‘How Do We Move Back?’ – A Case Study of Joint Problem-Solving at an Interactive Tabletop Mediated Activity

Abstract

The interactive tabletop activity ‘Orbitia’ aims at developing collaborative conduct among participants. We provide a detailed account of how a group of three participants jointly solve a problem in the Orbitia environment. In our conversation analytic case study, we analyze the situated processes at the group level of description to develop a better understanding of how problems are jointly solved in a group at an ITT-mediated activity and to gain design knowledge about inducing such episodes. More precisely, we identified six problem-solving moves: signaling a problem and accounting for it, formulating the problem and converging on a solution, seeking and identifying the competent first agent, co-instructing the first agent, assessing the solution(s), taking up a solution.