Facilitating growth in prospective teachers’ knowledge : teaching geometry in primary schools

This paper reports on a study that focused on growth of understanding about teaching geometry by a group of prospective teachers engaged in lesson plan study within a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. Participation in the activity was found to facilitate considerable growth in the participants’ pedagogical-content knowledge (PCK). Factors that influenced growth in PCK included the nature of the lesson planning task, the cognitive scaffolds inserted into the CSCL virtual space, the meta-language scaffolds provided to the participants, and the provision of both private and public discourse spaces. The paper concludes with recommendations for enhancing effective knowledge-building discourse about mathematics PCK within prospective teacher education CSCL environments.

Sosiaalisen verkostoanalyysin soveltuminen yhteisöllisen verkko-oppimisen tutkimiseen

Tietotekniikan kehittyessä lisääntyy sekä tietotyön tekijöiden tarve että paine tehostaa opetusta tietotekniikan avulla. Tietotyöläisten tarvitsemien taitojen opettamiseen tarvitaan uutta pedagogiikkaa, jossa korostetaan tietojen ja sääntöjen seuraamisen sijaan taitoja, itsenäisyyttä ja oppimaan oppimista. Tietotekniikankäyttäminen opetuksessa tuo omat haasteensa oppimistilanteisiin. Sosiokonstruktiivinen, yhteisöllinenverkko"-oppiminen onkin nousemassa perinteisen opettajajohtoisen opetuksen haastajaksi. Suomessa kehitetty Tutkiva oppiminen on yksi tämän viitekehyksen mukaisista pedagogisista menetelmistä. Koska sosiokonstruktiivinen teoria korostaa ihmisten välisiä suhteita yli yksittäisen ihmisen toiminnan, alan tutkimuksenkin on otettava kantaa tutkimustilanteessa esiintyviin vuorovaikutussuhteisiin. Tähän perinteiset psykologiset ja pedagogiset menetelmät eivät sovellu, kun taas sosiaalitieteissä suhteellisen vanha analyysimenetelmä, SVA eli sosiaalinen verkostoanalyysi, on tarkoitettu nimen\-omaan ihmisryhmien analysoimiseen. SVA:n sovellukset psykologian ja yhteisöllisen oppimisen alueilla ovat kuitenkin vasta alustavia, eikä luotettavaa näyttöä menetelmän soveltumisesta saatika hyödyllisistä tuloksista vielä ole. Tämän tutkimuksen on tarkoitus selvittää, onko SVA sovellettavissa tälle tutkimuksen alueelle. Tässä tutkimuksessa SVA:ta käytettiin 23 peruskoulu- ja lukioluokan Tutkivan oppimisen menetelmällä toteutettujen oppimistilanteiden tutkimiseen. Tulokset osoittavat, että SVA soveltuu yhteisöllisen verkko-oppimisen tutkimiseen, sillä tästä aineistosta löytyi alustavia SVA:n tunnuslukuja, jotka ovat yhteydessä oppimistilanteen laatuun. Tulokset ovat myös pitkälti sosiokonstruktiivisen teorian mukaisia: kurssin hyöty nousee, kun useat oppilaat kirjoittavat korkealaatuisia viestejä ja osallistuvat kattavasti eri keskusteluihin. Avainsanat: Tutkiva oppiminen, sosiokonstruktivismi, pedagogiikka, yhteisöllisyys, yhteisöllinen verkko-oppiminen, Fle3, SVA, sosiaalinen verkostoanalyysi, koulu, opetus.

