Students assessing their own collaborative knowledge building

We describe the design of a knowledge-building environment and examine the role of knowledge-building portfolios in characterizing and scaffolding collaborative inquiry. Our goal is to examine collaborative knowledge building in the context of exploring the alignment of learning, collaboration, and assessment in computer forums. The key design principle involved turning over epistemic agency to students; guided by several knowledge-building principles, they were asked to identify clusters of computer notes that indicated knowledge-building episodes in the computer discourse. Three classes of 9th grade students in Hong Kong used Knowledge Forum in several conditions: Knowledge Forum only, Knowledge Forum with portfolios, and Knowledge Forum with portfolios and principles. Results showed: (1) Students working on portfolios guided knowledge-building principles showed deeper inquiry and more conceptual understanding than their counterpart (2) Students' knowledge-building discourse, reflected in portfolio scores, contributed to their domain understanding; and (3) Knowledge-building portfolios helped to assess and foster collective knowledge advances: A portfolio with multiple contributions from students is a group accomplishment that captures the distributed and progressive nature of knowledge building. Students extended their collective understanding by analyzing the discourse, and the portfolio scaffolded the complex interactions between individual and collective knowledge advancements. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Increasing teacher candidates' ways of interaction and levels of learning through action research in a blended course

Within the scope of this research, efforts were exerted to increase teacher candidates' interaction ways through action research in a blended teaching profession course in higher education level. Teacher candidates participated in various blended learning activities during a semester-long course, and the problems related to learners' participation in blended learning activities and their interactions during learning process were solved via action decisions. Blended learning activities were developed according to Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model and the lessons learned from previous two pilot studies. In order to conduct the activities; face-to-face and synchronous virtual classroom sessions were combined with asynchronous from discussions and blog. At the beginning of the course, teacher candidates chosed activity sets according to learning style model and throughout a semester-long course, they participated in the activities. Throughout the action research process, the ways of interactions between students, students and instructor, and students and the content were examined as well as the levels of learning accomplished by students during the learning process. This study has revealed indicators pointing to an increase both in students’ interactions and levels of learning during the blended learning process.     

Students assessing their own collaborative knowledge building

We describe the design of a knowledge-building environment and examine the role of knowledge-building portfolios in characterizing and scaffolding collaborative inquiry. Our goal is to examine collaborative knowledge building in the context of exploring the alignment of learning, collaboration, and assessment in computer forums. The key design principle involved turning over epistemic agency to students; guided by several knowledge-building principles, they were asked to identify clusters of computer notes that indicated knowledge-building episodes in the computer discourse. Three classes of 9th grade students in Hong Kong used Knowledge Forum in several conditions: Knowledge Forum only, Knowledge Forum with portfolios, and Knowledge Forum with portfolios and principles. Results showed: (1) Students working on portfolios guided by knowledge-building principles showed deeper inquiry and more conceptual understanding than their counterparts; (2) Students' knowledge-building discourse, reflected in portfolio scores, contributed to their domain understanding; and (3) Knowledge-building portfolios helped to assess and foster collective knowledge advances: A portfolio with multiple contributions from students is a group accomplishment that captures the distributed and progressive nature of knowledge building. Students extended their collective understanding by analyzing the discourse, and the portfolio scaffolded the complex interactions between individual and collective knowledge advancements. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (2006) 1(1):57-87 DOI 10.1007/s11412-006-6844-4 This paper was published without its complete corrections. This is a publisher and typesetter error. The online version of the original article can be found at:     

Creating Order: The Role of Heuristics in Website Selection

Heuristics, or mental shortcuts, can be efficient tools for decision making; however, they can also lead to biases. This study examines how undergraduate students might use heuristics when evaluating websites retrieved from a Google search. Student participants were asked to review a Google search for “genetically modified food” and select the websites they would likely use for an academic project. The Google search was presented in either the original or reversed order. After indicating initial preferences, students reviewed screen shots of six preselected websites from the Google search and rated each on various content attributes, after which they were asked whether they would use each for their research. The order in which participants saw the results affected their initial choices. Participants were more likely to choose the results near the top of the list. Once students evaluated websites on content attributes, the order effects diminished, but were still detectable. When asked to evaluate the websites, students demonstrated an understanding of what to look for and rated them effectively based on their content.     

面向高职学生的计算机应用基础课程 学习需求分析

in the information age, the course of Computer Application Basics plays a fundamental and instrumental role, but there are a few researches on the learning needs of students in the existing literatures. Based on the classification of students with different learning experiences, the article studies on their learning needs for the course content. The results confirm that the correlation be- tween the learning needs of the four types of students with different basic levels and the current course content settings gradually de- creases. Aiming at the problems reflected in the research process, such as, the current curriculum adopts the non-discriminatory teaching in a unitary standard, which makes it impossible to achieve the teaching effect that "teachers teach students according to their aptitude and students take what they need", it puts forward improvement suggestions for reference.     

