Summary, part 1: Computer Supported Collaborative Learning

Summary, part 1: Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Anders Mørch TOOL 5100, 22.05.07

Outline • CSCW and groupware • The dialogical approach to the integration of social and cognitive factors • Basic concepts and conceptual frameworks • What is CSCL • Chapter 2 • Chapter 4 • Chapter 5 • Chapter 7

CSCW and groupware • Features of groupware • Concepts in CSCW • Implications for CSCL

Aspects of groupware • Common task / goal • Interface to a shared environment • In addition, because there are more than two users, additional implications are • Division of labor, explicit role assignment • Awareness of the other users who are interacting within the shared environment (since they are often not F2F)

Shared spaces • Also referred to as “common information spaces” (Bannon & Bødker, 1997) • At least three ways to design them • Extending a single user environment to a multi user environment (technology approach) • Identifying a collaborative situation that is currently unsupported by technology (pratice-based approach) • Basing the design on theories, models or design principles representing general (communication) activities or application domains (theory-based approach)

Basic concepts in CSCW • Ellis et al. identify the following terms and notions as basic for CSCW research and design: • Communication • Coordination • Collaboration (sometimes divided into two) • Cooperation • Collaboration • Time/place matrix

Time/place matrix

Implications for CSCL • One of the approaches to CSCL we address in this course is to use groupware for educational purposes • What additional dimensions would be necessary or recommended to add to the time/place matrix in order to be able to better account for the factors that emerge in educational contexts (e.g. classrooms, work & learning) ?

Rommetveit on intersubjectivity • Proposes a dialogical approach to the integration of social (group) and the cognitive (individual) • Main perspective to research this phenomenon is communication and based on the hypothesis that • Thought can tell us something about language; • Language can tell us something about thought • The complexity of this dialectic is a depended on treating language as: 1) speech, or 2) writing • Inherited from Vygotsky and developed further • Key proponents today: Engeström, Wertsch

Rommetveit’s distinctions • Monological approach • Associated with the cognitive science, thought is monologue with one self • Thought can be modeled to high accuracy and the computer is well equipped for thus purpose • Key proponents: Simon and Newell; Anderson • Dialogical approach • Mind embedded in a social context and mediated by a cultural collective • Additional proponents: Säljö, Wertsch

Basic concepts and conceptual frameworks • Intersubjectivity and common ground • Rommetveit; Clark; Baker • Socio-cognitive studies • Piaget; Dillenbourg • Activity theory • Engeström • Concepts used in Stahl (2006) • Internalization and externalization (from Vygotsky) + others depicted in Figures 9.1, 15.3)

Intersubjectivity and grounding • Intersubjectivity (Rommetveit) • Spoken utterances driven by speaker and listener’s goal of “mutual attunement,” reaching for a shared social reality (external state of affairs) • Neither private nor public (objective), but shared by two or more people who (get to) know(s) each other • Grounding (e.g. Clark) • This is related to intersubjectivity but not the same • Deliberately contributing to creating shared meaning rather than adaptation in everyday communication • Shared subjective reality rather than social reality

Socio-cognitive studies • Originated with Piaget and later extended to include social influences on individual development • Unit of analysis is individual development in the context of social interaction, implying two planes: social and individual • An issue becomes how to intertwine the two planes • Studies by experimentation often using by pre- and post tests to e.g. assess the relative usefulness of collaborative learning to individual learning • This approach is not covered in the course, but has been influential in CSCL

Activity theory and the sociocultural approach • Unit of analysis is ‘activity’: individuals acting together to achieve goals mediated by artifacts and rules to guide the activity • Vygotsky’s ‘genetic law’ which says that inter-psychological (social) processes precedes intra-psychological (thought) processes is central to this perspective • The role of mediating artifacts in these processes, from everyday physical tools and computers to abstract tools like language play important roles

