Representation and Social Interaction in Energy Theater

Rachel just walked into the videographers' room and asked me if I had seen anything interesting today. Of course I've seen many interesting things, but there was only one that made me jump up to find a piece of paper to write on it.

I was observing students in E1 working through their first implementation of Energy Theater, where they were trying to work out the energy transfers and transformations during the process of drawing a bow. They decided on their objects of interest fairly quickly, and then spent a long time discussing how much energy should go where. While they were negotiating this there were clearly some students who felt confident about what was happening, and others who felt less confident. While they were negotiating, I noticed the group shift their attention back and forth between gesturing with their representation (the regions laid out on the floor) and discussing with each other several times.

I think that because the representation and the social interaction are located in the same space, Energy Theater makes this type of switch much easier than when students are working on another representation such as a blackboard. When working on a blackboard, the confident students standing closest to the board can plow ahead with their plan without the consent of their colleagues. However in Energy Theater attention directed towards the shared representation is also directed towards the shared social space, which makes it more apparent when anybody is confused or uncomfortable. I think it is easier for groups to form consensus when working with a representation that happens to be their colleagues.

I've read a bit about the design behind Energy Theater... is this something that people had in mind when they came up with it?