On modeling children's non-verbal interactions during computer mediated music composition: a case study in primary school peers

The proposed paper aims to model the non-verbal interactions that occur during a computer-mediated music composition process between pupils in primary school within a collaborative framework. The socio-cultural approach, drawn from Vygotsky's theoretical context, is being further developed and some of its aspects are outlined and used as a framework to further understand the collaborative processes that occur during collaborative learning. The latter is achieved by identifying effective peer's verbal and non-verbal interactions in a collaborative computer-based music composition environment (CCMCE).The present paper aims to explore and model children's patterns of body language signs which contribute to measure peer's active and passive collaborative learning in CCMCE. Experimental results from a case study in a primary state school in Greece promise to yield important cues for peer's thinking, concentration and mental processing that will be useful to anyone engaged in examining children's computer-mediated collaborative interactions.