Building intersubjectivity at a distance during the collaborative writing of fairytales

This paper introduces intersubjectivity as a concept playing a crucial role in collaborative tasks, even when performed between partners at a distance. Two 5th grade classes from two European countries (Italy and Greece), collaborated in writing fairytales inspired by philosophically relevant issues. The software supporting the task is an asynchronous virtual environment. Videos recorded in the Italian class and materials posted on the platform were analyzed using qualitative approaches and discourse analysis. The case-study discussed shows how the construction of intersubjectivity at a distance is a complex process involving many aspects. The main results highlight how participants: (a) use the narrative structure as a pre-requisite to build an intersubjective space where partners' representation plays an important role; (b) exploit to a high degree the intellectual reasoning needed to accomplish the task in a truly collaborative way; (b) attain a fine tuning of reflective and metacognitive skills fostering a genuine interdependency during the task. Within this process, computer mediation amplifies the partners' “presence” all through the creative writing process, expanding [Bruner, J., 2002. Making stories: law, literature, life. Farrar Straus & Giroux] definition of writing as an activity where the “audience” plays a fundamental role as a “co-author”.