Computer-supported collaborative learning: Difference between revisions

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Other learning theories that provide a foundation for CSCL include [[distributed cognition]], [[problem-based learning]], [[group cognition]], cognitive apprenticeship, and situated learning. Each of these learning theories focuses on the social aspect of learning and knowledge building, and recognizes that learning and knowledge building involve inter-personal activities including conversation, argument, and negotiation.<ref name="resta" />

===Collaboration theory and [[group cognition]]===

Only in the last 15 to 20 years have researchers begun to explore the extent to which computer technology could enhance the collaborative learning process. While researchers, in general, have relied on learning theories developed without consideration of computer-support, some have suggested that the field needs to have a theory tailored and refined for the unique challenges that confront those trying to understand the complex interplay of technology and collaborative learning.<ref name="collab">Stahl, G. (2002). Contributions to a theoretical framework for CSCL. In G. Stahl (Ed.), Computer support for collaborative learning: Foundations for a CSCL community. Proceedings of CSCL 2002 (pp. 62-71). Boulder, CO: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.</ref>

Collaboration theory, suggested as a system of analysis for CSCL by [[Gerry Stahl]] in 20042002-2006, postulates that knowledge is constructed in social interactions such as discourse. The theory suggests that learning is not a matter of accepting fixed facts, but is the dynamic, on-going, and evolving result of complex interactions primarily taking place within communities of people. It also emphasizes that collaborative learning is a process of constructing meaning and that meaning creation most often takes place and can be observed at the group unit of analysis.<ref>Stahl, G. (2004). [http://GerryStahl.net/cscl/papers/ch16.pdf Building collaborative knowing: Elements of a social theory of CSCL.] In J.-W. Strijbos, P. Kirschner & R. Martens (Eds.), What we know about CSCL: And implementing it in higher education (pp. 53-86). Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.</ref> The goal of collaboration theory is to develop an understanding of how meaning is collaboratively constructed, preserved, and re-learned through the media of language and artifacts in group interaction. There are four crucial themes in collaboration theory: collaborative knowledge building (which is seen as a more concrete term than "learning"); group and personal perspectives intertwining to create group understanding; mediation by artifacts (or the use of resources which learners can share or imprint meaning on); and interaction analysis using captured examples that can be analyzed as proof that the knowledge building occurred.<ref name="collab" />

Collaboration theory proposes that technology in support of CSCL should provide new types of media that foster the building of collaborative knowing; facilitate the comparison of knowledge built by different types and sizes of groups; and help collaborative groups with the act of negotiating the knowledge they are building. Further, these technologies and designs should strive to remove the teacher as the bottleneck in the communication process. In other words, the teacher should not have to act as the conduit for communication between students or as the avenue by which information is dispensed. Finally, collaboration theory-influenced technologies will strive to increase the quantity and quality of learning moments via computer-simulated situations.<ref name="collab" />

Stahl extended his proposals about collaboration theory during the next decade with his research on [[group cognition]] [http://GerryStahl.net/elibrary]. In his book on "Group Cognition"<ref name="GC">Stahl, G. (2006). Group Cognition: Computer support for building collaborative knowledge. Cambridge:MA. MIT Press.</ref>, he provided a number of case studies of prototypes of collaboration technology, as well as a sample in-depth interaction analysis and several essays on theoretical issues related to re-conceptualizing cognition at the small-group unit of analysis. He then launched the [[Virtual Math Teams]] project at the Math Forum, which conducted more than 10 years of studies of students exploring mathematical topics collaboratively online. "Studying VMT"<ref name="SVMT">Stahl, G. (2009). Studying Virtual Math Teams. New York:NY. Springer.</ref> documented many issues of design, analysis and theory related to this project. The VMT later focused on supporting dynamic geometry by integrating a multi-user version of GeoGebra. All aspects of this phase of the VMT project were described in "Translating Euclid."<ref name="TE">Stahl, G. (2013). Translating Euclid: Creating a Human-Centered Mathematics. Morgan & Claypool Publishers.</ref> Finally, "Constructing Dynamic Triangles Together"<ref name="CT">Stahl, G. (2016). Constructing dynamic triangles together: The development of mathematical group cognition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.</ref> provided a detailed analysis of how a group of four girls learned about dynamic geometry by enacting a series of group practices during an eight-session longitudinal case study. The VMT project generated and analyzed data at the small-group unit of analysis, to substantiate and refine the theory of group cognition and to offer a model of design-based CSCL research.

==Strategies==