Face-to-face talk to support computer-mediated discussion in a primary school literacy practice.

Abstract In this study, Dutch primary school children used a computer-mediated discussion forum to discuss the concept of horror stories. In such discussion forums children often write their contributions individually. This paper presents an ongoing empirical study in which the contributions to an electronic discussion forum from children working individually were compared to contributions from children working in dyads. Preliminary results indicated that children working in dyads around the computer wrote more contributions to the computer-mediated discussion and were more attentive to the collaborative process, than children who wrote their contributions individually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]