Identification of patterns of tool use and sketching practices in a learning by design task

The complex interaction of tool use (both physical and digital) in face-to-face collaborative learning situations, and the role that these tools play in facilitating group work is increasingly important as tools for learning become more sophisticated and specialized. In this paper, a group of five high school students is studied as they engage in a learning by design task to design an educational resource about a local waterway. They carried out this design work in The Design Studio at the University of Sydney, using an iPad projected onto a whiteboard wall. Multiple streams of data were collected, visualized and analyzed, which allowed the overall patterns of tool use for all members of the group to be identified in relation to the development of their design. Two patterns of tool use are identified and analyzed according to the practice of sketching identified in other fields of design.