HOW I VIEW LEARNING AND THINKING IN CSCL GROUPS

Abstract

The field of CSCL is particularly interested in the ways small groups can build knowledge together thanks to communication and support from networking technology. I hope that CSCL environments can be designed that make possible and encourage groups to think and learn collaboratively. In my research, my colleagues and I look at logs of student groups chatting and drawing about mathematics in order to see how they build on each other’s utterances to achieve more than they would individually. To answer this important question, we must look carefully at the details of discourse in CSCL groups and develop innovative tools and theories. In this talk1, I outline methods and levels of analysis that have resulted in the findings reported in the Virtual Math Teams research cited in the references.