Collaborative Face to Face Educational Environment
“CoFFEE is a suite of applications to support collaborative problem-solving discussions in the classroom. Its main components are a series of tools for collaboration, shared work, individual work and communication. Around these core tools, several other components make it possible to plan, run or participate in a CoFFEE lesson (or session).” (Coffee-soft.org], retrieved 11:22, 12 January 2009 (UTC).)
CoFFEE is the main technology produced in the EU [1] project. The software itself is {{citation|complemented by pedagogical scenarii - customisable lesson plans that are written by the projects researchers. These scenarii offer a good starting point for teachers who want to start using CoFFEE. They include both files that teachers can plug into CoFFEE to run a lesson plan, as well as a written step-by-step lesson plan instructing the teacher on all the relevant aspects of running a CoFFEE supported classroom activity. ([2], retrieved 11:22, 12 January 2009 (UTC))
Architecture of the CoFFEE system
CoFFEE lessons are called Sessions. A session can be a short part of a whole lesson or span several lessons over a period of several weeks. Such a session is composed of a number of distinct Steps, each with different tools or tool combinations. During the lesson, the teacher can navigate from step to step. A Step may contain a single CoFFEE tool, or a combination of up to 5 different tools.
Learner Tools
From the "Coffee discusser" tool the learner can access the various learning tools:
- Threaded discussion tool with several extra features, e.g. manage several topics at the same time
- Graphical discussion tool (with grid and time organisation)
- Co-Writer tool
- Positionometer
- Presence and learner groups tool
- Repository
- Chat tool
- Quick messaging tool
- Private note tool. Each other tool also can be configured for private use only.
Additional tools are available as plugins, e.g.
- Streaming tool
- IE Explorer tool
- Document browser tool
Teacher Controller tool
The Controller tool
- can manage steps and monitor what students do (except private tools)
- organise sessions and group formation
Lesson planner tool
- This tool can import templates that then can be adapted
- Session Editor allows for advanced configuration of components and to create templates
- The Class editor: Define students and passwords, can also assign students to groups
The replayer tool =
The Replayer (available ass Tatiana ?) can replay all the details of a sessions. It's both an evaluation and a research tool.
Formats
A template is a combination of tools and steps that are designed to support an activity type (e.g brainstorming, planning or problem solving) within a particular setting (small groups, whole-class, a particular age-group).
Technically, a template consists of a session file, a description file (in rtf format) and a template information file (xml), which can all be created in the Lesson Planner's Session Editor.
Links
- Lead2Learning Research web site
- Coffee-soft.org Product web site (downloads and support)
Bibliography
- De Chiara, R., Di Matteo, A., Manno, I., Scarano, V. (2007), CoFFEE: Cooperative Face2Face Educational Environment, in Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Collaborative Computing: Networking, Applications and Worksharing (CollaborateCom 2007), New York, USA, November 12-15, 2007. PDF
- Grieco, R., Malandrino, D., Palmieri, G., Scarano, V. (2007), Face2Face social bookmarking with recommendations: WebQuests in the classrooms, in Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Collaborative Computing: Networking, Applications and Worksharing (CollaborateCom 2007), New York, USA, November 12-15, 2007. PDF
Ligorio, M.B., Tateo, L., Manno, I., De Chiara R. and Iannaccone, A. (2007), COFFEE: a software to blend face-to-face and written communication in collaborative problem solving-based scenarios, in Summer School "Building Knowledge for deep Understanding" at the institute for knowledge innovation and technology, Toronto, Canada, August 7-10, 2007. PDF