Abstract

In many workplaces and educational settings today, individuals are required to collaborate with others on tasks that involve the use of digital technologies such as computers as well as the use of printed materials such as manuals and forms. People who work together in such “information-rich” environments; that is, spaces where they have to attend to a multitude of displays of information simultaneously to accomplish a task, typically use language, gestures, and other bodily behaviors to establish a mutual orientation toward the same objects in the environment, that is, a common “domain of scrutiny.” Borrowing from the methodology of conversation analysis, this study investigates the strategic deployment of gestures, as they are embedded in the on-going talk during computer tutorials, to identify the role that these gestures play in the creation of shared ‘domains of scrutiny’ and the sequential progression of task activities. This research contributes to a growing number of studies that examine the interactions between/among practitioners as they interact with technology.