Sociomaterial Configurations and Resources Supporting Observations in Outdoor Learning: Results from Multiple Iterations of the Tree Investigator Project

Guided by a sociocultural framework that considers the intersection of people, tools, and settings, we describe research and development aims of a mobile app and the pedagogy supporting its use in outdoor learning. Our research investigates sociomaterial configurations that can influence youths’ observational practices with tablet-mediated collaborative knowledge-building activities. Our work includes field tests with hundreds of learners and seven design-based research (DBR) iterations with 185 consented subjects. We report findings across these iterations of research, which are related to (1) the material conditions of the technology design and redevelopment and (2) the evolving theoretical framework focused on the concepts of scientific talk and practice. This chapter describes how we conducted our iterations of research leading to our trialogical approach to learning. As such, we describe how the materiality of the outdoor setting influenced our work and how various sociomaterial configuration for learning emerged based on our research findings. Implications for tablet-supported collaborative learning and technologically enhanced informal learning are drawn in the conclusion of this chapter.