Sustaining group cognition in a math chat environment

Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning (RPTEL), 1(2)Learning takes place over long periods of time that are hard to study directly. Even the learning experience involved in solving a challenging math problem in a collaborative online setting can be spread across hundreds of brief postings during an hour or more. Such long-term interactions are constructed out of posting-level interactions, such as the strategic proposing of a next step. This paper identifies a pattern of exchange of postings that it terms math proposal adjacency pair, and describes its characteristics. Drawing on the methodology of conversation analysis, the paper adapts this approach to investigating mathematical problem-solving communication and to the computer-mediated circumstances of online chat. Math proposals and other interaction methods constitute the collaborative group as a working group, give direction to its problem solving and help to sustain its shared meaning making or group cognition. Groups sustain their online social and intellectual work by building up longer sequences of math proposals, other adjacency pairs and a variety of interaction methods. Experiences of collaboration and products of group cognition emerge over time

Methodological issues in developing a multi-dimensional coding procedure for small group chat communication

In CSCL research, collaboration through chat has primarily been studied in dyadic settings. This article discusses three issues that emerged during the development of a multi-dimensional coding procedure for small group chat communication: a) the unit of analysis and unit fragmentation, b) the reconstruction of the response structure and c) determining reliability without overestimation. Threading, i.e. connections between analysis units, proved essential to handle unit fragmentation, to reconstruct the response structure and for reliability of coding. In addition, a risk for reliability overestimation was illustrated. Implications for analysis methodology in CSCL are discussed

Representational practices in VMT.

This chapter analyzes the interaction of three students working on mathematics problems over several days in a virtual math team. Our analysis traces out how successful collaboration in a later session was contingent upon the work of prior sessions, and shows how representational practices are important aspects of these participants’ mathematical problem solving. We trace the formation, transformation and refinement of one problem-solving practice—problem decomposition—and three representational practices—inscribe first solve second, modulate perspective and visualize decomposition. The analysis is of theoretical interest because it suggests that “situated cognition” is contingent upon not only the immediate situation but also the chronologically prior resources and associated practices; shows how inscriptions become representations for the group through an interactive process of interpretation; and sheds light on “group cognition” as an interactional process that is not identical to individual cognition yet that draws upon a dynamic interplay of individual contributions

The virtual math teams project: A global math discourse community

Paper presented at the International Conference on Computers and Education (ICCE '06), Beijing, China.The Virtual Math Teams Project is an on-going research effort conducted within the Math Forum online suite of educational services related to school mathematics. It is an iterative effort to evolve an online math discourse community and to design effective software support for collaborative learning within this community. A central research aim is to develop a systematic understanding of how math discourse takes place in an online chat environment. This is part of a larger research agenda of analyzing group cognition, the ability of small groups to engage in high-level intellectual processes like argumentation, problem-solving and inquiry

Innovating Pedagogy 2017: Exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment, to guide educators and policy makers. Open University Innovation Report 6

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This sixth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Learning In a NetworKed Society (LINKS) Israeli Center of Research Excellence (I-CORE). Themes: • Big-data inquiry: thinking with data • Learners making science • Navigating post-truth societies • Immersive learning • Learning with internal values • Student-led analytics • Intergroup empathy • Humanistic knowledge-building communities • Open Textbooks • Spaced Learnin

Interaction & learning in chat environments: A workshop with data sessions

Workshop paper presented at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences, ICLS 2006, Bloomington, IN. Retrieved July 18, 2007 from http://www.cis.drexel.edu/faculty/gerry/pub/icls2006chat.pdf.Research groups around the world are using approaches inspired by Conversation Analysis to explore the processes of sense-making peculiar to textual exchanges mediated by chat technology. Such Chat Analysis allows researchers to observe the opportunities for and barriers to collaborative learning created by chat environments with various functionality. This day-long workshop will consist primarily of group data sessions analyzing chat logs, but will also consider theoretical and methodological implications for the study of computer support in the learning sciences

Professional Development in a Digital Age: Issues and Challenges for Standards−Based Reform

This paper discusses possible roles for online technologies in professional development begins by describing characteristics of professional development approaches that enable teachers to engage in standards−based teaching. Electronic technologies offer two leverage points that bridge time and place constraints imposed by onsite professional development: (1) ubiquitous access to resources that support student and teacher learning; (2) expanded opportunities for teachers' learning communities through electronic conferencing systems, whose common features, designs, and uses are described. Finally, challenges and potential solutions for making effective use of electronic technologies for professional development are described.This paper discusses possible roles for online technologies in professional development begins by describing characteristics of professional development approaches that enable teachers to engage in standards−based teaching. Electronic technologies offer two leverage points that bridge time and place constraints imposed by onsite professional development: (1) ubiquitous access to resources that support student and teacher learning; (2) expanded opportunities for teachers' learning communities through electronic conferencing systems, whose common features, designs, and uses are described. Finally, challenges and potential solutions for making effective use of electronic technologies for professional development are described

Peer Learning in Virtual Schools

This is the published version. Copyright 2014 Canadian Network for Innovation in EducationThis article is about peer-to-peer learning amongst students within K–12 virtual schools. This issue is examined through a case study of experiences of three students with disabilities enrolled in one virtual school and that of their parents, teachers, and school administrators. The article is framed around variability in learners’ aptitudes for peer-to-peer learning, in the design of the learning environment and what it affords for interpersonal interactions, and in the context where that learning design is implemented (and whether or not it promotes peer-to-peer learning). Each of these areas of variability impacted whether or not peer-to-peer learning occurred