M.E. Prangsma

Designing argumentation tools for collaborative learning

The focus of education has shifted towards working actively, constructively and collaboratively, as this is believed to enhance learning. The studies discussed here deals with the influence of different CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) tools on argumentation processes during collaboration. The purpose of our research is to investigate the effect of computer supported environments and its tools on the final product through differences in the participants’ collaboration processes. In this chapter we will concentrate on students collaboratively taking part in argumentation via CMC systems. Computer environments that support collaborative writing can emphasize both the constructivist and collaborative aspects through its active and interactive nature.

Concrete and abstract visualizations in history learning tasks.

BACKGROUND History learning requires that students understand historical phenomena, abstract concepts and the relations between them. Students have problems grasping, using and relating complex historical developments and structures. AIMS A study was conducted to determine the effects of tasks with abstract and/or concrete visualizations on the learning of historical developments and structures. The hypothesis was that students receiving visualizations would learn and retain more historical knowledge and concepts than those not receiving visualizations. SAMPLE First-year pupils in vocational middle school (N=104) worked in randomly assigned pairs. METHODS After reading a text, the pairs were given a learning task in one of four conditions: Textual, Concrete visualized, Abstract visualized, and Combined. RESULTS Post-test and retention test results showed no significant differences. There were some significant differences on the evaluation questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS Combining text and different types of visualizations in learning tasks does not necessarily enhance history learning. Possible explanations given are the ecological setting, the semiotics of the domain of history--that are not defined clearly--and the difficulty of unequivocally visualizing historical concepts.

Using tools and resources in computer supported collaborative writing

The relationship between collaboration processes, task strategies and the use of the tools and resources that the computer environment offers, may be crucial for the effects of computer supported collaborative learning. We are interested to find out how, within a computer environment, students collaborate, how they use the different tools we offer and how this influences the quality of the final product. A custom-made computer-supported environment (TC3) was implemented that enables pairs of high school students to collaborate in writing an argumentative essay. The essay had to be convincing and based on authentic information sources. TC3, a groupware program, offers the students as task related and communicative tools: a shared text editor, a chat facility, access to relevant sources of information and a private notepad. Furthermore, some facilities or tools were offered that might promote collaboration on the task: access to the chat history, adaptability of the display layout, marking and searching in information sources and counting the number of words in the shared text. From our analyses we may conclude that the tools and resources the students use during collaborative writing seem to reflect the writing strategies they adhere to and that the use of these tools and resources in the different phases of the collaborative writing process is related to the argumentative quality of the final product. Future research will focus on the effects of adding tools for text planning and linearization to the TC3 environment on the coordination processes of collaborative writing.