Embedding email in primary schools: developing a tool for collective reflection
Reflection is an important aspect of learning in groups. In collective moments of reflection, learners can share and compare their ideas with others, and by doing so can reach an articulated and personal understanding of a learning task and domain. In the research presented here, e-mail is examined as a means for reflection in the context of group learning. In two design experiments, an e-mail tool is developed that seeks to (1) support collective reflection, and (2) overcome practical problems
Modeling and simulation in inquiry learning: Checking solutions and giving intelligent advice
Inquiry learning is a didactic approach in which students acquire knowledge and skills through processes of theory building and experimentation. Computer modeling and simulation can play a prominent role within this approach. Students construct representations of physical systems using modeling. Using simulation, they execute these representations to study the phenomena or systems modeled. However, the modeling task is complex, and students can fail to create adequate models, which prevents effe
Providing Efficient Event Information Management to CSCL Applications
This work aims to explore the importance of carrying out an efficient management of the event information generated from CSCL applications during the collaborative learning process. The achievement of this task first involves the design of a conceptual model of collaborative learning interaction that captures and distinguishes several high-level collaborative learning processes, which in turns leads to a computational model. To achieve that, we first define the main types of event information ge
Regulative support during inquiry learning with
simulations and modeling
Many factors impact learning; the environment and resources available, the domain, how much prior-knowledge a student has, and how well they make use of their metacognitive skills, all of these factors impact new knowledge creation. The series of studies described in this dissertation focuses on the latter; i.e. the metacognitive skillfulness of students. Known collectively as self-regulation, planning, monitoring, and evaluation, when applied appropriately will enhance learning. Students who m
Problems and Opportunities of Learning together in a Virtual Learning Environment
This chapter explores new ways of collaborative learning in a virtual learning environment based on our acquisition of knowledge from previous experience. We identify both the problems faced in real collaborative learning practices and the ways these problems can be overcome and become opportunities for more efficient learning. These issues concern pedagogical, organisational and technical elements and constraints that influence the successful application of collaborative learning in distance ed
A Neural Approach for Modeling the Inference of Awareness in Computer-Supported Collaboration
Individuals interacting in a computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment produce a variety of information elements during their participation; these information elements usually have a complex structure and semantics, which make it rather difficult to find out the behavioral attitudes and profiles of the users involved. This work provides a model that can be used to discover awareness information lying underneath multi-user interaction. This information is initially captured in
Collaborative distributed environments for learning design tasks by means of modelling and simulatio
The Simulation discipline has to face new challenges such as the incorporation of Collaborative Technologies for professional use as well as for teaching purposes. This integration permits the creation of new kinds of support for collaborative learning processes. In this paper, we explore the potential of this synergy with DomoSim-TPC, a synchronous distributed collaborative environment for the teaching and learning of Domotics. The system supports an active, simulation-based and problem-based a
The e-learning movement as a process of quality improvement in education
Quality in education has been regognized as an issue that should guide our efforts for improvement for many years. eLearning is the latest attempt to take advantage of developments in technology to improve learning. In this paper, we discuss the possibility of establishing a theory of elearning, the value of design patterns, and the possible scenarios of implementation by higher education institutions attempting to use new technologies in their courses of study. A survey concerning the elearning
Open Distance Inter-University Synergies Between Europe, Africa and the Middle East (ODISEAME)
The challenge facing new technologies is whether they can contribute to a qualitative step up and to education for all as a process of facilitating the development of creative people with the ability to think critically and to engage in socially relevant decision making. In this paper, we describe a project whose purpose is to develop a learning environment that takes into account current expertise in learning theory in order to facilitate productive collaboration in a way that leads to active c
Stagecast Creator™ and Webct™: An integrated use of computer programming and a virtual learning en
This paper reports on an effort to use Stagecast Creator™ as a means for developing modelling skills among undergraduate students taking an introductory course in science that took place in a virtual learning environment (WebCT™). An inquiry-based curriculum was implemented, which guided students working in small groups to collect and study moon observations and construct a series of successive models of the moon phases using Stagecast Creator™. Students’ reflective journals and reports of s
