Collaborative Face to Face Educational Environment

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“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 LEAD 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. ([1], 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.

Coffee system diagram, reproduced from coffee-soft.org without special permission

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

(more needed ...)

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.

Software

Links

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
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