Collaborative Dialogue Technologies in Distance Learning

306 Pages·1994·11.67 MB·English

by  M. Felisa Verdejo, Stefano A. Cerri (auth.), M. Felisa Verdejo, Stefano A. Cerri (eds.)

NATO ASI Series
Advanced Science Institutes Series
A series presenting the results of activities sponsored by the NATO Science
Committee, which aims at the dissemination of advanced scientific and
technological knowledge, with a view to strengthening links between
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D Behavioural and
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E Applied Sciences
F Computer and Springer-Verlag
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I Global Environmental
Change
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Series F: Computer and Systems Sciences, Vol. 133
The ASI Series F Books Published as a Result of
Activities of the Special Programme on
ADVANCED EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
This book contains the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Research Work
shop held within the activities of the NATO Special Programme on Advanced
Educational Technology, running from 1988 to 1993 underthe auspices of the
NATO Science Committee.
The volumes published so far in the Special Programme are as follows (further
details are given at the end of this volume):
67: Designing Hypermedia for Learning. 1990.
76: Multimedia Interface Design in Education. 1992.
78: Integrating Advanced Technology into Technology Education. 1991.
80: Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Foreign Language Learning. 1992.
81: Cognitive Tools for Learning. 1992.
84: Computer-Based Learning Environments and Problem Solving. 1992.
85: Adaptive Learning Environments: Foundations and Frontiers. 1992.
86: Intelligent Learning Environments and Knowledge Acquisition in Physics. 1992.
87: Cognitive Modelling and Interactive Environments in Language Learning. 1992.
89: Mathematical Problem Solving and New Information Technologies. 1992.
90: Collaborative Learning Through Computer Conferencing. 1992.
91: New Directions for Intelligent Tutoring Systems. 1992.
92: Hypermedia Courseware: Structures of Communication and Intelligent Help. 1992.
93: Interactive Multimedia Learning Environments. 1992.
95: Comprehensive System Design: A New Educational Technology. 1993.
96: New Directions in Educational Technology. 1992.
97: Advanced Models of Cognition for Medical Training and Practice. 1992.
104: Instructional Models in Computer-Based Learning Environments. 1992.
105: Designing Environments for Constructive Learning. 1993.
107: Advanced Educational Technology for Mathematics and Science. 1993.
109: Advanced Educational Technology in Technology Education. 1993.
111: Cognitive Models and Intelligent Environments for Learning Programming. 1993.
112: Item Banking: Interactive Testing and Self-Assessment. 1993.
113: Interactive Learning Technology for the Deaf. 1993.
115: Learning Electricity and Electronics with Advanced Educational Technology. 1993.
116: Control Technology in Elementary Education. 1993.
117: Intelligent Learning Environments: The Case of Geometry. 1994.
119: Automating Instructional Design, Development, and Delivery. 1993.
121: Learning from Computers: Mathematics Education and Technology. 1993.
122: Simulation-Based Experiential Learning. 1993.
125: Student Modelling: The Key to Individualized Knowledge-Based Instruction. 1994.
128: Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. 1994.
129: Human-Machine Communication for Educational Systems Design. 1994.
132: Design of Mathematical Modelling Courses for Engineering Education. 1994.
133: Collaborative Dialogue Technologies in Distance Learning. 1994.
Collaborative Dialogue
Technologies
in Distance Learning
Edited by
M. Felisa Verdejo
Departamento de Ingenieria Electrica, Electrönica y de Control
Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales
Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia
Apdo 60149, E-28080 Madrid, Spain
Stefano A. Cerri
Dipartimento di Scienze dell' Informazione
Universitä di Milano
Via Comelico 39,1-20135 Milano, Italy
Springer-Verlag
Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Collaborative
Dialogue Technologies in Distance Learning, held in Segovia, Spain,
April 24-27, 1993
CR Subject Classification (1991): K.3, H.5
ISBN 978-3-642-63394-2 ISBN 978-3-642-57899-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-57899-1
CIP data applied for
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1994
Originally published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York in 1994
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 1994
Typesetting: Camera-ready by authors/editors
SPIN: 10130750 45/3140 - 5 4 3 2 1 0 - Printed on acid-free paper
Preface
In April 1993, an interdisciplinary NATO Advanced Research Workshop on
"Collaborative dialogue technologies in distance learning" was held in Segovia,
Spain. The workshop brought together researchers in fields related to distance
learning using computer-mediated communication. The statement of justification
of the NATO ARW follows hereafter.