Teachers' attitudes to and beliefs about web-based collaborative learning environments in the contex
This paper reports the conceptions of teachers from four European countries of the
Innovative Technologies for Collaborative Learning project tools for collaborative
learning. Fifty six teachers were interviewed about different aspects of the CLE (Webbased
Collaborative Learning Environment) implementations and about their own
evaluations of the CLE implementations in their classrooms. Their answers were analysed using categories based on a model from cultural-historical activity theory
(Engestr
Stratégies d'élaboration, de réutilisation et d'indexation de scénarios
Cet article s’intéresse aux conditions de réutilisation de scénarios mis en oeuvre par des enseignants. Nous nous basons sur une expérimentation concernant l’organisation d’une séquence pédagogique en sciences de la vie et de la terre dans l’enseignement secondaire. Cette expérimentation, effectuée dans le cadre de travaux de recherche en didactique des sciences, vise à proposer et tester des modalités de mise en oeuvre d’une démarche d’investigation en sciences basée sur l’ut
Designing biases that augment socio-cognitive interactions
This chapter questions the assumption that the best environment for computer-supported collaborative learning is the one that most closely reproduces the features of face-to-face collaboration. Empirical studies have failed to establish the superiority of group interaction with richer media. Instead, the chapter explores media features that do not exist in face-to-face interactions and explains how these features might augment group cognition. The first feature, the persistency of the informatio
Collaboration Load
Does collaboration increase or decrease cognitive load during learning? On one hand, collaboration enables some degree of division of labour that may reduce cognitive load. On the other hand since interacting, expressing thoughts, monitoring anotherÂ’s understanding, grounding, etc., are mechanisms inducing some extraneous cognitive load, they may create cognitive overload and impede learning mechanisms. However this additional load may explain why collaboration sometimes leads to knowledge cons
Analysing the mechanisms of common ground in collaborative web-based interaction
The ideas presented in this paper are challenged especially by the certain critical questions concerning web-based interaction and the qualitative analysis of such interaction and learning. The question arises whether the students from different contexts and countries are able to reach such interaction that would lead them to educationally relevant higher-level discussion and learning in web-based environments. Furthermore, as this field of study is fairly novel, there is a shortage of establish
New Media and Open and Distance Learning: New challenges for Education in a Knowledge Society
The "digital society" provides not only with new technology, but also with new concepts. Information plays a central role and becomes a valuable good, but knowledge cannot be reduced to information, and one aim for educators is to contribute in a "knowledge society", not only an "information society". A knowledge society is structured in networks, enriching the traditional hierarchies; a knowledge society promotes a kind of "collective intelligence". In such a society, open and distance learning
A Parallel Grid-based Implementation for Real Time Processing of Event Log Data in Collaborative App
Collaborative applications usually register user interaction in the form of semi-structured plain text event log data. Extracting and structuring this data is a prerequisite for later key processes such as the analysis of interactions, assessment of group activity, or the provision of awareness and feedback. Yet, in real situations of online collaborative activity the processing of log data is usually done offline since structuring event log data is, in general, a computationally costly process
Grid and Peer-to-Peer middleware for Cooperative Learning Environments
This paper presents the work done by the research group of the Open University of Catalonia within the coordinated project towards the definition of adequate grid and peer-to-peer middleware for cooperative learning environments. The main results of our research consist in designing a layered framework for modelling online collaborative learning interactions which in turns leads to the development of a computational platform, called Collaborative Learning Purpose Library (CLPL), that can be used
A Model for the Efficient Representation and Management of Online Collaborative Learning Interaction
This study aims to explore the importance of the efficient representation and management of the event information generated from group activity in online collaborative learning practices so that we can use it to provide awareness about individual and group behaviour. The achievement of this goal first involves the design of a conceptual model of collaborative learning interaction that structures and classifies the information generated in an online collaborative learning situation at several lev
Using a Grid Platform for Enabling Real Time User Modeling in On-line Campus
User modelling in on-line distance learning is an important research field focusing on two important aspects: describing and predicting studentsÂ’ actions and intentions as well as adapting the learning process to studentsÂ’ features, habits, preferences, and so on. The aim is to greatly stimulate and improve the learning experience. Indeed, on the one hand, studentsÂ’ intentions may change during the realization of learning activities and thus their actions evolve accordingly as the learning pr
