The Task Sharing Framework: A Generic Approach to Scaffolding Collaboration and Meta-Collaboration in Educational Software.

This paper introduces a novel and general framework which operationalises the sharing of collaborative tasks between multiple users. In contrast to the majority of existing software used in a collaborative context, software developed under this framework provides each user with their own identical yet independent copy of the task which, by default, only they themselves can manipulate. This represents a departure from traditional turn-taking and dual control collaborative interaction styles and is intended to reduce the domination of one user over others as well as to provide the space for effective collaboration. The visual representation of agreement and disagreement is particularly emphasised since this has the potential to constructively mediate the resolution of collaborative disputes, especially if agreement is required at various points during the task. Under the framework, it is also possible to emulate traditional collaborative interaction styles and, more importantly, dynamically vary between them, thus manipulating the collaborative affordances of the user interface. This is likely to scaffold conversation between the users about how they are working together to complete the task; users would be collaborating about their own collaborative process. The framework therefore holds significant potential to scaffold not only collaboration but also meta-collaboration.