Verkkokurssilla : Opiskelijoiden kokemuksia toiminnasta yhteisöllisessä oppimisprosessissa Fle2-ympäristössä ja kokemusten näkyminen toimintaan osallistumisessa

The study examines one case of students' experiences from the activity in a collaborative learning process in a networked learning environment, and explores whether or not the experiences explain the participation or lack of participation in the activities. As a research task the students' experiences in the database of the networked learning environment, participating in its construction, and the ways of working needed to build the database, were examined. To contrast the students' experiences, their actual participation in the building of the database was clarified. Based on actual participation, groups more active and more passive than average were separated, and their experiences were compared to each other. The research material was collected from the course Cognitive and Creative Processes, which was offered to studentsof the Department of Textile Teacher Education in University of Helsinki, and students of the Departments of Teacher Education Units giving textile education in Turku, Rauma and Savonlinna in the beginning of 2001. In this course, creativity was examined from a psychological and sosiocultural context with the aim of realizing a collaborative progressive inquiry process. The course was held in a network-based Future Learning Environment (Fle 2) except for the starting lecture and training the use of the learning environment. This study analyzed the learning diaries that the students had sent to the tutor once a week for four weeks, and the final thoughts written into the database of the learning environment. Content analysis was applied as the research method. The case was enriched from another point of view by examining the messages the students had written into the learning environment with the social network analysis. The theoretical base of the study looks at the research of computer-supported collaborative learning, the conceptions of learning as a process of participation and knowledge building, and the possibilities and limitations of network-based learning environments. The research results show, that both using the network-based learning environment and collaborative ways of studying were new to the students. The students were positively surprised by the feedback and support provided by the community. On the other hand, they also experienced problems with facelessness and managing the information in the learning environment. The active students seemed to be more ready for a progressive inquiry process. It can be seen from their attitudes and actions that they have strived to participate actively and invested into the process both from their own and the community's point of view. The more passive students reported their actions to get credits and they had a harder time of perceiving the thoughts presented in the net as common progression. When arranging similar courses in the future, attention should be paid to how to get the students to act in ways necessary for knowledge building, and different from more traditional ways of studying. The difficulties of students used to traditional studying methods to adapt to collaborative knowledge building were evident on the course Cognitive and Creative Processes. Keywords: computer supported collaborative learning, knowledge building, progressive Inquiry, participation

C@rol: Herramienta Web que aplica un nuevo método para la mejora de la efectividad de grupos de estudiantes a través de la identificación de roles en entornos de aprendizaje colaborativo asistido por ordenador

205 p.

ReaderBench: An Integrated Cohesion-Centered Framework

Dascalu, M., Stavarache, L.L., Dessus, P., Trausan-Matu, S., McNamara, D.S., & Bianco, M. (2015). ReaderBench: An Integrated Cohesion-Centered Framework. In G. Conole, T. Klobucar, C. Rensing, J. Konert & É. Lavoué (Eds.), 10th European Conf. on Technology Enhanced Learning (pp. 505–508). Toledo, Spain: Springer.

Visualization of polyphonic voices inter-animation in CSCL chats

Trausan-Matu, S., & Dascalu, M. (2015). Visualization of Polyphonic Voices Inter-animation in CSCL Chats. Revista Romana de Interactiune Om-Calculator, 8(4), 305–322.

ReaderBench: Automated evaluation of collaboration based on cohesion and dialogism

Dascalu, M., Trausan-Matu, S., McNamara, D.S., & Dessus, P. (2015). ReaderBench – Automated Evaluation of Collaboration based on Cohesion and Dialogism. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 10(4), 395–423. doi: 10.1007/s11412-015-9226-y

Are they adicctied to college students social networks?

The development of the Internet and in particular of social networks has supposedly given a new view to the different aspects that surround human behavior. It includes those associated with addictions, but specifically the ones that have to do with technologies. Following a correlational descriptive design we present the results of a study, which involved university students from Social and Legal Sciences as participants, about their addiction to the Internet and in particular to social networks. The sample was conformed of 373 participants from the cities of Granada, Sevilla, Málaga, and Córdoba. To gather the data a questionnaire that was design by Young was translated to Spanish. The main research objective was to determine if university students could be considered social network addicts. The most prominent result was that the participants don’t consider themselves to be addicted to the Internet or to social networks; in particular women reflected a major distance from the social networks. It’s important to know that the results differ from those found in the literature review, which opens the question, are the participants in a phase of denial towards the addiction?

