Using Chat, Whiteboard and Wiki to support knowledge building

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Using Chat, Whiteboard and Wiki to support
knowledge building

• Gerry STAHL
• Drexel University, USA
• Juan Dee WEE, Chee-Kit LOOI
• Nanyang Technological University, National
  Institute of Education, Singapore

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KB in VMT

• Analyses of knowledge building in classrooms
  often focus on the use of CSILE or its successor,
  Knowledge Forum (Scardamalia Bereiter, 2006)
• These are asynchronous discussion forums
• Discourse among students can be more engaging in
  synchronous text chat, given the proper context.
• Virtual Math Teams (VMT) environment has been
  designed to foster collaborative knowledge
  building by supporting chat in small groups of
  students

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Flow of talk

• primarily report on trials using VMT in Singapore
• describe some trials with VMT in the USA

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Evolution of the VMT environment

• Simple text chat system (2003)
• Shared whiteboard (2006)
• Wiki (2007)

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(No Transcript)
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Shared Whiteboard
Chat line
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Shared Whiteboard and Chat line

• Posting of Maths Question by Teacher
• VMT Tools afford students to construct
  mathematical representations

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Wiki Tab
Summary Tab
Workspace Tab
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Tabs

• Workspace Tab - Students to solve problem
• Summary Tab - Post-Session Individual Reflections
• Wiki Tab Community memory

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VMT in a Singapore Junior College (ages 16-17)

• Engage students actively in deep conceptual
  mathematical activity
• Construction of math knowledge collaboratively in
  situations where students are not co-located.

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H2 mathematics - VMT Curriculum Framework
1
A
B
H2 Mathematics Lecture/ Tutorial Lessons
H2 Mathematics Assignments
2
C
4
3
VMT Chat Environment

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H2 mathematics - VMT Curriculum Framework
1
A
B
H2 Mathematics Lecture/ Tutorial Lessons
H2 Mathematics Assignments
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Arrow 1 indicates students applying the
knowledge learned from the lectures/tutorials to
solve problems in the assignment prior to
attending the lesson Arrow 2 indicates students
clarifying doubts with the teacher/peers
mathematical concepts during the lecture/tutorial
lesson
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H2 mathematics - VMT Curriculum Framework
C
4
3
VMT Chat Environment
Arrow 3 indicates students applying mathematical
concepts to solve GCC designed questions in the
VMT environment. Arrow 4 A focus group session
is conducted by the teacher to review the
problem-solving process.
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Participants

• Junior college students from Singapore (age 17)

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During VMT Training Session

• Students explore the VMT-Chat
• Teacher brief students

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3 Types of Problem Design

• Traditional closed-ended problem (TCEP) design
• Traditional opened-ended problem (TOEP) design
• Polyas problem-solving strategy design

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Traditional closed-ended problem (TCEP) design

• The sum of the first n terms of a series is given
  by the expression
• Show that the series is a geometric series.

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Traditional opened-ended problem (TOEP) design
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Polyas problem-solving strategy design

• First two stages of Polyas four stage
  problem-solving model (Polya, 1952)
• (1) understanding the problem
• (2) devising a plan to solve the problem

George Pólya 1887-1985
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Polyas problem-solving strategy design
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Polyas problem-solving strategy design

• Collaboratively explore mathematical concepts
• Justification of approaches to solve the problem
  to develop mathematical reasoning

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Knowledge Building across the 3 problem designs
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Data not systematically analyzed but some
observations
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Data collected VMT Chat Transcript
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Pivotal Contributions

• Analysis of Chat Interaction using the
  Collaboration Interaction Model
• Pivotal Contributions exerted major effects upon
  the progress of the student groups

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Polyas problem-solving strategy design
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VMT Chat Transcript
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Collaboration Interaction Model
Pivotal Contribution
Stage 1 How f(x) is a 1-1 function?
Pivotal Contribution
Stage 2 Using the knowledge of Composite
Functions to find range/domain.
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SUPPORTING EXTENDED KNOWLEDGE BUILDING IN VMT

• VMT environment is now expanded to include the
  chat rooms, a wiki, multiple shared whiteboards,
  browsers, a portal to the chat rooms and some
  social networking supports
• Used for a graduate online course on HCI in
  Drexel University.
• The course took place over ten weeks, with small
  workgroups of students meeting online each week
  to review academic papers and to accomplish
  weekly design projects.
• All the group work in chat rooms was summarized
  by the groups and posted on the wiki for sharing
  with the instructor and the other groups.
• The class as a whole built up knowledge about the
  course topic and documented its findings in the
  wiki, where students in future courses can build
  upon it further

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Structuring the entire experience

• the most important thing to do is to coordinate
  the various aspects of the environment and
  student experience
• the design of the problems,
• the formation and preparation of the groups,
• the uses of the technology,
• the seeding of the wiki and of its
  interconnections in the environment, the
  instructions to the students, and
• any feedback given to the students between
  sessions

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VMT vs discussion forums

• Chat is typically more intense, focused on the
  resolution of mathematics problems
• Shared whiteboard provides a flexible area to
  post drawings and textboxes that serve as
  knowledge artifacts for the group memory
• Wiki can supply a persistent memory store for the
  community, allowing the outcomes of the chats to
  be summarized onto web pages that support yet a
  different kind of discourse.

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Supporting different levels of KB

• Intermixed digital media support a complex
  process of knowledge building within different
  collaborative groupingsindividual, team, class
  and communityand across different
  temporalitiessynchronous, quasi-synchronous and
  asynchronous.

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Acknowledgements

• We will like to thank Jurong Junior College,
  the NIE Learning Sciences Lab, the American
  National Science Foundation, the Math Forum at
  Drexel University and the VMT team for making
  this research possible.