Inter‐university cooperative learning: an exploratory study

This paper presents some preliminary findings from continuing action research involving university students of Education and examines the creation of a community of learners through the use of electronic media for remote collaboration. The main goal of this community was the design and implementation of a Web site about the curricula content of two parallel courses. The research focussed on the evaluation of the impact of technologies on communication processes among local peers and remote peers, and on the role of experts in the learning process. Qualitative analyses were conducted on information gathered from videorecordings of local interactions, personal portfolios, and cognitive maps. Students also completed rating scales on their perceptions of desired and actual function fulfilment (direct instruction, cognitive scaffolding, and affective scaffolding) by local and remote peers and tutors in the accomplishment of goals.     

Information problem solving by experts and novices: analysis of a complex cognitive skill

In (higher) education students are often faced with information problems: tasks or assignments that require them to identify information needs, locate corresponding information sources, extract and organize relevant information from each source, and synthesize information from a variety of sources. It is often assumed that students master this complex cognitive skill of information problem solving all by themselves. In our point of view, however, explicit and intensive instruction is necessary. A skill decomposition is needed in order to design instruction that fosters the development of information problem solving. This research analyzes the information problem solving process of novices and experts in order to reach a detailed skill decomposition. Results reveal that experts spend more time on the main skill ‘define problem’ and more often activate their prior knowledge, elaborate on the content, and regulate their process. Furthermore, experts and novices show little differences in the way they search the Internet. These findings formed the basis for formulating instructional guidelines.     

Assessing the learning potential and students' perception of rich lecture captures

There is a large variety of lecture capture forms being used today when considering their content and ways in which that content is being reproduced. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate the students' perception and the learning potential of lecture captures enriched using additional learning contents compared to lecture captures containing only the video and audio recording of the lecturer and his slideshow. In an experiment in which students were learning using each of those two types of learning materials, a slight yet unsignificant difference was observed in favour of learning from rich lecture captures. Students' survey responses indicated they prefer rich lecture captures for learning and that their availability would not necessarily have a negative impact on students' live lecture attendance rates. These results suggest that even though students prefer rich lecture capture materials for learning, they did not prove to be more efficient in achieving the desired learning outcomes. Additional research would be needed to verify this conclusion on more complex subjects.     

基于工作过程的“机械图样识读与绘制”学习领域课程开发与设计

基于工作过程教学模式成为目前适应高职教育的有效模式。以机械设计 与制造专业基础课程“机械制图”与“计算机辅助设计与绘图”的整合为例,探讨对该课程学 科体系下的知识解构和基于工作过程导向重组,开发与设计、基于工作过程的“机械图样 识读与绘制”学习领域课程,使课程学习内容与工作内容良好对接,实现上岗工作“零适应 期”。     

Adapting and personalizing the communication in a synchronous communication tool

Abstract   In this paper, we present a synchronous text-based communication tool, referred to as Adaptive Communication Tool (ACT), which provides capabilities for adaptation and personalization. ACT supports both the free and the structured form of dialogue. The structured dialogue is implemented by two types of Scaffolding Sentence Templates (SST); i.e. sentence openers or communicative acts. The capability of adaptation is considered in the sense of making suggestions for the supported form of dialogue and SST type and providing the most meaningful and complete set of SST with respect to the learning outcomes addressed by the collaborative learning activity and the model of collaboration followed by the group members. Also, ACT enables learners to have control on the adaptation by selecting the form of dialogue and the SST type they prefer to use and enriching the provided SST set with their own ones in order to cover their communication needs. The results from the formative evaluation of the tool showed that (i) the proposed dialogue form, SST type and the provided set of SST cover students' communication needs, (ii) the capability of personalizing the communication by selecting the desired communication means as well as by enriching the provided SST set satisfied students, and (iii) students used adequately both types of SST resulting into on-task and coherent dialogues.     

“What South Park Character Are You?”: Popular Culture, Literacy, and Online Performances of Identity

In this essay, I study MySpace and Facebook pages, as well as interviews with the university students who created them, in order to address how online literacy practices of contemporary convergence culture both use and are filtered through popular culture. Though their answers to questions of intent, audience, and rhetorical choices varied, students shared a common reliance on popular culture content and references appropriated from other sites to compose their identities and read the identities of others. They used popular culture icons, catch phrases, music, text, and film clips in postmodern, fragmented collages that seem simultaneously sentimental and ironic. The construction of these pages illustrates how popular culture practices that predate online technologies have been adopted and have flourished with new technologies that allow content to flow across media as well as increase the ease of audience participation. Online technological changes have changed what it means to be part of an “audience” by changing how individuals respond to and adapt popular culture texts to their own ends, such as the construction of identities on web pages. By creating potentially global audiences for any web page, these online technologies have changed the relationship of the popular culture audience members and their peers. The intertextual nature of popular culture texts creates opportunities for multiple readings of social networking web pages in ways that destabilize the identities students believe they have created.     

