Divisions of labor in school and in the workplace: Comparing computer- and paper-supported activities across settings

The aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of how computer use shapes and is shaped by the organization of work and learning in modern institutional life. My approach is broadly comparative and grounded in two case studies from distinct institutional settings, one a classroom and the other a workplace. In both settings, people worked and learned, together and apart. It is the wax and wane of together and apart that this analysis addresses. In so doing, my analysis offers a few grounded concepts for thinking about the forms that collaboration takes, how media support it, and how it takes on meanings for institutional participants in ways that vary with surrounding organizational conditions.