Lasse Lipponen

Models of Innovative Knowledge Communities and Three Metaphors of Learning

The authors analyze and compare three models of innovative knowledge communities: Nonaka and Takeuchi’s model of knowledge-creation, Engeström’s model of expansive learning, and Bereiter’s model of knowledge building. Despite basic differences, these models have pertinent features in common: Most fundamentally, they emphasize dynamic processes for transforming prevailing knowledge and practices. Beyond characterizing learning as knowledge acquisition (the acquisition metaphor) and as participation in a social community (the participation metaphor), the authors of this article distinguish a third aspect: learning (and intelligent activity in general) as knowledge creation (the knowledge-creation metaphor). This approach focuses on investigating mediated processes of knowledge creation that have become especially important in a knowledge society.

Exploring foundations for computer-supported collaborative learning

In 1996 Koschmann (1996) suggested computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) as an emerging paradigm of educational technology. After six years, how has the field developed? What does research say about CSCL to date? What is the state of the art? The aim of the present paper is to explore the foundations for CSCL, and in doing so, to contribute to the theoretical as well as empirical understanding and development of CSCL research.

Patterns of Participation and Discourse in Elementary Students' Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning.

Abstract The goal of the investigation was to analyze patterns of participation and discourse mediated by Virtual Web School (VWS). Twenty-three fifth-grade students participated in the study. The findings showed that the density of interaction among participants was high, and all the participants used VWS to some extent. There were, however, substantial differences in the participants’ participation activity and their position in the network of VWS-mediated interaction. The study also showed that the VWS-mediated discussion was not sustained, but instead comprised a number of short discussion threads. Although over half of the participants’ postings were focused on class-learning topics, much needs to be improved in the quality of their discussion.

Investigating patterns of interaction in networked learning and computer-supported collaborative learning: A role for Social Network Analysis

The focus of this study is to explore the advances that Social Network Analysis (SNA) can bring, in combination with other methods, when studying Networked Learning/Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (NL/CSCL). We present a general overview of how SNA is applied in NL/CSCL research; we then go on to illustrate how this research method can be integrated with existing studies on NL/CSCL, using an example from our own data, as a way to synthesize and extend our understanding of teaching and learning processes in NLCs. The example study reports empirical work using content analysis (CA), critical event recall (CER) and social network analysis (SNA). The aim is to use these methods to study the nature of the interaction patterns within a networked learning community (NLC), and the way its members share and construct knowledge. The paper also examines some of the current findings of SNA analysis work elsewhere in the literature, and discusses future prospects for SNA. This paper is part of a continuing international study that is investigating NL/CSCL among a community of learners engaged in a master’s program in e-learning.

Students' skills and practices of using ICT: results of a national assessment in Finland

Abstract The purpose of the study was to investigate Finnish elementary and high school students’ skills and practices of using the new information and communication technologies (ICT). Beliefs about the importance of ICT were also assessed. Five hundred and fifteen students responded to a self-report questionnaire. The students attended 25 schools that used ICT intensively and represented all provinces of Finland. From the analysis, there emerged three factors that represented these students’ relationships to ICT. Characteristic of the first factor was a belief that computer supported learning makes learning more meaningful and encourages one to make more efforts to study. Self-reported competence in using ICT was strongly loaded on the second factor, together with intensive reported use of ICT at home as well as networking with expert cultures and coaching of other people to improve their ICT skills. The third factor represented intensity of using ICT at school and appears to be determined more by the availability of equipment and the extent to which ICT is used in the school than by a student’s expertise in ICT.

The challenges for computer supported collaborative learning in elementary and secondary level: Finnish perspectives

Computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) offers promising innovations and tools for restructuring teaching-learning processes to prepare students for the emerging knowledge society. However, sufficient and reliable data have not been available concerning how the practices of CSCL fit in different school cultures, and how teachers with varying pedagogical and domain expertise and students with varying skills, attitudes and learning experiences are able to function with different network learning environments. This paper discusses the challenges of CSCL on the basis of intensive case studies conducted in Finnish elementary and secondary schools. The results of these studies indicate that in order to promote educational change and facilitate practices of collaboration at school with the new information and communication technology and CSCL, serious challenges have to be overcome. The analysis revealed challenges that can be categorized according to three dimensions: pedagogical, technical, and organizational. Focus of the article is on pedagogical challenges.

