Computer-supported collaborative learning

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Draft

Definition

  • "Put briefly, CSCL is focused on how collaborative learning supported by technology can enhance peer interaction and work in groups, and how collaboration and technology facilitate sharing and distributing of knowledge and expertise among community members." (Lipponen, 2002)

Developments in ICT offer increasing possibilities for collaborative learning. E.g. technology enhanced learning environments can provide advanced means for the production of knowledge and constructive communication, and interactive and collaborative learning in (and between) classrooms and between teachers and learners.


Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is considered as one of the most promising innovations to improve teaching and learning with the help of modern information and communication technology (De Corte, 1996; Lehtinen, Hakkarainen & Lipponen, 1998; Verschaffel, Lowyck, De Corte, Dhert & Vandeput, 1998). Collaborative learning refers to an instructional method whereby students are encouraged or required to work together on problem-solving or learning tasks. In its ideal form the collaboration involves the mutual engagement of learners in a coordinated effort to solve a problem together or to acquire together new knowledge (Lehtinen et al., 1998). As such, collaborative learning is a method that is in line with the new conceptions of learning and opposed to the traditional 'direct transmission' model, in which learners are assumed to be passive, receptive, isolated receivers of knowledge and skills delivered by an external source (De Corte, 1996; Verschaffel et al., 1998).

Short history

under construction


Research topics

Stahl (2002:2) defines four themes important for thinking about CSCL

a) Collaborative knowledge building
b) Group and personal perspectives
c) Mediation by artifacts
d) Interaction analysis

Hakkarainen & Sintonen (2002) link CSCL research to a model of scientific inquiry:

  • "Scardamalia and Bereiter (1994) have argued that there is a close relationship between the process of scientific thinking and learning science as well as between the philosophy of science and science education." (Hakkarainen 2002: 26)
  • An analogy between the history of science and the development of scientific thinking in childhood as well as between scientific thinking and children's thinking has been a very important foundation of cognitive research on educational practices. (Hakkarainen 2002: 26)
  • Knowledge-seeking inquiry entails that knowledge is not simply assimilated but constructed through solving problems of explanation and understanding. Through intensive collaboration and peer interaction, resources of the whole learning community may be used to facilitate advancement of inquiry. (Hakkarainen 2002: 27)
  • It is generally believed that children are not capable of participating in these kinds of advanced scientific processes of inquiry, and, therefore, conventional pedagogical practices are not aimed at encouraging them. However, new computersupported learning environments emerging from cognitive research promise to facilitate participation in these higher- level processes of inquiry in education. (Hakkarainen 2002: 29)

Examples / Projects

Digital divide

When discussing CSCL and Educational technology in general, it is important to keep in mind the extreme disparity between different populations around the world when it comes to access to and capacity to receive benefits from computers and internet technologies resulting from various socio-economic and political factors. This disparity is referred to as the digital divide.

For more see:

Links

References

  • Haake, J., Schwabe, G. & Wessner, N. (Ed.)(2004). CSCL-Kompendium. Lehr- und Handbuch zum computerunterstützen kooperativen Lernen. München: Oldenbourg.
  • Hakkarainen, K. & Sintonen, M. (2002) The Interrogative Model of Inquiry and Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, Science & Education 11: 25.
  • Jonassen, D. H., & Reeves, T. C. (1996). Learning with technology: Using computers as cognitive tools. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of research for educational communications and technology (pp. 693-719). New York: Macmillan.
  • Pea, Roy, D. Seeing What We Build Together: Distributed Multimedia Learning Environments for Transformative Communications, Journal of the Learning Sciences, 1993-1994, Vol. 3, No. 3, Pages 285-299, (doi:10.1207/s15327809jls0303_4)
  • Scardamalia,M. & Bereiter, C. (1991), Higher Levels of Agency for Children in Knowledge Building: A Challenge for the Design of New Knowledge Media, Journal of the Learning Sciences 1991, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 37-68 (doi:10.1207/s15327809jls0101_3)
  • Scardamalia,M. & Bereiter, C.: 1992, Text-Based and Knowledge-Based Questioning by Children, Cognition and Instruction 9, 177.
  • Scardamalia, M. & Bereiter, C.: 1993, Technologies for Knowledge-Building Discourse, Communications of the ACM 36, 37.
  • Scardamalia, M. & Bereiter, C.: 1994, Computer Support for Knowledge-building Communities, The Journal of the Learning Sciences 3, 265.
  • Strijbos, Jan-Willem, , Paul A. Kirschner , Rob L. Martens, What we know about CSCL: ...and what we do not (but need to) know about CSCL, in Strijbos, J.W., P.A. Kirschner, R.L. Martens and P.Dillenbourg, What we know about CSCL and implementing it in higher education, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, 2004
  • J. W. Strijbos , R. L. Martens , W. M. G. Jochems, Designing for interaction: six steps to designing computer-supported group-based learning, Computers & Education, v.42 n.4, p.403-424, 1 May 2004
  • Stahl G. (2002) "Contributions to a theoretical framework for CSCL" in G. Stahl (Ed.), (2002) Computer support for collaborative learning: foundations for a CSCL community, (Cscl 2002 Proceedings), Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Stahl, G. (2003). Building collaborative knowing: Elements of a social theory of learning. In J.-W. Strijbos, P. Kirschner & R. Martens (Eds.), What we know about CSCL in higher education. Amsterdam, NL: Kluwer.
  • Van der Meijden, Henny; Robert Jan Simons and Frank de Jong, Final Report, Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Networks In Primary And Secondary Education, Project 2017, University Of Nijmegen, WORD (get the full report).
To sort out
  • Verburgh, An and Martin Mulder, PDF