Communication Styles in Collaborative Peer Learning around Interactive Table

Despite technological, interaction and co-located collaboration advances on multi-touch interactive tables there is little or no knowledge of how people communicate around these surfaces. Communication is important as it acts as a tool for humans to express themselves. Through communication we are able to share information, ideas and emotions, make decisions and build relationships with people. Communication is a key aspect in our everyday life and it is therefore important to understand how we communicate around technology. My work examines the verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication when a group of people collaborate with each other around interactive tables. Findings from my research will provide the community with a deep and systematic analysis of how communication plays a role in the use interactive tables. This will lead to a repertoire of tools for designing and deploying applications on interactive tables that will better support collaboration through positive and meaningful communication. In this paper I will detail my experiences in dealing with video data and analysis.