Assessing applications for collaboration: from collaboratively usable applications to collaborative technology

The continually increasing number of applications said to facilitate collaboration makes it very difficult for educators to identify and evaluate the ones that are suitable for educational purposes. In this paper we argue that from the educational point of view, it is meaningful to make a distinction between collaboratively usable applications and collaborative technology. Collaboratively usable applications are systems that can be used for collaboration, whilst collaborative technology is technology that is especially designed to support and establish collaboration. To distinguish between these two kinds of technologies, we propose four criteria for collaborative technology: its design is grounded on some explicitly argued theory of learning or pedagogical model; it relies on the idea of groupware; it provides procedural facilitation; and it offers representational and community-building tools.

Creating computer supported collaborative learning in Finnish schools: research perspectives on sociocognitive effects

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is one of the most promising innovations which will improve teaching and learning with the help of modern information and communication technology. In this article, we discuss the theoretical principles derived from educational and cognitive psychology for developing CSCL culture in Finnish schools. We also describe a large research project based on the theoretical principles emphasised. The purpose of the research project is to analyse the cognitive and social effects of CSCL in elementary and high schools. The project is still in progress and is being carried out by setting up CSCL networks in several lower and upper elementary schools and also high school classrooms in Finland. In this paper, we report on our intensive case studies for analysing the socio-cognitive effects of CSCL and describe a study where Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environment (CSILE) was used for science learning projects in upper elementary classrooms.

From Collaborative Technology to Collaborative Use of Technology: Designing Learning Oriented Infrastructures

In this paper, we argue that even if empirical studies of collaborative technology and learning represent a diversity of research, the cases that have successfully used collaborative technology share one very crucial thing, namely, instead of focusing intensively only on the technology, a great deal of effort has been put into collaborative use of technology and designing learning oriented infrastructure. We propose that the distinction between collaborative technology and collaborative use of technology is useful for the future development of technology‐supported collaborative learning. D’une technologie collaborative à une utilisation collaborative de technologie: Des infrastructures orientées vers un concept de formation. Cet exposé démontre que même si les études empiriques de la technologie et formation collaboratives représentent une diversité de recherches, les personnes qui ont utilisé la technologie collaborative avec succès ont une chose très cruciale en commun, c’est‐à‐dire qu’au lieu de se focusser intensivement sur la technologie, un grand effort est porté sur l’utilisation collaborative de la technologie et sur l’infrastructure orientée vers un concept de formation. Nous pensons que pour le futur développement de la formation collaborative supportée par la technologie il est très utile de distinguer entre la technologie collaborative et l’utilisation collaborative de la technologie. Von Kooperationstechnologie zu ihrer kooperativen Verwendung: Entwicklung lernzielorientierter Infrastrukturen. In diesem Papier behaupten wir, dass, obwohl es vielfältige empirische Studien über Kooperationstechnologie und Lernen gibt, die Fälle, in denen diese Techniken erfolgreich genutzt wurden, alle etwas Entscheidendes gemeinsam haben: nämlich statt sich intensiv nur auf die Technik zu konzentrieren, viele sich hauptsächlich bemühen, die kooperative Verwendung der Technik für die Herstellung lernorientierter Infrastruktur zu nutzen. Wir schlagen vor, dass zukünftig zwischen Kooperationstechnologie und kooperativer Verwendung der Technologie bei der Entwicklung technikunterstützten kooperativen Lernens unterschieden wird.

Exploring the foundations of visual methods used in research with children

The growing interest in researching and documenting young childrens perspectives and experiences, has led to an increasing use of visual methods, such as photograps and videos. Studies to date, however, have seen artifacts as neutral tools, and have not revealed the differences between the functions of visual artifacts in the research process, and their functions in childrens lives more broadly. In view of this, we scrutinize the function of visual artifacts, using Wengers notion of reification, Vygotskys idea of mediation, and Wartofskys historical epistemology. We enliven the theoretical discussion by featuring illustrative vignettes from our previous study conducted at a Finnish preschool. We then discuss the consequences of our analysis in terms of documentation, and joint reflections that capture and construct the childrens experiences. A number of educational implications are highlighted.