Promoting reflective interactions in a CSCL environment

Abstract

Engaging in reflective activities in interaction, such as explaining, justifying and evaluating problem solutions, has been shown to be potentially productive for learning. This paper addresses the problem of how these activities may be promoted in the context of computer‐mediated communication during a modelling task in physics. The design principles of two different communication interfaces are presented. The first allows free text to be exchanged, and the second structures the interaction by providing a restricted set of communicative possibilities. Comparative analyses of interaction corpora produced with the two communication interfaces are then described. The analyses show that use of the second structured interface in performing the problem‐solving task is feasible for students, and that it promotes a task‐focussed and reflective interaction. In conclusion the different resources provided by different media and the relative degrees of effort that their use requires are discussed.

Fostering collaborative knowledge construction with visualization tools

“…With the content-specific visualization tool, a form of structured cooperative learning was implemented that represents a promising complement to the instructional methods employed thus far (e.g. Baker & Lund, 1997;Hron, Hesse, Reinhard & Picard, 1997;O'Donnell & Dansereau, 1992;Palincsar & Brown, 1984;see Slavin, 1996). The collaborative knowledge construction of dyads who had a content-specific visualization tool reached a substantially higher quality.…”

“…Many of these techniques might promote highly diverging group-toindividual transfer for different members of the same group. Further empirical studies that analyze possible divergence effects of visualization tools, as well as possible divergence effects of scripts and other socio-cognitive structuring for cooperative learning (e. g. Palincsar & Brown, 1984), as well as newer developments for computer-supported and networked cooperative learning environments (e. g. Baker & Lund, 1997;Hron, Hesse, Reinhard & Picard, To sum up the interpretation of our findings thus far: The contentspecific visualization encourages the learning partners' focus on the taskrelevant content and increases the quality of the processes of collaborative knowledge construction, above all the application of abstract theoretical concepts. This fosters the quality of the collaborative solution to a problem case.…”

Scripting Argumentative Knowledge Construction in Computer-Supported Learning Environments

“…In computer-supported collaborative learning, there is typically no opportunity for antecedent collaboration training. Thus, computer-supported collabora-tive learning (CSCL) is often facilitated by the design of the interface (Baker & Lund, 1997;Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1996). Learners communicating via these interfaces are, to varying degrees, implicitly guided to engage in activities, as the interface suggests or limits specific discourse activities (Runde, Jucks, & Bromme, this volume).…”

Supporting Collaborative Learning in Videoconferencing Using Collaboration Scripts and Content Schemes

“…A key support feature may be the shared application, which is central to computer-mediated communication (cf. Baker & Lund, 1997;Dillenbourg & Traum, 1999). Shared applications are made available on the screen of every videoconference participant and learners can easily manipulate the contents of these shared applications.…”

“…Furthermore, the shared application may be pre-structured to provide instructional support and thereby function as a representational context for the learners (cf. Baker & Lund, 1997;Fischer, Bruhn, Gräsel & Mandl, 2000;Suthers & Hundhausen, 2001). This context may change the learner's perception of the task and thus guide them to a better solution.…”