Ramos System: method for multimodal capture of collaborative writing processes in pairs in real time and space in the classroom

Abstract

A large number of studies on real-time writing processes apply methods and techniques for data collection, under experimental methodological conditions. This article presents a multimodal capture system (visual, audio and written), which provides the researcher with simultaneous information of the writing process across the time and space of the classroom (ecological and didactic context). Visual recording is done through video cameras, capturing the context of the classroom and the interaction between students and teacher; audio recording is done through digital recorders and microphones, capturing the spontaneous speech of the writing process of students and the dialogue between the participants; the written registration is performed through smart pens and the HandSpy program, capturing the pen strokes on the sheet of paper. We describe each of these instruments, how they are used and the synchronization technique, generating a single media (film-synchronized). To illustrate how the Ramos System works, its importance and the advantages it offers to better understand the process of textual production (textual genesis) in didactic and ecological context, we present a qualitative and microgenetic analysis of spontaneous pauses made by a pair of students (9 years old) while writing an invented story.