Justification of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Collaborative
Dialogue Technologies in Distance Learning
Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) systems have features that reduce
some temporal, physical and social constraints on communication. Theories of
communication have shifted from viewing communication as a linear transmission
of messages by a sender to a receiver, to viewing it as a social paradigm, where
individuals are actors in a network of interdependent relationships embedded in
organizational and social structures. Recent research focuses on models of
information-sharing to support not only the activities of individuals but also the
problem-solving activities of groups, such as decision-making, planning or co
writing. This area of research is called Computer Supported Cooperative Work
(CSCW). The Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach uses knowledge-based systems
to enhance and facilitate all these processes, including the possibility of using
natural language.
The traditional model of distance education places a strong emphasis on indepen
dent study, supported by well developed learning materials. This model can be
characterized as one-way media. However, the potential of CMC to provide better
guidance to the student in Higher Distance Education has been quickly recognized
for at least two kind of activities: information sharing and interaction. This is a
first step towards a change from stand-alone study to a more cooperative situation.
The shift from individual to collaborative learning is also an emerging approach in
recent learning theories and experiments. Distance learning is one setting in
particular that deserves more and more attention (as, for example, in the current
CEC DELTA programme). The scenario may include: a) a group of students
performing different kinds of cooperative learning activities such as discussion or
problem solving, using conventional or multimedia-based material; b) a group of
teachers, organizing, facilitating and controlling the cooperative learning; c) a
group of authors creating courseware; and d) a computer environment supporting
all these activities.
The proposed workshop is organized around themes related to three main activities
involved in collaborative distance learning scenarios: learning, coordination and
co-authoring. The title "collaborative dialogue technologies" stresses the focus on
conversational models of group interaction. Leading lecturers have been carefully
selected as experts in at least one of the topics, reaching a balance from theoretical
VI Preface
and practical background, covering the fields mentioned above, and coming from
industry and academy. Other participants, to be chosen by means of a limited call
for papers, will enrich the presentations and discussions.
Group activities commenting on each other's ideas will be an important component
of the workshop. Three groups will be organized to facilitate active discussions.
Their work will be presented in plenary meetings. Participants will be assigned to a
specific group, in order to facilitate the sharing of different profiles. An in-depth
synthesis will close the workshop. Presentations, a summary of the group's discus
sions and the synthesis will form the basis of the book.
Maria Felisa Verdejo, November 1992
Eighteen papers were presented at the workshop: thirteen were invited and five
selected from responses to an electronic call for contributions. Presentations and
group discussions were interleaved. Three working groups were organized to
discuss further issues concerning:
• Pedagogical framework
• Learning experiences
• Models and systems
This volume comprises an edited and refereed version of those papers, plus three
additional papers that synthesize the discussions of the three working groups. The
introduction presents the papers and points out some of the links between them.
April 1994 Maria Felisa Verdejo, Stefano Alessandro Cerri
Acknowledgments VII
Acknowledgments
The workshop was sponsored by NATO Advanced Educational Technology
Programme. Additional funding was provided by the Spanish Distance Learning
University (U.N.E.D) through Media & Technologies and Continuum Education
Vice-Rectories, the Engineering School, and the Associated Center of U.N.E.D in
Segovia. Our thanks to these organizations.
We would like to acknowledge the contribution of our co-organizers, Morten
Flate Paulsen and Cristina Simon, the speakers and participants in making the
workshop a shared success.
Local arrangements, apart from the weather, were the effort of many people,
from U.N.E.D and the Centro Asociado de Segovia. Let us specially mention
Miguel Padilla, M. Soledad Salafranca, Miguel Angel Sebastian, as well as other
Spanish colleagues: M.Teresa Abad, Beatriz Barros, Ana Garda Serrano, Encarna
Pastor.
This book is an outcome of the presentations and group work that took place at
the workshop. Pre-proceedings were circulated at the workshop and each paper has
been later reviewed by at least two reviewers who were asked to collaborate
directly with the author, preferably via e-mail, in order to help himlher to enhance
the paper content and formulation. The paper review process has been in this
respect quite uncommon, as the taSk was not to accept the papers but to criticize
constructively papers already accepted. In most cases this brought significant
improvements with respect to the originally circulated versions. To all of the
authors, as well to the referees we express our sincere gratitude for their time and
efforts.
