CoFFEE documentation version 4.0

Note: Documentation is also included in the installation of CoFFEE.

 Quickstart guide (just to get you going)

 User guide to CoFFEE (installation and first use)

 CoFFEE user manual (technical user information)

The science behind CoFFEE

Find out more about the science and people behind CoFFEE on the LEAD project website.

CoFFEE - the Book

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TALKING OVER THE COMPUTER

PEDAGOGICAL SCENARIOS TO BLEND COMPUTER
AND FACE TO FACE INTERACTION

Edited by:  M. B. Ligorio, J. Andriessen, M. Baker, N. Knoller and L.Tateo
Publisher: SCRIPTAWEB

Why should teachers use a computer to support a face to face discussion, occurring in the classroom? At first sight this proposal may sound unreasonable, but... think about it: how easy is it to support, guide and record a good discussion in the classroom? Not easy at all! This book shows how you may lead your students towards deeper and more effective discussions by introducing the right educational technology and well-designed pedagogical scenarios as supports for collaborative problem solving.

Through four chapters the book first outlines what collaborative learning (CL) is and what the main issues are that teachers are concerned with when they choose to use this educational strategy (Chapter 1). The second Chapter draws attention to how far technology can be a significant agent in shaping the way CL is designed and implemented. Chapter 3 is about computer support for collaborative problem solving discussions in the classroom. A particular computer package is presented, called CoFFEE - Cooperative Face2Face Educational Environment. CoFFEE specifically supports communication between students sitting in the same classroom, working next to one another. In fact, CoFFEE offers occasions and stimuli for more structured, in-depth reasoning and discussion right there, in the classroom. The final chapter (Chapter 4) reframes the use of CoFFEE with the introduction of pedagogical scenarios, which are grounded descriptions of using CoFFEE in educational contexts where educational goals, steps, timing and tools are reported. Six pedagogical scenarios actually implemented in classrooms, across different countries and different school grades, are provided.

This book really helps teachers, student teachers, educational practitioners, educationists, and educational researchers to translate theoretical insights about collaborative learning, problem solving and discussion into practical suggestions. Readers will see theoretically complex models used in schools in an easy way, based on the support of a user-friendly and fun medium, actually addressing user needs and educational goals.

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