One challenge in seminar-style postgraduate courses is that some students are uncomfortable with discussing course content and concepts among their peers and in front of the lecturer in seminars. This article is a case study of the incorporation of Google Form questions into seminars in a postgraduate Economic History course, a tool intervention undertaken as a response to the challenge of some students’ seminar reticence. The study explores whether the tool intervention can from students’ perspectives stimulate conversation, and examines whether the objectives of the students and the lecturer were aligned in the learning activity. The article draws on two theories to frame the research: Engestrom’s (2001) third generation Activity Theory, employed to locate change-enabling contradictions and the objects of the educational activity, and Laurillard’s (2002) Conversational Framework as a theory of learning wherein students and the teacher interface with mutually accessible concepts. The study draws on interview data from structured interviews with students at the end of the course. The article contends that Google Forms are assistive in stimulating conversations around core concepts, and that a quaternary contradiction emerged between the lecturer and the individual student’s objects in the educational activity

中文翻译：

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Google表单可以刺激基于讨论的研讨会中的对话吗？活动理论的观点

研讨会式研究生课程的一个挑战是，有些学生不愿意在同伴之间以及研讨会的讲师面前讨论课程内容和概念。本文是将Google Form问题纳入研究生经济史课程的研讨会的案例研究，这是对某些学生的研讨会沉默寡言的一种应对方式。该研究探讨了工具干预是否可以从学生的角度激发对话，并研究了学生和讲师的目标在学习活动中是否一致。本文采用两种理论来进行研究：Engestrom（2001）的第三代活动理论，用于定位促成变革的矛盾和教育活动的对象，和Laurillard（2002）的“会话框架”作为一种学习理论，其中，学生和教师之间具有相互可访问的概念。该研究借鉴了课程结束时与学生进行的结构化访谈中的访谈数据。文章认为，Google表单有助于激发围绕核心概念的对话，并且讲师与学生在教育活动中的对象之间出现了四元矛盾。