THE "POWER" OF TEXT PRODUCTION ACTIVITY IN COLLABORATIVE MODELING : NINE RECOMMENDATIONS TO MAKE A COMPUTER SUPPORTED SITUATION WORK

Language is not a direct translation of a speaker’s or writer’s knowledge or intentions. Various complex processes and strategies are involved in serving the needs of the audience: planning the message, describing some features of a model and not others, organizing an argument, adapting to the knowledge of the reader, meeting linguistic constraints, etc. As a consequence, when communicating about a model, or about knowledge, there is a complex interaction between knowledge and language. In this contribution, we address the question of the role of language in modeling, in the specific case of collaboration over a distance, via electronic exchange of written textual information. What are the problems/dimensions a language user has to deal with when communicating a (mental) model? What is the relationship between the nature of the knowledge to be communicated and linguistic production? What is the relationship between representations and produced text? In what sense can interactive learning systems serve as mediators or as obstacles to these processes

How to bring a technical artifact into use: A micro-developmental perspective

In order to understand how technical artifacts are attuned to, interacted with, and shaped in various and varied classrooms, it is necessary to construct detailed accounts of the use of particular artifacts in particular classrooms. This paper presents a descriptive account of how a shared workspace was brought into use by a student pair in a face-to-face planning task. A micro-developmental perspective was adopted to describe how the pair established a purposeful connection with this unfamiliar artifact over a relatively short time frame. This appropriation was examined against the background of their regular planning practice. We describe how situational resources present in the classroom—norms, practices and artifacts— frame possible action, and how these possibilities are enacted by the pair. Analysis shows that the association of norms and practices with the technical artifact lead to a contradiction that surfaced as resistance experienced from the artifact. This resistance played an important part in the appropriation process of the pair. It signaled tension in the activity, triggered reflection on the interaction with the artifact, and had a coordinative function. The absence of resistance was equally important. It allowed the pair to transpose or depart from regular procedure without reflection

Collaboration in Computer Conferencing

We have been experimenting with web based electronic conferencing (CMC) at the Educational Science Department of Utrecht University for a period of nearly 10 years now. Obstacles such as insufficient participation, the low quality of messages and the integration of CMC in a course have been overcome and nowadays many of our students appear actively engaged with knowledge construction activities (Veerman, 2000). While we may have succeeded in organizing interesting computer conferences, things are missing that relate to the affordances of computer conferencing for collaborative learning. It seems that at the level of individual courses we have reached limits we cannot move beyond. In order to understand this problem and its possible solutions, this paper discusses some of our data concerning the role of computer conferencing in higher education

The Rhetoric of Conflict: The Impact of Epistemic and Relational Conflict on Relations with the Partner, Conflict Regulation and Learning

International audienc

Foundations of Argumentative Text Processing

Argumentative text processing is concerned with the psychology of the production and comprehension of argumentative texts. This volume contains a collection of papers which each provide a survey of the state of the art in research on argumentative text processing. The rationale behind the choice of topics is our focus on fundamental components of the argumentative process. To this end, the chapters discuss the topics of reasoning, argumentative theory, social context, interaction, development, knowledge, planning and translating, education, collaboration and electronic argumentation. Although the focus of this book on written text production, it also contains a number of chapters on oral argumentation. This book is the first that has assembled the world's leading scholars on argumentation to discuss these issues. It should serve as a basic overview of the field for many years to come