Summary, part 1: Computer Supported Collaborative Learning

1
Summary, part 1 Computer Supported
Collaborative Learning

• Anders Mørch
• TOOL 5100, 22.05.07

2
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

3
CSCW and groupware

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

4
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)

5
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)

6
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

7
Time/place matrix
8
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) ?

9
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

10
Rommetveits 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

11
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)

12
Intersubjectivity and grounding

• Intersubjectivity (Rommetveit)
• Spoken utterances driven by speaker and
  listeners 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

13
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

14
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
• Vygotskys 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

15
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

16
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)

17
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

18
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

19
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

20
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)

21
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

22
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

23
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

24
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)

25
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 --gt WebNet
• Look at and understand Figure 5.3 in this regard
• Does this seem like a useful approach to CSCL?

26
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 --gt BSCL
• Identify characteristics of collaborative
  knowledge building
• Look at and understand Figure 7.1