Enacting artifact-based activities for social technologies in language learning using a design-based research approach

This paper presents the results of a three-year design-based research (DBR) study on the use of social technologies for collaborative construction of shareable artifacts by groups of learners. The study builds on the learning theory of constructionism which assumes that knowledge is better gained when students find this knowledge for themselves while engaging in the making of concrete and public artifacts. In an attempt to infuse elements of constructionism in the use of social technologies, we tasked groups of learners in language learning courses with collaborative construction of an artifact using social technologies. A unique characteristic of our approach is that the process that students adopted and the way technology and context fostered this procedure was analyzed. The cycle of DBR fueled deep insights into the learning processes that emerged through the construction of an artifact, thus deepening our understanding of the multimode and multi-trajectory relationship between theory, artifact construction and social technologies. For sustaining and orchestrating social construction of artifacts by groups of learners, a set of instructional elements emerged, as well as implications for enacting social technology innovations in real-life classrooms.