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Descriptors:
Artificial Intelligence; Computer Simulation; Computer Mediated Communication; Intelligent Tutoring Systems; Pretests Posttests; Instructional Effectiveness; Learning Processes; Feedback (Response); Metacognition; Science Education; Scientific Concepts; Concept Mapping; Middle School Students; Scaffolding (Teaching Technique); Grade 8; Computer Assisted Instruction; Instructional Design; Comparative Analysis

Abstract:
Betty's Brain is an open-ended learning environment in which students learn about science topics by teaching a virtual agent named Betty through the construction of a visual causal map that represents the relevant science phenomena. The task is complex, and success requires the use of metacognitive strategies that support knowledge acquisition, causal map construction, and progress monitoring. Previous research has established that middle school students struggle at such tasks without proper scaffolding and feedback. In Betty's Brain, this feedback is provided by Betty and Mr. Davis, another virtual agent designed to provide guidance and suggestions as students work. This paper discusses our implementation of contextualized conversational (CC) feedback, and then presents the results of an experimental study exploring the effects of this feedback in two 8th-grade science classrooms. The results illustrate some advantages of the CC feedback in comparison with a baseline dialogue mechanism that presents similar strategies in a non-conversational, non-contextualized form. While both groups showed significant pre-to-post test learning gains, the difference in learning gains between the groups was not statistically significant. However, students who received CC feedback more often performed actions in accordance with the advised strategies, and they created higher quality causal maps. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Marine Education; Navigation; Professional Training; Social Environment; Interaction; Training Methods; Computer Simulation; Simulated Environment; Role Playing; Qualitative Research; Computer Assisted Instruction; Cooperative Learning; Instructional Effectiveness; Learning Activities; Learning Processes

Abstract:
Research on simulator training has rarely focused on the way simulated contexts are constructed collaboratively. This study sheds light on how structuring role-play and fostering social interactions may prove fruitful for designing simulator training. The article reports on a qualitative study of nautical students training in a ship simulator. The study examines how a group of students, together with a professional maritime pilot, enacted professional roles and collaboratively constructed a simulated context for learning to navigate. Their activities on the bridge were framed within the maritime profession's hierarchical system of captain and officers, and we examine in detail how these institutionally defined positions become important resources for meaning-making during role-play. The article portrays how two competing activity contexts were constructed, and how the role-play provided opportunities for enacting professional roles and work tasks. However, it also shows that it is challenging to pick up on what is significant to learn and to confront this in debriefing. The article concludes that the students' collaboration and meaning-making is an entity of training that may be more efficiently addressed. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Interaction; Conferences (Gatherings); Educational Research; Research Methodology; Educational Technology; Computer Assisted Instruction; Cooperative Learning

Abstract:
The theme of this year's Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) 2013 conference--"To see the world 'and' a grain of sand: Learning across levels of space, time and scale"--targets a provocative challenge for CSCL, namely that the interactions of collaborative learning be understood, supported and analysed at multiple levels. As the conference call puts it, "the attention to the theoretical, methodological and technological issues of addressing research at multiple levels is highly relevant to current research in CSCL, as well as to developing an emerging understanding of the epistemological and methodological issues that will shape the intellectual efforts well into the future." The attempt to bridge across levels of analysis--in CSCL theory, analysis and practice--stands at the forefront of CSCL research today. CSCL research typically investigates processes at the individual, small-group and community units of analysis. However, individual CSCL studies generally each focus on only one of these units. Moreover, there is little data-based analysis of how the three levels are connected, although it is clear that such connections are crucially important to understanding and orchestrating learning in CSCL settings. The introduction to the last issue of the "International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning" (Stahl 2012b) proposed that the levels of individual learning, group cognition and community knowledge building may be connected by emergent "interactional resources," which can mediate between the levels. The question of how the local interactional resources that mediate sequential small-group interaction are related to large-scale socio-cultural context as well as to individual learning is an empirical question in each case. There are many ways these connections across levels take place, and it is likely that they often involve mechanisms that are not apparent to participants. This paper explores one way of thinking about how such connections can occur: interactional resources. (Contains 2 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Computer Software; Computer Assisted Instruction; Multimedia Instruction; Content Analysis; Discourse Analysis; Cooperative Learning; Geometry; Problem Solving; Interpersonal Communication; Group Activities; Research Methodology; Coordination

Abstract:
In CSCL research, collaborative activity is conceptualized along various yet intertwined dimensions. When functioning within these multiple dimensions, participants make use of several resources, which can be social or content-related (and sometimes temporal) in nature. It is the effective coordination of these resources that appears to characterize successful collaborative activity. This study proposes a methodological approach for studying coordination of resources when solving geometry problems with dynamic geometry software. The aim is to suggest a methodological lens to capture both the content-related and social discourse within the context of geometry problem solving using dynamic geometry software. As an example, the paper also provides an analysis of a dyad's face-to-face interaction using the suggested framework. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Middle School Students; Interaction; Problem Solving; Mathematics Instruction; Synchronous Communication; Visual Aids; Computer Mediated Communication; Discussion; Computer Assisted Instruction; Multimedia Instruction; Multimedia Materials; Content Analysis; Discourse Analysis; Cooperative Learning; Instructional Effectiveness; Learning Processes