Problem solving through digital game design: A quantitative content analysis

Project Tech engages secondary students (ages 14 to 17) in the process of digital game design in a variety of in-school, after-school, and secure settings. The goal of Project Tech is to leverage students’ interests in games and design to foster their problem-solving in a supportive environment where they learn to create games about a social issue they have experienced personally. The present study compares the in-school special needs version of Project Tech (n = 11) to examine problem solving. Students enrolled in Project Tech were guided in the process of designing digital games aimed at teaching younger students (ages 12–15) about social issues facing teenagers. A quantitative content analysis was conducted on 35 iterations of a directed design game and 35 iterations of a free design game created by special needs young people and director notes. The purpose of the study was to draw from the game iterations a list of empirically grounded problem solving attributes that are associated with digital game design in a special needs classroom. The findings of the study resulted in the understanding of problem solving with special needs young people in four areas: representative characteristics, planning characteristics, executing characteristics and evaluation characteristics.     

Image selection and annotation for an environmental knowledge base

Images play an important role in the representation and acquisition of specialized knowledge. Not surprisingly, terminological knowledge bases (TKBs) often include images as a way to enhance the information in concept entries. However, the selection of these images should not be random, but rather based on specific guidelines that take into account the type and nature of the concept being described. This paper presents a proposal on how to combine the features of images with the conceptual propositions in EcoLexicon, a multilingual TKB on the environment. This proposal is based on the following: (1) the combinatory possibilities of concept types; (2) image types, such as photographs, drawings and flow charts; (3) morphological features or visual knowledge patterns (VKPs), such as labels, colours, arrows, and their effect on the functional nature of each image type. Currently, images are stored in association with concept entries according to the semantic content of their definitions, but they are not described or annotated according to the parameters that guided their selection, which would undoubtedly contribute to the systematization and automatization of the process. First, the images included in EcoLexicon were analyzed in terms of their adequateness, the semantic relations expressed, the concept types and their VKPs. Then, with these data, guidelines for image selection and annotation were created. The final aim is twofold: (1) to systematize the selection of images and (2) to start annotating old and new images so that the system can automatically allocate them in different concept entries based on shared conceptual propositions.     

Application of a methodology for evaluation prioritization and resource allocation to energy conservation program planning

This research applies a methodology for evaluation, prioritization, and resource allocation to energy conservation program planning. The initial allocation problem consists of 45 projects involving consumer small scale technology products, projects mandated by the National Energy Act, and consumer motivation projects. There exist the possibility of 3.52×10¹³ portfolios composed from exhaustive aggregations of those 45 projects. Through screening and separation of the projects into independent groups, the final evaluation is reduced to a prioritization of 110 portfolios. The best market groups for concentration of effort, in terms of energy savings per research dollar expended, are noncompetitive consumer projects and new residence space heating. In this effort, prioritization of individual research projects and feasibile portfolios is obtained. This prioritization can be used to obtain plans and resource allocations at any given funding level. This exercise is a first step in the application of the methodology to planning. The data used in the study is reasonable but due to a number of simplifying assumptions and lack of sensitivity analysis, the results of the analysis are more illustrative of the type of planning and decision support assistance possible with the methodology than they are illustrative realistic solutions. A detailed critique of the application concludes the paper.     

Evaluation of computer tools for idea generation and team formation in project-based learning

The main objective of this research was to validate the effectiveness of Wikideas and Creativity Connector tools to stimulate the generation of ideas and originality by university students organized into groups according to their indexes of creativity and affinity. Another goal of the study was to evaluate the classroom climate created by these tools and the method “Think Actively in a Social Context” (TASC) proposed by Wallace and Adams (1993) and framed within project-based learning (PBL). The research was conducted with a sample of 34 students in the third year of a Computer Engineering degree, which, during a period of 15 weeks, required them to design and implement an innovative distributed application project. The procedure consisted of the implementation of the eight phases of the TASC method integrated to the Wikideas and Creativity Connector tools. The information provided by the tools, interviews and questionnaires administered to students were used to analyze our hypothesis. The results show that the tools helped the students to generate, evaluate and select the most relevant ideas and to form teams for project execution. They also revealed that teams with high indexes of creativity and affinity (type α) achieved the best grades in academic performance and project originality. Furthermore, research data show that Wikideas and Creativity Connector along with the TASC approach created a positive classroom climate for students. Based on this work, several suggestions can be extracted on the use of the tools and the TASC method for project-based learning.     

