Ellina Chernobilsky

Problem-based learning online: multiple perspectives on collaborative knowledge construction

Online problem-based learning (PBL) environments afford many opportunities to engage in collaborative knowledge construction. Activity theory is a suitable framework to study such environments and the processes learners go through when using these environments. Two complementary perspectives are blended in this paper in an attempt to create a comprehensive picture of learning using an online PBL system. One perspective is the detailed analysis of tool use and discourse students and facilitator engage in. The second perspective is facilitator reflections about the evolution of the groups collaborative practices and norms.

Representational Tools for Understanding Complex Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments

To learn and reason effectively about complex phenomena, a central goal in education, learners need opportunities to engage with them. Technology-mediated learning environment, such as simulations, can provide opportunities for learners to formulate, test, refine, and repair their mental models of complex systems. However, technology tools do not stand alone – they are situated in complex learning environments that require consideration of learning at the level of the individual, small group and whole class, as well as consideration of the roles that both the teacher and technology play in scaffolding student learning. While technology can enable the development of rich learning environments, the extent to which and how this technology can be used by teachers and how it influences the nature of student’s collaborative knowledge construction is still unclear. Appropriate analytical tools are needed to represent students’ mediated interactions in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments. In this chapter, we present analytical tools that help us construct a comprehensive picture of how learning is mediated over time through a complex interplay of tool use, teacher scaffolding, and collaborative discourse to investigate the mediating roles of technology and teacher and peer scaffolding in CSCL. In particular, we will show how different representations (e.g., CORDTRA diagrams) can provide insight into the complexity of understanding of complex CSCL learning environments.

From parallel play to meshed interaction: the evolution of the eSTEP system

In this paper, we describe the evolution of the eSTEP system. The eSTEP system is an integrated online learning environment for teacher education that provides videocases of classroom practice, an online learning sciences hypertext, and a collaborative problem-based learning environment. The central tool in the problem-based learning environment is the group whiteboard. In face-to-face PBL activities, a whiteboard serves to focus negotiation and represent current understanding. Seeking to offer the same functionality online, we adapted the structure and functionality of a basic whiteboard to easily allow students to exchange and develop ideas online, and effectively represent current understanding. This tool serves as the focus of negotiation in face-to-face PBL but required considerable adaptation to serve this function in an online environment. This paper describes the refinement of the whiteboard and the concomitant refinement of our theory of how students learn through meshing the conceptual ideas of the learning sciences with perceptual information from the problems of practice.