduce the flow of paper or the complexity of coordinating activities involved in producing an artifact such as a book. Instead, the reverse seems to be true. Obviously, the use of such tools requires considerable skill at the center of coordination, to borrow an expression from a chapter in this volume. As editors, we have been fortunate to have Ms. Lotta Strand, Linkoping University, at the center of the distributed activity that producing this volume has required over the last few years. With her considerable skill and patience, Ms. Strand and her work provide a powerful illustration of the main thrust of most of the chapters in this volume: Practice is a coordination of thinking and action, and many things had to be kept in mind during the production of this volume.

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To reason is to talk. To think is to use tools. To learn is to join a community of practice. This book explores thought and reasoning as inherently social practices, as actions situated in specific environments of demand, opportunity, and accountability. Authors from diverse disciplines - psychology, sociology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, anthropology - examine how people think and learn in settings as diverse as a factory, a classroom or an airplane cockpit. The tools that people use in these varied settings are both physical technologies and cultural constructions: concepts, structures of reasoning, and forms of discourse.
This volume in the NATO Special Programme on Advanced Educational Technology is based on an international conference on situated cognition and learning technologies.

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To reason is to talk. To think is to use tools. To learn is to join a community of practice. This book explores thought and reasoning as inherently social practices, as actions situated in specific environments of demand, opportunity, and accountability. Authors from diverse disciplines - psychology, sociology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, anthropology - examine how people think and learn in settings as diverse as a factory, a classroom or an airplane cockpit. The tools that people use in these varied settings are both physical technologies and cultural constructions: concepts, structures of reasoning, and forms of discourse.
This volume in the NATO Special Programme on Advanced Educational Technology is based on an international conference on situated cognition and learning technologies.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-XII
Discourse, Tools, and Reasoning: Essays on Situated Cognition....Pages 1-20
Front Matter....Pages 21-21
Constructing Meaning from Space, Gesture, and Speech....Pages 23-40
Centers of Coordination: A Case and Some Themes....Pages 41-62
Animated Texts: Selective Renditions of News Stories....Pages 63-86
To Resolve a Technical Problem Through Conversation....Pages 87-110
The Blackness of Black: Color Categories as Situated Practice....Pages 111-140
Front Matter....Pages 141-141
Reasonable Uncertainties: Parents’ Talk About Caring for Children with Chronic Renal Failure....Pages 143-168
Syncretic Literacy in a Samoan American Family....Pages 169-202
Other Voices, Other Minds: The Use of Reported Speech in Group Therapy Talk....Pages 203-223
Situational Effects in Computer-Based Problem Solving....Pages 224-239
Front Matter....Pages 241-241
Discourse and Development: Notes from the Field....Pages 243-264
Interactional Perspectives on the Use of the Computer and on the Technological Development of a New Tool: The Case of Word Processing....Pages 265-287
What Organizes Our Problem-Solving Activities?....Pages 288-311
Understanding Symbols with Intermediate Abstractions: An Analysis of the Collaborative Construction of Mathematical Meaning....Pages 312-335
Strategy-Specific Information Access in Knowledge Acquisition from Hypertext....Pages 336-358
Front Matter....Pages 359-359
Talking About Reasoning: How Important Is the Peer in Peer Collaboration?....Pages 361-384
Seeing the Light: Discourse and Practice in the Optics Lab....Pages 385-405
Learning to Argue in Family Shared Discourse: The Reconstruction of Past Events....Pages 406-442
Discourse in the Adult Classroom: Rhetoric as Technology for Dialogue....Pages 443-458
Back Matter....Pages 459-483

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To reason is to talk. To think is to use tools. To learn is to join a community of practice. This book explores thought and reasoning as inherently social practices, as actions situated in specific environments of demand, opportunity, and accountability. Authors from diverse disciplines - psychology, sociology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, anthropology - examine how people think and learn in settings as diverse as a factory, a classroom or an airplane cockpit. The tools that people use in these varied settings are both physical technologies and cultural constructions: concepts, structures of reasoning, and forms of discourse.
This volume in the NATO Special Programme on Advanced Educational Technology is based on an international conference on situated cognition and learning technologies.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-XII
Discourse, Tools, and Reasoning: Essays on Situated Cognition....Pages 1-20
Front Matter....Pages 21-21
Constructing Meaning from Space, Gesture, and Speech....Pages 23-40
Centers of Coordination: A Case and Some Themes....Pages 41-62
Animated Texts: Selective Renditions of News Stories....Pages 63-86
To Resolve a Technical Problem Through Conversation....Pages 87-110
The Blackness of Black: Color Categories as Situated Practice....Pages 111-140
Front Matter....Pages 141-141
Reasonable Uncertainties: Parents’ Talk About Caring for Children with Chronic Renal Failure....Pages 143-168
Syncretic Literacy in a Samoan American Family....Pages 169-202
Other Voices, Other Minds: The Use of Reported Speech in Group Therapy Talk....Pages 203-223
Situational Effects in Computer-Based Problem Solving....Pages 224-239
Front Matter....Pages 241-241
Discourse and Development: Notes from the Field....Pages 243-264
Interactional Perspectives on the Use of the Computer and on the Technological Development of a New Tool: The Case of Word Processing....Pages 265-287
What Organizes Our Problem-Solving Activities?....Pages 288-311
Understanding Symbols with Intermediate Abstractions: An Analysis of the Collaborative Construction of Mathematical Meaning....Pages 312-335
Strategy-Specific Information Access in Knowledge Acquisition from Hypertext....Pages 336-358
Front Matter....Pages 359-359
Talking About Reasoning: How Important Is the Peer in Peer Collaboration?....Pages 361-384
Seeing the Light: Discourse and Practice in the Optics Lab....Pages 385-405
Learning to Argue in Family Shared Discourse: The Reconstruction of Past Events....Pages 406-442
Discourse in the Adult Classroom: Rhetoric as Technology for Dialogue....Pages 443-458
Back Matter....Pages 459-483
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