Intro to CSCL, part 1

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Intro to CSCL, part 1

• Anders Mørch
• TOOL 5100, 16.02.06

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Outline

• Paradigms in educational research
• Computer-aided instruction (CAI)
• ITS
• Logo-as-Latin
• Evolution of theoretical positions on
  collaborative learning
• From individual to social concerns
• Key factors that influence research design
• Comparing evolution and paradigm shifts

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Paradigms in educational research

• Koschmann argues that CSCL is a new paradigm in
  computer-supported teaching and learning
• He gives examples of three other paradigms that
  are distinct from CSCL
• Paradigm, according to Kuhn (1972)
• Goes beyond evolution and gradual change (change
  by punctuated equilibrium, gestalt-switch)
• Provides a new set of topics, tools,
  methodologies, and premises to be researched
• Members of different paradigms cannot easily
  communicate using their own scientific terminology

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Paradigms of instructional technology

• Computer-aided instruction (CAI)
• Since ca. 1960
• Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS)
• Since ca. 1970
• Logo-as-Latin
• Since ca. 1980
• Computer Supported Collaborative Learning
• Since ca. 1990
• Note these fields are active today, but
  sometimes under new umbrellas and evolved to meet
  new needs (e.g. instructional design, Lego/Logo,
  e-learning)

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Computer-Aided Instruction

• Psychological roots in behavioral science
• Focus on support for instruction in teaching
  situations (e.g. classroom) with the computer
• The teachers role is to acquire knowledge and
  find efficient ways to share it with the students
• Often referred to as to as the acquisition-transm
  ission metaphor of teaching and learning
• Today often associated with instructional design,
  such as reusable learning objects and
  domain-specific repositories that domain experts
  (e.g. teachers) can search to find teaching
  material

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Intelligent Tutoring Systems

• The focus here, as often in CAI, is on computer
  support for individual learning
• More emphasis on the learner than the teacher
• Psychological roots in cognitive science and
  Artificial Intelligence (e.g. Newell Simon,
  1972)
• The computer provides a cognitive model of human
  information processing, representing novice and
  expert problem solving, and track performance
• An ITS provides expert advice to students as they
  solve problems in well-defined domains (e.g.
  physics, math, medical procedures)

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Logo-as-Latin

• Instead of learning by being taught, this
  approach focuses on learning by doing
• Psychological roots in the developmental psych of
  Piaget and the philosophy of education of Dewey
• Constructionism is a term that is often used as a
  label for this approach
• The student constructs by creating and running
  microworlds programmed in Logo (Papert, 1980)
• Later efforts have extended this to higher level
  languages, e.g. using Lego/Logo (e.g. Resnick,
  1990)

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Computer Supported Collaborative Learning

• Roots in several fields in the social sciences
  and socially oriented theories of learning (going
  back to Vygotsky, G H Mead, and others)
• Focus on overarching concerns that attempts to
  bridge the individual-social gap in interaction
• Common perspectives and sources of influence
• Social constructivism
• Sociocultural theories
• Situated and shared cognition
• We return to these in the next article

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Summary of 4 paradigms

• See Table 1.1(p. 16) in Koschmanns article

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Evolution of research in CSCL

• This paper, by Dillenbourg and colleagues,
  addresses how research have changed within the
  field of CSCL
• The focus is on psychological concerns of
  collaborative learning and less on the role of
  computer as mediating artifact
• The computer is seen in the role of providing
  support of interaction analysis and modeling
  collaborative learning (we come back to these
  themes later in the course)

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Key characteristics of CSCL

• A trend toward support of process rather than
  primarily on outcome, as in other paradigms
• Theoretically motivated, using empirical research
  (this is to some extent a result of the authors
  background)
• Unit of analysis is a complex issue that is
  positioned on an axis between the individual and
  the social (group and activity are two key
  ones)
• A trend has been to move from the inner (psychol)
  concerns to the outer (social) concerns

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Key characteristics contd

• Research in CSCL need to be aware of the
  following distinctions
• Learning vs. problem solving
• Collaboration vs. cooperation
• In many ways CSCL has moved
• From problem solving to learning (e.g. learning
  by joint problem solving)
• From cooperation to collaboration
• Priority on process rather than outcome
• Joint interaction on common goal rather than
  strict division of labor into subtasks

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Theoretical positions

• Along an axis from individual to social the
  following theoretical positions (or perspectives)
  has been identified as prerequisite for CSCL
• Social constructivism
• Sociocultural approaches
• Situated and shared cognition
• The two articles diverge slightly with regards to
  how they define the three perspectives
• Dillenbourg puts more emphasis on computational
  models and uses examples from DAI (Distributed
  AI) to propose models of collaborative learning

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Social constructivism

• Also referred to as socio-cognitive approach
• 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
• Experimentation is often conducted by pre and
  post tests, e,g, to assess the usefulness of
  collaborative learning compared to individual
  learning

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Sociocultural theories

• Unit of analysis is the activity individuals
  acting to achieve goals within a community using
  artefacts and rules to mediate and guide the
  activity
• Vygotskys notion that inter-psychological
  (social) processes precedes intra-psychological
  processes (inner speech and thought) is important
  in this perspective (referred to as
  internalization)
• The role of mediating artifacts in these
  processes, from everyday tools and computers to
  language, are also important

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Situated and shared cognition

• This is the most socially oriented of the three
  perspectives
• The environment is seen as an integrated part of
  the individual (cognitive) activity
• A focus is to identify the influence of the
  social plane
• Situated cognition and situated learning (e.g
  Suchman, Lave Wenger)
• Distributed cognition (e.g. Hutchins)
• This perspective in CSCL has been stimulated by
  apprenticeship learning (e.g. Lave, Rogoff)

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Three factors that influence research design and
experiments

• Effects
• Conditions
• Group heterogeneity
• Individual prerequisites
• Task features
• Interactions
• Explanation
• Control

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Role of the computer

• Tool
• Interaction analysis
• Analysing and modeling collaborative learning
  practices
• Negotiation
• Argumentation
• Mediating artifact
• This is not addressed in this article

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Paradigm shift vs. Evolution

• In philosophy of science there has been a debate
  regarding the mechanisms behind the growth of
  scientific knowledge
• Does it proceed according to paradigm shifts or
  by incremental (evolutionary) development over
  time?
• The answer can be either/or or both, depending on
• How we distinguish between different components
  of a research field and analyze how they change
  over time
• Technologies, tools and language (artifacts) may
  have to be treated differently from premises,
  practices, and perspectives
• For those interested Kuhn and Popper and others
  have debated the development of Copernicus model
  of the solar system