HYCOMOTO: Tutorial for Nordichi 2022.

We propose a tutorial for a Hybrid Collaborative Modelling Tool (HYCOMOTO): https://protobtech.dk/hycomoto/ as a workshop for a duration of three hours. The purpose of the tool is to introduce generative and collaborative modelling resulting in higher level of abstraction from large textual content. The tool employs two main parts, the first part is an online environment that generates a word cloud, referred to as the word cloud generator. The second part is a set of reusable wooden plates, that are referred to as word plates, which are used for physically modelling the content from the word cloud. These two parts of the tool are handled by two separate members of a team who are synchronous online but not essentially co-located. The online environment is handled by a cloud builder and the word plates are handled by a model builder. This setup has been tested twice, once with a group of four teams and another time with a group of three teams. Based on the preliminary test and its analysis we find that using such a hybrid tool can result in collaborative meaning making and an alternative understanding of large textual content. We hypothesize that this occurs because of collaborative model building, as the textual understanding of participants gets collaboratively negotiated and translated by reflective embodied action. We would like to further test, refine and disseminate the tool as an opensource kit, both as a meaning-forming and meaningful platform to a wider audience through a tutorial at Nordichi 2022.