Knowledge Building in Landscape Architecture

The objective of this study was to develop an internet-based seminar framework applicable for landscape architecture education. This process was accompanied by various aims. The basic expectation was to keep the main characteristics of landscape architecture education also in the online format. On top of that, four further objectives were anticipated: (1) training of competences for virtual team work, (2) fostering intercultural competence, (3) creation of equal opportunities for education through internet-based open access and (4) synergy effects and learning processes across institutional boundaries. This work started with the hypothesis that these four expected advantages would compensate for additional organisational efforts caused by the online delivery of the seminars and thus lead to a sustainable integration of this new learning mode into landscape architecture curricula. This rationale was followed by a presentation of four areas of knowledge to which the seminar development was directly related (1) landscape architecture as a subject and its pedagogy, (2) general learning theories, (3) developments in the ICT sector and (4) wider societal driving forces such as global citizenship and the increase of open educational resources. The research design took the shape of a pedagogical action research cycle. This approach was constructive: The author herself is teaching international landscape architecture students so that the model could directly be applied in practice. Seven online seminars were implemented in the period from 2008 to 2013 and this experience represents the core of this study. The seminars were conducted with varying themes while its pedagogy, organisation and the technological tools remained widely identical. The research design is further based on three levels of observation: (1) the seminar design on the basis of theory and methods from the learning sciences, in particular educational constructivism, (2) the seminar evaluation and (3) the evaluation of the seminars’ long term impact. The seminar model itself basically consists of four elements: (1) the taxonomy of learning objectives, (2) ICT tools and their application and pedagogy, (3) process models and (4) the case study framework. The seminar framework was followed by the presentation of the evaluation findings. The major findings of this study can be summed up as follows: Implementing online seminars across educational and national boundaries was possible both in term of organisation and technology. In particular, a high level of cultural diversity among the seminar participants has definitively been achieved. However, there were also obvious obstacles. These were primarily competing study commitments and incompatible schedules among the students attending from different academic programmes, partly even in different time zones. Both factors had negative impact on the individual and working group performances. With respect to the technical framework it can be concluded that the majority of the participants were able to use the tools either directly without any problem or after overcoming some smaller problems. Also the seminar wiki was intensively used for completing the seminar assignments. However, too less truly collaborative text production was observed which could be improved by changing the requirements for the collaborative task. Two different process models have been applied for guiding the collaboration of the small groups and both were in general successful. However, it needs to be said that even if the students were able to follow the collaborative task and to co-construct and compare case studies, most of them were not able to synthesize the knowledge they had compiled. This means that the area of consideration often remained on the level of the case and further reflections, generalisations and critique were largely missing. This shows that the seminar model needs to find better ways for triggering knowledge building and critical reflection. It was also suggested to have a more differentiated group building strategy in future seminars. A comparison of pre- and post seminar concept maps showed that an increase of factual and conceptual knowledge on the individual level was widely recognizable. Also the evaluation of the case studies (the major seminar output) revealed that the students have undergone developments of both the factual and the conceptual knowledge domain. Also their self-assessment with respect to individual learning development showed that the highest consensus was achieved in the field of subject-specific knowledge. The participants were much more doubtful with regard to the progress of generic competences such as analysis, communication and organisation. However, 50% of the participants confirmed that they perceived individual development on all competence areas the survey had asked for. Have the additional four targets been met? Concerning the competences for working in a virtual team it can be concluded that the vast majority was able to use the internet-based tools and to work with them in a target-oriented way. However, there were obvious differences regarding the intensity and activity of participation, both because of external and personal factors. A very positive aspect is the achievement of a high cultural diversity supporting the participants’ intercultural competence. Learning from group members was obviously a success factor for the working groups. Regarding the possibilities for better accessibility of educational opportunities it became clear that a significant number of participants were not able to go abroad during their studies because of financial or personal reasons. They confirmed that the online seminar was to some extent a compensation for not having been abroad for studying. Inter-institutional learning and synergy was achieved in so far that many teachers from different countries contributed with individual lectures. However, those teachers hardly ever followed more than one session. Therefore, the learning effect remained largely within the seminar learning group. Looking back at the research design it can be said that the pedagogical action research cycle was an appropriate and valuable approach allowing for strong interaction between theory and practice. However, some more external evaluation from peers in particular regarding the participants’ products would have been valuable.