Concepts used in Stahl (2006) • Look at Figures 9.1, 15.3 • This does not constitute a theoretical framework like Activity theory • It is a collection of concepts that forms a “process model” of collaborative learning (group cognition) • The concepts originate from multiple theoretical frameworks, including social and cognitive perspectives • The common perspective (like communication in Rommetveit) uniting them could be “group talk”

What is CSCL • CSCL: Computer Supported Collaborative Learning • A field concerned with collaborative learning and how it can be supported by computers • The role of technology as “mediating artifact”, i.e. mediation becomes a key concern • It has been compared to the role of language in conventional education (e.g. Vygotsky)

Basic approaches to CSCL • According to Ludvigsen and Mørch (2007): • Systemic approach • Cognitive science perspective • Dialogical approach • Socio-cultural perspective • Both approaches are important to understand and design for CSCL

Systemic approach • The systemic approach gives useful guidelines for how we can build support for cognitive processes of importance to collaboration like hypothesis generation, data interpretation, and scientific explanation. • However, this model-based approach to learning and cognition needs to be supplemented by a situated approach from a social and cultural perspective to provide a full account of CSCL • Leads to dialogical approach

Dialogical approach • The dialogical approach to CSCL provides new analytic concepts to analyze how students and teachers interact in collaborative learning. • The dialogic approach gives broader insights and explanations concerning the development of traditional skills, and pays particular attention to skills such as those for communication, coordination, information sharing, collaboration, negotiation, critiquing, and decision-making, • And how to design CSCL tools to support these activities

Collaborative learning • Learning in groups and learning through virtual collaboration (using collaboration technology) • Involves 2 or more participants • Usually 2 or more students, but can also be one teacher and one or more students • An goal of CL is to take part in in a knowledge creation process that produces shared results that exceeds what individuals can achieve on their own • Group cognition is a term coined to understand CL by extending a cognitive perspective (Stahl, 2006)

Cited shortcomings of CL • Collaborative learning have been criticized as having similar problems to those identified in problem-based learning and cased-based instruction (where learners work in groups) • The problem of lurkers (free passengers) • The complexity of modeling real situations (who contributes what to the group outcome) • Scaling up (school setting not realistic to prepare for paid work) • Process becomes more important than outcome • Many of these issues can be addressed by improvements to CSCL tools and environments and of integrating individual and collaborative learning

The role of the computer in CSCL • Provide shared spaces (groupware for learning) • Peer-to-peer (handheld devices for classroom interaction) • Mediating artifact (ICT seen from the point of view of use) • Design of new functionalities into tools and environments (e.g. software agents; awareness) • Innovative new tools • New collaborative environments

Chapter 2 in Stahl book • Explains the use of LSA (Latent Semantic Analysis) for computer support in learning • What is important here is the role of feedback from the computer as tool • When the the tool is a “textual artifact” LSA can be used, it can not be used for visual artifacts • The CSCL dimension of the chapter is associated with co-located users (2 or more students sitting in front of the same computer), but the implications of LSA to this is not demonstrated

Chapter 4 in Stahl book • This goes into some depth on arguing for the role of design environments to support learning • It associates design with “interpretation,” in that multiple designers have different points of view on an evolving design; this is developed by referencing phenomenology and tacit knowing • Presents the Hermes design environment as an example • Stahl do not end the chapter with “design principles” for CSCL that he learned from design and use of Hermes (this is a shortcoming)

Chapter 5 in Stahl book • This is the first chapter that is about distributed CL and addresses it by extending single user design environment into collaboration environ. • Takes the Domain Oriented Design Environment (DODE) framework and “evolves” it into a Collaborative Information Environment (CIE) • Example: NetSuite --> WebNet • Look at and understand Figure 5.3 in this regard • Does this seem like a useful approach to CSCL?

Chapter 7 in Stahl book • This is arguable the best Chapter of part 1 of the Stahl book, so pay particular attention to this • Here he operates with collaboration technology and shows how one can extend a CSCW system (groupware) into educational technology • Example: BSCW --> BSCL • Identify characteristics of collaborative knowledge building • Look at and understand Figure 7.1

Summary, part 1: Computer Supported Collaborative Learning