Kathrine A. Nygård Tool 5100, 22.05.07

1. Summary of part II and III in: Gerry Stahl, Group Cognition.Computer Support for collaborative knowledge Kathrine A. Nygård Tool 5100, 22.05.07

2. Central concepts(Relating to the 2. C and L in CSCL) • Collaboration and group cognition • Learning (as social practice): … a sociocultural view builds on the assumption that learning has to do with how people appropriate and master tools for thinking and acting that exist in a given culture or society (Wertsch I. Säljö, 1998:149). • Knowledge building: knowledge as a product • Intersubjectivity • Communicative space between subjects. Shared understanding of the situation (‘joint meaning-making’ is the term used by Stahl for this)

3. A diagram of knowledge – building processes. Opportunities for Computer Support (Renate’s slide)

4. Collaborative Knowledge Building • Computer support should: • Provide workspace for articulation, interaction, development and approaching consensus of ideas • Afford, facilitate and encourage multi-phased community processes • Provide a medium for formulate, represent and communicate ideas at various phases • Preserve ideas and various formulations for reviewing, reflection and communication independent of time/place Ch. 9

5. Meaning making • Culturally defined, social act • Orientation toward an audience • Mediated through artifacts Ch. 11

6. Multi theoretical approach in contribution towards a paradigm in CSCL (a visionary view) Four themes, supplementing each other and offering integral contributions to the theory: • Collaborative knowledge building • Group and personal perspectives • Mediation by artifacts • Interaction analysis Ch. 11

7. Mediation by artifacts • Mediation: something happens by means of, or through the involvement of a mediating object • We control our actions (behavior) through the mediation of tools and signs • Artifacts: Meaningful objects created by people for specific uses (signs/language, pens, digital tools) • Artifacts as cultural building blocks • The artifacts are to cultural evolution what the gene is to biological evolution (Wartofsky I Engeström 1999) Ch. 11

8. Interaction analysis • How do people rediscover meaning in artifacts? • “Do artifacts embody meaning or do they embody meaningful traces of human activity? .. Meaning is not in the artifact; rather it is in the total situation that includes artifacts, minds and social practices(240)” • Bakhtin: An utterance is meaningful only in relation backwards, to previous utterances and forward to emerging or anticipated utterances (audience) • Heidegger: meaning is situated within the extended dimensions of human temporality • Engeström: The activity as the unit of analysis • Builds upon ethnomethodology (Garfinkel) and converstion analysis (Sacks) – Essential tool: Video • Interpreting data on the micro-level in relation to the larger discorse and activity Ch. 11

9. Example 1SimRocket • Data from a 68 sec. long extract – a “collaborative moment” • Analyzing the dialogue in a small group working together on solving a problem • This is a ‘co-located’ CSCL setting • The interpretation of the artifact and interaction with it on an equal basis with the dialogue • Problem: Come up with a pair of rockets that can be used experimentally to determine whether a rounded or a pointed nose cone will perform better (on the basis of a list) Ch 12

10. Interaction analysisUnderstanding utterances • Indexical utterance: The meaning of the utterances rely on the context in which they are said with implicit references to elements in the situation • Elliptical utterance: Refers to what is said in the past • Projective utterance: Refers to a desired future state Ch. 12

11. Extract from the collaborative moment: Confusion/The Repair 1:22:10 Chuck =But it’s not the same engine 1:22:11 Jamie Yeah, It is = 1:22:12 Brent Yes it is, 1:22:13 Jamie [Compare two n one Brent [Number two Ch. 12

12. Research goals • Different aspects of digital competency • Children’s knowledge about rockets in the rocket-age • Ability to carry out experiments: One variable while everything else is constant • Learning about new software-tools • Ability to understand the embedded meaning of the software Ch. 13

13. Embedded meaning in the software • In our example: The structure of the list • In general: the computer software program is an artifact that embodies inferred, referred, derived and stored intentionality (supporting the L in CSCL) • Could you think of examples of what would be software artifacts’ embodied intentionality? Ch. 13

14. Classifying artifacts Artifacts are human made and have an embedded meaning • Physical artifacts • Material /meaning in the physical world • Symbolic artifacts • Tied to activities in the world: Oral and written language (symbols) • Computational artifacts • To be effective in use the user must uncover the embedded meaning • Cognitive artifacts • Internalization of skills into mental tools Ch. 13

15. The structure of the rocket-list Four variables: Nose-cone(2), Number of fins (2), Surface texture (2) and rocket engine (4) Ch. 13

16. “Same”, “Different” and “Compare” • Understanding accrues when the group’s understanding changes from a model of standard configuration to one of pared configurations • Everyday concepts are used to develop working knowledge of scientific experimentation (holding variables constant) • Meaning making on two levels: • Group: Building shared meaning through discourse • Individual: The participants individual interpretation of the discourse (in the group interaction) • group learning understood as an basis for individual learning. In addition to providing the cultural background, motivational support and interaction it is also a mechanism for ensuring individual learning(responding to the argument that group learning is irrelevant because of the temporality of the groups unities) Ch. 13