Procedural versus content‐related hints for word problem solving: an exploratory study

For primary school students, mathematical word problems are often more difficult to solve than straightforward number problems. Word problems require reading and analysis skills, and in order to explain their situational contexts, the proper mathematical knowledge and number operations have to be selected. To improve students' ability in solving word problems, the problem solving process could be supported by procedural and content specific guidance or with only procedural support.. This paper evaluates the effect of two types of hints, procedural only and content‐procedural, provided by a computer programme presented in two versions. Students of grade 6 were randomly assigned to these two versions, which offered five lesson units consisting of eight word problems each. The results indicate that on average the students in the procedural‐content hints group (n = 54) finished about just as many problems in the programme as their counterparts in the procedural‐only condition (n = 51). However, the participants in the first group solved more problems correctly and improved their problem‐solving skills more as indicated by the scores on the problem‐solving post‐test. Apart from presenting our analysis of the findings of this study, also its limitations and its possible implications for future research are discussed in this paper.     

Determining reactive and proactive aggression and empathy levels of middle school students regarding their video game preferences

The studies existing on the effects of video games with violent content and aggression in research literature have controversial results. Accordingly, some studies indicate that empathy may play a determining role in the relationship between video games and aggression. In this context, the study aim was to describe the game types that middle school students play and analyze the relationship between the game types, their reactive and proactive aggressions, and empathic skills. Participants were 318 students from middle schools in Turkey. An important finding obtained from this study was the relationship between the frequency of proactive and reactive aggression and the playing of aggressive games; a relationship was also identified between emotional and cognitive empathy and the playing of aggressive games. Therefore, it is important to talk to children about the real-life consequences of aggressive games, and teach them appropriate methods of conflict management that they can use in real-life conflicts, which may diminish the negative effects of games with aggressive content.     

Does Anyone Need Help Out There?

SUMMARY

In order to provide online help for distance students, as well as the increasing number of on-campus students who regularly access library resources, a team of librarians from the Marshall University Libraries created an online library assistance site (HELP). This site brings together traditional print handouts, FAQs, online subject guides, course-specific guides, learning modules, and instructional videos in one central location where users can get assistance with library-related questions at their point of need. This article discusses the rationale for developing the site, the process of creating it and incorporating user input, ongoing content development, the impact upon the Libraries' Web site, and future development plans.     

Regulating self-organized collaborative learning: the importance of homogeneous problem perception,immediacy and intensity of strategy use

Very often, university students deliberately form self-organized study groups, e.g. to study collaboratively for an upcoming exam. Yet, very little is known about what regulation problems such self-organized study groups encounter during their learning process and how they try to cope with these problems. Therefore, this study investigates how completely self-organized groups (i.e., non-guided groups outside the classroom that form without external impulse) regulate their collaborative learning process when faced with different kinds of regulation problems. More specifically, we tested the hypotheses that members of self-organized study groups are more satisfied with their group learning experience (a) the more homogeneous their problem perceptions are within their group, (b) the more they apply immediate (rather than non-immediate) strategies to remedy their regulation problems, and (c) the more frequently they apply regulation strategies. In a longitudinal study, N?=?122 students, voluntarily studying for their exams in N?=?52 groups, were asked to indicate the types of problems they experienced, the types of strategies they used to tackle those problems, and their satisfaction with their group learning experience after each of their self-organized study meetings. Hierarchical linear modeling confirmed all hypotheses. Qualitative analysis of two selected groups’ self-reported situational data provided additional insights about the mechanisms that may have contributed to the results. Our study provides important directions for future research, including the recommendation to identify the processes by which groups (a) can reach homogeneity of problem perceptions and (b) coordinate the choice of appropriate strategies within the group.

     

Object and Combination Shedding Schemes for Adaptive Media Workflow Execution

Complex media fusion operations can be costly in terms of the time they need to process input objects. If data arrive faster to fusion nodes than the speed with which they can consume the inputs, this will result in some input objects not being processed. In this paper, we develop load shedding mechanisms which take into consideration both data quality and expensive nature of media fusion operators. In particular, we present quality assessment models for objects and multistream fusion operators and highlight that such quality assessments may impose partial orders on objects. We highlight that the most effective load control approach for fusion operators involves shedding of (not the individual input objects but) combinations of objects. Yet, identifying suitable combinations of objects in real time will not be possible if efficient combination selection algorithms do not exist. We develop efficient combination selection schemes for scenarios with different quality assessment and target characteristics. We first develop efficient combination-based load shedding when the fusion operator has unambiguously monotone semantics. We then extend this to the more general ambiguously monotone case and present experimental results that show the performance gains using quality-aware combination-based load shedding strategies under the various fusion scenarios.