Aprendizaje colaborativo de la escritura mediante organización de contenidos y tareas.

Resumen tomado de la publicación. Incluye tablas, gráficos e imágenes capturadas de la pantalla del ordenador. Artículo seleccionado de SIIE (Simposio Internacional de Informática Educativa) 2004, extendido y revisado para su publicación en IE Comunicaciones

An??lisis y monitorizaci??n de la interacci??n en entornos colaborativos mediante el uso de SNA

Resumen tomado del autor

Aprendizaje colaborativo en enseñanza a distancia : entorno genérico para configurar, realizar y analizar actividades en grupo.

Profundizar en el estudio y desarrollo de modelos de soporte para el aprendizaje colaborativo a distancia, que permite proponer una arquitectura fundamentada en los principios del paradigma CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning). La arquitectura propuesta aborda un tipo de problema concreto que requiere el uso de técnicas derivadas del trabajo colaborativo, la inteligencia artificial, interfaces de usuario así como ideas tomadas de la Pedagogía y la Psicología. Se diseña una solución completa, abierta y genérica. La arquitectura aprovecha las nuevas tecnologías para lograr un sistema efectivo de apoyo a la educación a distancia. Se organiza en cuatro niveles: el de Configuración, el de Experiencia, el de Organización y el de Análisis. A partir de ella se implementa un sistema llamado Degree. En Degree, cada uno de los niveles de la arquitectura da lugar a un subsistema independiente pero relacionado con los otros. La aplicación saca partido del uso de espacios de trabajo estructurados. El subsistema Configurador de Experiencias permite definir los elementos de un espacio de trabajo y una experiencia y adaptarlos a cada tipo de usuario. El subsistema Manejador de Experiencias recoge las contribuciones de los usuarios para construir una solución conjunta de un problema. Las intervenciones de los alumnos se estructuran basándose en un grafo conversacional genérico. Además, se registran todas las acciones de los usuarios para representar explícitamente el proceso completo que lleva a la solución. Estos datos también se almacenan en una memoria común que constituye el subsistema llamado Memoria Organizativa de Experiencias. El subsistema Analizador estudia las intervenciones de los usuarios. Este análisis permite inferir conclusiones sobre la forma en que trabajan los grupos y sus actitudes frente a la colaboración, teniendo en cuenta además el conocimiento subjetivo del observador. El proceso de desarrollo en paralelo de la arquitectura y el sistema sigue un ciclo de refinamiento en cinco fases con sucesivas etapas de prototipado y evaluación formativa. Cada fase de este proceso se realiza con usuarios reales y se consideran las opiniones de los usuarios para mejorar las funcionalidades de la arquitectura así como la interfaz del sistema. Esta aproximación permite, además, comprobar la utilidad práctica y la validez de las propuestas que sustentan este trabajo.

Aula : un sistema ubicuo de enseñanza-aprendizaje colaborativo.

Resumen tomado de la publicación

¿Evaluando o bordando retales? : un modelo de evaluación receptivo centrado en el evaluando para escenarios CSCL.

Monográfico con el título: la investigación y la innovación universitaria, un campo emergente y en coordinación

Lo que el ojo no ve : un estudio de caso basado en procesos de indagación co(wiki)laborativos.

Resumen basado en el de la publicación