LaCOLLA: Middleware for Self-Sufficient Online Collaboration
The LaCOLLA middleware makes it possible for collaborators to interact using their own resources and not depend on a centralized regime. By contributing their own resources, group members can organize and communicate using a federated peer-to-peer model. Utilizing LaCOLLA middleware, the group can function regardless of whether a member removes resources and despite network or node failures or disconnection. This capacity for self-organization, together with location transparency, lets applicati
A Generic Platform for the Systematic Construction of Knowledge-based Collaborative Learning Applica
This study aims to explore the importance of efficient management of event information generated from
group activity in collaborative learning practices for its further use in extracting and providing knowledge
on interaction behavior. The essential issue here is how to design a platform that can be used for real,
long-term, complex collaborative problem-solving situations and which enables the instructor to both
analyze group interaction effectively and provide an adequate support when needed.
Bridging the Gap Between Empirical Data on Open-Ended Tutorial Interactions and Computational Models
In this paper we present an approach to using empirical data on human teacher-learner interactions to guide the development of a pedagogical agent for supporting musical composition learning. Our approach to bridging the gap between tutorial interaction analysis and computational models, intended for use in learning support systems, is a new one. We support our claim by pointing out that most of the previous work in the area of using human tutors as models has been conducted in domains that are
Methodological Issues in the Content Analysis of Computer Conference Transcripts
This paper discusses the potential and the methodological challenges of analyzing computer conference transcripts using quantitative content analysis. The paper is divided into six sections, which discuss: criteria for content analysis, research designs, types of content, units of analysis, ethical issues, and software to aid analysis. The discussion is supported with a survey of 19 commonly referenced studies published during the last decade. The paper is designed to assist researchers in using
Analysing Educational Dialogue Interaction: Towards Models that Support Learning
The motivation for this special issue on analysing dialogue interaction was provided by the one-day workshop with the same title held at AI-Ed '99 in Le Mans. From this workshop a number of common themes and issues emerged. The call for papers for this special issue was based around these themes:
* valid and reliable approaches to identifying dialogue structures and features
* the role of dialogue in learning as evidenced by dialogue analysis
* computational models of dialogue in Intelligent Edu
An Intelligent Tutoring System for Entity Relationship Modelling
The paper presents KERMIT, a Knowledge-based Entity Relationship Modelling Intelligent Tutor. KERMIT is a problem-solving environment for the university-level students, in which they can practise conceptual database design using the Entity-Relationship data model. KERMIT uses Constraint-Based Modelling (CBM) to model the domain knowledge and generate student models. We have used CBM previously in tutors that teach SQL and English punctuation rules. The research presented in this paper is signifi
Synchronous computer mediated collaborative activities among collocated students: Conditions that ma
Synchronous collaborative activities are usually studied in conditions where teachers and students are physically separated. Is there any possibility to apply these activities when all participants are collocated? Does this collocated collaboration setting seems meaningful and for what reasons? Is the quality of learning and teaching process satisfactory high? Under what conditions? The present research explores the previous questions. More
specifically, it explores synchronous computer mediated
Confronting ideas in collaborative scientific discovery learning
This study investigated how collaborative knowledge construction within a scientific discovery (or inquiry)learning environment can be assisted with tools that aim to support studentsÂ’ proposition generation and testing
processes. Sixty-six fourth year pre-university education students participated in a kinematics learning task. The instructional goal of the learning activity was to develop studentsÂ’ understanding of one dimensional kinematics. All students completed a proposition test in whic
Email use in elementary school: An analysis of exchange patterns and content
E-mail was embedded in a project in design & technology education in elementary school. During four lessons children worked in groups on building a flying object. These groups communicated through e-mail with groups of children from another school. The analyses of the e-mails, as viewed from distributed cognition theory, focus on the exchange patterns and content. Two characteristic exchange patterns are stacking and compounding. In stacking e-mails are sent out quickly enough to afford a ‘just
Using just-in-time information to support scientific discovery learning about geometrical optics in
Many problems that learners regularly encounter during discovery learning with computer-based simulations have been identified. A number of studies have examined different ways of support for discovery learning by facilitating the learning process. This study examines the effect of facilitating access to prior knowledge through just-in-time information. It is expected that access to just-in-time information will foster learning but will not interfere with it. To test these hypotheses, an experim
