Approaching institutional contexts: systemic versus dialogic research in CSCL

The research literature in CSCL has rarely addressed the question of how institutional contexts contribute to constituting the meanings and functions of CSCL applications. The argument that we develop here concerns how the institutional context impacts the use of CSCL applications and how this impact should be conceptualized. In order to structure to our argument, we introduce a distinction between systemic and dialogic approaches to CSCL research. We develop our argument by working through a selection of relevant studies belonging to the two perspectives, and conclude that not enough attention has been given to the emergent characteristics of activities where CSCL tools have been introduced. This is particularly the case in studies belonging to a systemic approach. Our basic argument is that a dialogic stance can provide important insights into how institutional practices shape the meanings and functions of CSCL tools. A dialogic perspective provides opportunities for making sense of learning and knowledge construction at different levels of activity, while at the same time retaining sensitivity to the mutually constitutive relationship between levels.     

Analyzing collaborative interactions: divergence,shared understanding and construction of knowledge

One of the most important facets of collaborative learning is the interaction between individual and collaborative learning activities – between divergent perspectives and shared knowledge building. Individuals bring divergent ideas into a collaborative environment. While individuals bring their own unique knowledge and perspectives, the second important aspect of collaborative learning is how they move from seemingly divergent perspectives to collaborative knowledge building. This is clearly a social process among group members who could adopt various strategies for resolving differences including asserting dominance, acquiescing, or some form of reciprocal sense making. An important aspect of collaborative learning is the move from assimilation to construction, i.e., creating new understandings based on the discussions that they have had. Documenting this change from divergence to collaborative knowledge building to possible construction is therefore important in understanding the nature the collaborative interactions. In this paper we discuss our analysis of the process of collaborative interactions based on three dimensions – divergence of ideas, collaborative knowledge building and construction. Our aim was to document as well as to understand how collaborative interactions develop over time: whether students raise new issues (ideas) more frequently as they become more familiar with the discussion and discussants, and whether shared knowledge building becomes richer over time, and subsequent evidence that students were able to construct their own understanding based on their interactions with others. Our analyses were conducted in the context of an online graduate course conducted using the learning environment that we designed, CoDE, (Constructivist, Distributed learning Environment). In this paper, we will first describe the design of CoDE. We will then describe a study in which CoDE was used to offer an online graduate course in learning theories. We then discuss our analyses of both individual and collaborative learning as it progressed through the duration of the course.     

Web学习环境中混合协同机制的研究

针对当前基于Web的教学系统设计中协同机制的优势和不足,深入分析和讨论了当前计算机支持的协作学习技术的应用和发展,基于CSCW理论提出了教学系统设计中混合协同机制的应用方法和策略,并基于混合协同机制完成了一个远程教学应用系统的设计,充分说明了多策略协同在Web学习系统设计中的有效性和重要意义。     

在CSCW合作应用管理机制下的协同学习系统

文章探讨了CSCW应用在WEB环境下的群体协同机制,分析了其基本的协作方式,并据此提出了一种面向协同学习的应用模型。     

一个基于多代理系统的CSCL中间件

移动设备(如手机)由于屏幕小、带宽有限等因素一直在CSCL领域难有作为。该文利用代理的智能、协作等特性,结合一个已有的CSCL应用平台,设计了一种基于多代理系统的CSCL中间什模型。该模型能够根据用户移动设备的显示性能,个性化处理已有的HTML文档,基本满足学习者对课件的访问,并协助移动用户使用CSCL应用平台,与其它协同学习者交流与合作。     

CSCL和形成性评价在数据结构教学中的尝试

笔者把CSCL应用于数据结构的教学过程,对实验班级采用CSCL教学方式和形成性评价,在学习过程中多次循环,经过一个学期,实验班学生在考试成绩、反馈信息和学习能力方面都比非实验班有更好的效果。本文阐述了这一过程。     

Collaborative corrections with spelling control: Digital resources and peer assistance

The present study has explored how pairs of students deployed digital tools (spelling software) as resources in spontaneously occurring corrections of spelling errors. Drawing on the sociocultural theory of learning and ethnomethodological (Conversation Analytic) insights into social interaction, it has identified a range of consistent practices and uses of the spelling tools that were emergent in the everyday educational activities. As demonstrated, technology-assisted error corrections constituted a complex situation, where a number of socioculturally significant factors (goals of the task, properties of the software, and physical access to computer applications) shaped the trajectories of joint work. The present analysis shows in detail how the students approached the visually manifested language production errors by using two kinds of software resources, spelling lists, and a diagnostic tool. The inherent conceptual distinctions, characteristic of these tools, configured joint interpretative work and efforts to correct the errors in different ways. Recurrently, the students’ technology-based corrections were designed as autonomous, stepwise, locally improvised problem solutions, which were subsequently submitted for the evaluation of the diagnostic software. Overall, the study shows that the under-specification of the software’s instructions opened a space for the students’ creative engagement. The potentials of joint spelling software-assisted corrections for collaborative learning are discussed.

Genre and CSCL: The form and rhetoric of the online posting

Genre analysis, the investigation of typified communicative actions arising in recurrent situations, has been developed to study information use and interchange online, in businesses and in other organizations. As such, it holds out promise for the investigation of similarly typified communicative actions and situations in CSCL contexts. This study explores this promise, beginning with an overview of ways that genre analysis has been adapted and applied in related areas: in the study of group behavior in organizations, and of evolving and proliferating communicative forms, actions, and situations on the Internet (e-mails, blogs, FAQs, etc.). Focusing on the particular genre of the Internet “posting” in CSCL contexts, the paper hypothesizes that the educational use of this genre bears recognizable similarities with its generic antecedent, the letter. In testing this hypothesis, the paper describes a pilot case study of a set of CSCL postings (n = 136), which attempts to quantify the occurrence of rhetorical characteristics common to both the epistolary and CSCL “genres.” This content analysis shows the recurrence in this sample of a range of rhetorical markers (240 in total) that are characteristic of epistolary dynamics. It concludes by considering the implications of these findings and of a “genre approach” for CSCL research generally, and for community of inquiry models in particular.

计算机支持的协同学习系统中负载均衡技术研究

计算机支持的协同学习系统能够帮助分布在不同地域的学习人员共享资源、实现学习者之间的合作.然而,系统在进行学习交流时所产生的数据流量和计算强度之大,通常让单一的服务器无法承受.本文首先介绍了常用的负载均衡技术和调度算法,并针对协同学习系统的特点,结合NAT负载均衡技术和TCP传递机制,提出了一种新的动态加权轮循均衡算法,实现了系统的负载均衡.