17. Sketching a theory of building collaborative knowing • Influenced by Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter (1996), who were the originators of the term ‘knowledge building’ in context of CSCL • Focus on brief episodes of group discourse which builds meaning (to be interpreted by members and sedimented in artifacts) as a way of understanding collaboration as different from individual learning • The theory frame suggested is grounded in empirical studies Ch. 15

18. Understanding the situated data • 4 Phases: • Breakdown in understanding • Collaborative moment • Efforts in reaching shared understanding • Reaching shared understanding • The situatednes of the utterances: Explicated trough interpreting the discourse (as a whole) • Teacher role: Creating a productive context for discourse • Learning to communicative interaction in a small group Ch. 15

19. Explicating tacit knowing • Tacit knowing: Being able to do but not to explain your actions (Michael Polanyi, 1966) • Tacit (practical) knowing has epistemological priority over explicit (theoretical) knowing (Heidegger, 1996) • Interplay between tacit and explicit knowing (the current focus of attention) • Interpretation is making something explicit • Discourse is interpretation (making explicit) • Meaning expressed through the network of consecutive utterances within the context • Vygotsky: Internalization/Externalization Ch. 15

20. Building collaborative knowing as a cyclic process • Relates the group process to individual flow • The affordances of artifacts • Social interaction as producing, reproducing and habituating the group (interactive unit), individuals (roles and mental subjects) and situation (network of artifacts) • Focus on micro-processes • In relation to the larger cultural-historical context we are a part of Ch. 15

21. Meaning and individual interpretation (1) • Vygotsky: Internalization/externalization • Ex. mother and small child: the evolution of gestures into speech and speech into thought • Pointing as a shared artifact • Shared language (social) • Egocentric speech • Inner speech • Thought Ch. 16

22. Meaning and individual interpretation (2) • Cognitive artifacts: internalized forms of cultural artifacts with it’s origin in the interpersonal world • The world: A cultural situation including a totality of meaningful artifacts • Human understanding based on the tacit pre-understanding of this world (Heidegger) Ch. 16

23. Scientific implications • Externalization: Learning is made visible through the creation and use of artifacts • Scientific objectivity • Intersubjective validity: meaning as shared and rigorous interpretation • Multiple researchers from individual perspective • Professional and methodological training Ch. 16

24. Meaning and individual interpretation (3) • Relations between meaning and interpretation is central for understanding the mediation of small group interaction • Meaning making as collective vs psychological process • Reciprocal relationship between meaning (as shared product of knowledge building) and interpretation (as recognizing meaning of artifact- individual interpretation) • Artifact as retainers of intersubjective meaning (what would be an example?) • Mediated cognition Ch. 16

25. Shared meaning - critical view • Group meaning is constructed by the interaction of the individual members (doing their own interpretations) • Shared knowledge • Overlapping • One individual sharing her knowledge with others • Group knowledge achieved through discourse • Acquisition metaphor vs Participation metaphor Ch. 17

26. Different perspectives on knowledge construction • Collaborative knowledge building (Bereiter) • Social psychology (Resnick, Levine, Teasley) • Distributed cognition (Hutchins, Salomon) • Situated cognition (Schön, Suchman etc.) • Situated learning (Lave & Wenger) • Zone of proximal dev. (Vygotsky) • Activity theory (Cole, Engeström, Kaptelinin, Nardi) • Ethnomethodology (Garfinkel) Ch. 17

27. The Virtual Math Team (VTM) • Collaborative problem-solving of mathematics problems online (Math forum Web site) • Chatrooms: small groups of about 4. based on interests • Discusses a given math problem for one hour without supervision (Interaction is logged) • Can later submit problem - receive expert feedback • Follow-up over time (analyzing) • Micro-analytic study in virtual setting Ch. 17

28. Aims and hypothesis • Analyze concrete situations of collaboration and student interaction in building knowledge • Overcoming some of the shortcomings from SimRocket • Over time in multiple sessions • No supervisor participation • Online communication is fully logged • Collaborative learning H0: • A small online group of learners can – on occasions and under favorable conditions - build collaborative knowing and shared meaning that exceeds the knowledge of the group’s individual members (359). Ch. 17

29. Theoretical concepts • Communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) • Legitimate, peripheral participation • Boundary objects • Boundary objects are objects which are both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and the constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites. They are weakly structured in common use, and become strongly structured in individual-site use. These objects may be abstract or concrete (Star & Grisemer, 1989:393). • Intersubjectivity (Rommetveit, 1992) and meaning-making • What would be illustrations of these concepts from 1) Stahl’s book, 2) your group projects? Ch. 18

30. Methodology • Ethnomethodology (EM) (Garfinkel, 1967) • Suggestion for method in CSCL • Resemblance to grounded theory • Bottom up-approach: theoretical analysis grounded in empirical data • Video analysis as premise • Interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson 1995) • Discourse analysis / Conversational analysis Ch. 18

31. 5 policies for EM • Data are: • Everywhere: Member-methods • Visible: Rules for hum. practice, tacit practice, group negotiation • Grounded: Empirical categories, “bracket out” preexisting theory • Meaningful: Mediated everyday interaction in spesf. Activities with others “makes sense” • accountability • Situated: Understood in light of that situation • indexical Ch. 18