The Logic-ITA in the classroom: a medium scale experiment
This paper presents the experiment and consequent evaluation of introducing the Logic-ITA in a second year tertiary undergraduate class. The Logic-ITA is a web-based Intelligent Teaching Assistant system, aimed at alleviating some of the problems caused by large classes or distance learning. Its domain of application is the construction of formal proofs in logic. The system acts as an intermediary between teacher and students: on one hand, it provides students with an environment to practice for
Principles for designing Web searching instruction
Web searching is a timely topic which importance is recognized by researchers, educators and instructional designers. This paper aims to guide these practitioners in developing instructional materials for learning to search the Web. It does so by articulating ten design principles that attend to the content and presentation of Web searching instruction. These principles convey a mixture of insights gleaned from instructional theory, empirical research, and many hours of classroom experience. Tog
Un site web pour l'enseignement interdisciplinaire des mathématiques en biologie
Depuis septembre 2001, une section pilote du DEUG Sciences de la Vie est mise en place par l’Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1. Cette section bénéficie d’une pédagogie universitaire innovante intégrant les TICE. Notre équipe pédagogique assure le cours de Mathématiques tout en mettant l’accent sur l’interdisciplinarité Mathématiques et Biologie. Nous avons mis en place un apprentissage progressif par acquisition de connaissances (cours magistraux et travaux tutorés) puis de compét
Scientific discovery learning with computer simulations of conceptual domains
Scientific discovery learning is a highly self-directed and constructivistic form of learning. A computer simulation is a type of computer-based environment that is very suited for discovery learning, the main task of the learner being to infer, through experimentation, characteristics of the model
underlying the simulation. In this article we give a review of the observed effectiveness and efficiency of discovery learning in simulation environments together with problems that learners may encou
The effects of graphical overviews on exploratory behaviour and knowledge acquisition in hypertext e
One of the main and recognized problems of learning with hypertexts is that learners are easily distracted and end up ‘lost in hyperspace’. As a result, they do not acquire complete and adequate knowledge. In this study, we enhanced a hypertext environment with a graphical overview that represented the basic structure of the domain and we designed the layout in such a way that learners were unobtrusively encouraged to follow a sequence of exploration that followed the domain structure. This so
Can kindergarten children be successfully involved in probabilistic tasks?
This paper describes a classroom teaching experiment, concerning the concept of probability, with children aged 5 in a kindergarten school. The teaching experiment was based on constructivist and interactionist theories about the learning of school mathematics and lasted one month. The collection of the information was based on the tape-recorded interviews with the children (each child was interviewed prior to the research program, at the end of the program and one month later) and the videotape
Améliorer un dispositif pédagogique par l'intégration de nouveaux canaux de communication
LÂ’analyse des résultats de lÂ’expérimentation dÂ’un dispositif pédagogique instrumenté par les TIC pour un apprentissage de savoir faire par projets a mis en évidence des ruptures dans la communication. Ces ruptures sont liées à la difficulté dÂ’accès à Internet dans certaines situations (alternanceÂ…). Face à ce constat, nous avons décidé dÂ’introduire un nouveau canal de communication, a priori disponible en masse chez les étudiants : le téléphone mobile. Cette publication prÃ
The ZAP Project: Designing interactive computer tools for learning psychology
In the ZAP project, a set of interactive computer programs called 'ZAPs' was developed. The programs were designed in such a way that first-year students experience psychological phenomena in a vivid and self-explanatory way. Students can either take the role of participant in a psychological experiment, they can experience phenomena themselves, or they can take the role of researcher and learn by discovery. ZAPs provide added value to existing learning materials about psychological topics and c
The relation between prior knowledge and students' collaborative discovery learning processes
In this study we investigate how prior knowledge influences knowledge development during collaborative discovery learning. Fifteen dyads of students (pre-university education, 15-16 years old) worked on a discovery learning task in the physics field of kinematics. The (face-to-face) communication between students was recorded and the interaction with the environment was logged. Based on students' individual judgments of the truth-value and testability of a series of domain-specific propositions,
StudentsÂ’ Activity in Computer-Supported Collaborative Problem Solving in Mathematics
The purpose of this study was to analyse secondary school studentsÂ’ (N = 16) computer-supported collaborative mathematical problem solving. The problem addressed in the study was: What kinds of metacognitive processes appear during computer-supported collaborative learning in mathematics? Another aim of the study was to consider the applicability of networked learning in mathematics. The network-based learning environment Knowledge Forum (KF) was used to support studentsÂ’ collaborative problem
