Using a shared workspace and wireless laptops to improve collaborative project learning in an engineering design class

Two different technologies, groupware (a shared workspace) and shared wireless laptop computers, were implemented in a project design class in a civil engineering course. The research interest was in the way these technologies supported resource sharing within and across project groups and in the forms of group collaboration that resulted. The initiative was evaluated using both qualitative (e.g. pyramid discussion) and quantitative methods (e.g. survey, logs of usage). The results showed that these technologies helped improve group sharing of resources and supported different kinds of group collaboration. The shared workspace provided a location-independent central repository of resources around which group activities were coordinated whereas the laptops provided a focal point for the face-to-face discussion of these resources. The paper discusses the importance of embedding supportive technologies and the different forms of learner collaboration mediated by each technology.