Abstract:
In this paper we examine how two groups of middle school students arrive at shared understandings of and solutions to mathematical problems. Our data consists of logs of student participation in the Virtual Math Teams (VMT) system as they work on math problems. The project supports interaction both through chat and through a virtual whiteboard. We have examined in detail, the sequential work these students do to constitute and specify "the problem" on which they are working in the ways they produce whiteboard objects and text postings. Solutions emerge as students come to understand the problem on which they are working. This understanding is achieved through gradual respecification of the math problem on which they are working. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Science Instruction; Visual Aids; Energy; Heat; Interaction; Scientific Concepts; Speech; Content Area Writing; Learning Processes; Computer Assisted Instruction; Multimedia Instruction; Multimedia Materials

Abstract:
This paper reports on a study of students' conceptual sensemaking with science diagrams within a computer-based learning environment aimed at supporting collaborative learning. Through the microanalysis of students' interactions in a project about energy and heat transfer, we demonstrate "how" representations become productive social and cognitive resources in the students' conceptual sensemaking. Taking a socio-cultural approach, the study aims to contribute on two levels. First, by providing insight into the interactional processes in which students encounter a particular type of representation: science diagrams. Second, the study aims to demonstrate that an important aspect of students' encounters with science representations concerns making sense of how to respond to institutional norms and social practices embedded within the context of schooling. The findings demonstrate how the science diagrams become productive social and individual resources for the students by slowing down the students' conceptual sensemaking processes and by opening up a space for the interpretation and negotiation of scientific concepts, as well as of the representations themselves. The study also shows the challenges involved when students move from oral to written accounts in their inquiries. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Literacy; Foreign Countries; Control Groups; Phonemes; Rhyme; Reading Instruction; Computer Assisted Instruction; Reading; Intervention; Comparative Analysis; Reading Difficulties; Young Children; Literacy Education; Spelling; Phoneme Grapheme Correspondence; Phonics; Phonemic Awareness; Phonological Awareness; Effect Size; Pretests Posttests; Grade 2; Elementary School Students

Abstract:
We report an empirical comparison of the effectiveness of two theoretically motivated computer-assisted reading interventions (CARI) based on the Finnish GraphoGame CARI: English GraphoGame Rime (GG Rime) and English GraphoGame Phoneme (GG Phoneme). Participants were 6-7-year-old students who had been identified by their teachers as being relatively poor at reading. The students were divided into three groups. Two of the groups played one of the games as a supplement to normal classroom literacy instruction for five sessions per week for a period of 12 weeks. The third group formed an untreated control. Both games led to gains in reading, spelling, and phonological skills in comparison with the untreated control group. The two interventions also had some differential effects. The intervention gains were maintained at a four-month follow-up. (Contains 4 tables, 2 figures, and 1 note.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Teaching Methods; Physiology; Anatomy; Biology; Concept Mapping; Undergraduate Students; Course Content; Models; Lecture Method; Pretests Posttests; Foreign Countries; Comparative Analysis; Control Groups; Experimental Groups; Higher Education; Computers; Evaluation; College Students; Computer Uses in Education; Computer Assisted Instruction; Feedback (Response)

Abstract:
The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of models of programmed instruction and conventional (informative-illustrative) expository teaching in terms of fulfilling the aims of the course "Human anatomy and physiology" which is included in the physiology programme and designed for undergraduate students majoring in biology education at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade. For this purpose, a model of a pedagogical experiment with parallel groups of students was applied. One group was presented the course content through programmed instruction, with the help of computers and programmed materials, which included the elaboration of concept maps. The second group was presented the same content through expository (informative-illustrative) instruction, the traditional lecturing model. In terms of quantity and quality of knowledge acquired by students in the tested teaching field, the experimental model of programmed instruction was more effective. (Contains 2 tables and 5 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Computer Assisted Instruction; Immigrants; Intervention; Feedback (Response); Control Groups; Instructional Effectiveness; Cooperative Learning; Educational Technology; Computer Mediated Communication; Foreign Countries; Comparative Analysis; Outcomes of Education; Quasiexperimental Design; Pretests Posttests; Multiple Regression Analysis; Elementary School Students; Predictor Variables; Measures (Individuals)

Abstract:
This study examined the effects of guided elaboration on students' learning outcomes in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. The programme provided students with feedback on their elaborations, and students reflected on this feedback. It was expected that students in the experimental (elaboration) programme would show better learning gains and that students from immigrant families would especially benefit. Two hundred primary school students of 9 different schools participated. The research can be characterized as a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test, control group design. In a multilevel regression analysis, no main effect of the intervention was found. However, there was a significant differential effect of the intervention; students from immigrant families in the experimental programme outperformed their counterparts in the control group. It can be concluded that guided elaboration in a CSCL programme through feedback and reflection is a promising approach. (Contains 5 tables, 1 figure, and 1 note.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Computer Assisted Instruction; Cooperative Learning; Guidance; Scripts; Teaching Methods; Role; Learning Processes; Knowledge Level; Learning Theories

Abstract:
This article presents an outline of a script theory of guidance for computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). With its 4 types of components of internal and external scripts (play, scene, role, and scriptlet) and 7 principles, this theory addresses the question of how CSCL practices are shaped by dynamically reconfigured internal collaboration scripts of the participating learners. Furthermore, it explains how internal collaboration scripts develop through participation in CSCL practices. It emphasizes the importance of active application of subject matter knowledge in CSCL practices, and it prioritizes transactive over nontransactive forms of knowledge application in order to facilitate learning. Further, the theory explains how external collaboration scripts modify CSCL practices and how they influence the development of internal collaboration scripts. The principles specify an optimal scaffolding level for external collaboration scripts and allow for the formulation of hypotheses about the fading of external collaboration scripts. Finally, the article points toward conceptual challenges and future research questions. (Contains 1 table.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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