In producing this volume, Bruna Zonta handled the formatting and lexical check
and Gordon Davies made a linguistic proofreading. Their essential and profes
sional work is gratefully acknowledged.
We would like to mention the special contribution of Cristina Simon, from the
very beginning of the workshop organization to the last stage of the book
preparation. Her availability and assistance was a great personal and professional
support.
Referees
Monique Baron, Nur Erol, Camillo Falcone, Peter Goodyear, Guy Gouarderes,
Monique Grandbastien, Roger Hartley, Gordon McCalla, Angus McIntyre, Jean
Francois Nicaud, Helen Pain, Morten Flate Paulsen, Domenico Rotondi, John Self,
Cristina Simon, Kris Van Marcke, Martial Vivet, Radboud Winkels
Foreword
This book is an important contribution to the growing literature and research on the
use of technology-mediated interaction in distance education and open learning. It
may seem paradoxical to some people that technology can be used successfully to
bring a strong element of inter-personal interaction, dialogue, and social networking
into educational programmes, but this in fact is the case in what we recognise now
as 'third generation' distance education. The first generation of distance education is
represented by the traditional, relatively artisanal, correspondence course, where the
learner is isolated, and the only communication is by letter, with one's
correspondence tutor. The second generation is represented by institutions such as
the British Open University or Spain's Universidad Nacional de Educaci6n a
Distancia, which operate more on a broadcast and mass production model, with
economies of scale due to large numbers of students following individual courses;
tuition by written correspondence is still an important element of interaction, but
this is supplemented by periodic face-to-face tutorials and residential sessions. Third
generation distance education courses are characterised by the combination of well
prepared course materials designed for independent study (print, audio-visual,
computer-based ... ), with the possibility of various forms of technology-mediated
interaction amongst learners, tutors, and resource people dispersed in space and time
The technology is thus used as a medium for conducting conversations and dialogues
around the courseware, allowing for the co-construction of new knowledge and
understandings amongst groups of learners and tutors, who might otherwise have
little opportunity to interact with each other.
Over a third of the papers in this book are concerned in one way or another with
the use of computer conferencing and electronic mail in education; this relatively
low cost technology for deferred time, text-based communication, is proving to be a
powerful and increasingly popular medium -either for totally 'online' courses based
on the virtual classroom model, or as an adjunct to more conventional, second
generation, distance education courses. Computer conferencing has in fact the
potential to blur many of the traditional distinctions between face-to-face and
distance education methods, and to help promote a resource-based approach to
learning which no longer emphasises the teacher as the main source of knOWledge.
Conferencing supports many to-many communication, and conferencing software
includes features specifically designed to help in the organisation, structuring, and
retrieval of messages. Messages can be linked to each other (eg as 'comments'),
organised in different 'branches' or 'topics' of a conference, and search commands can
rapidly identify messages with particular key words in their titles, or in the body of
the text. Support is also provided for tracking the activity of individual group
members: for example, it is generally possible to see which messages in a
conference a given member has read, or which messages have been written by a
given member. Special commands are available to the person responsible for a
conference (the 'moderator' or 'organiser') which can help in defining the membership
of the conference, in keeping the discussion on track, and in scheduling the opening
and closing of discussion topics.
X Foreword
Computer conferencing is by no means a new or advanced technology (the fIrst
systems were developed twenty years ago), but its use in education on a signifIcant
scale, along with other computer networking posibilities, is a relatively recent
phenomenom associated with the more widespread availability of personal
computers, modems, and communications software. Over the next few years, the
appearance on the consumer market of 'teleputers' (personal computers with built-in
features for both real time and deferred time multimedia communication) and of
access to ISDN facilities, will no doubt lead to an increase in the use of real time
document sharing, audio graphic conferencing, and video-conferencing in distance
education. Several of the papers in this book explore the potential for educational
dialogue, and the associated research issues, which will arise from the new and very
rich communicative environments which these technological developments will
make available.
Perhaps the strongest potential in terms of the development of third generation
distance education lies in the area which has come to be known as computer
supported collaborative learning (CSCL) - an emerging fIeld of research and practice
to which this book makes an important contribution. There are three classes of
technology which, combined, can provide groupware environments suitable for
CSCL:
- communication systems (synchronous text, audio, audio graphics, and video
communication; asynchronous electronic mail, computer conferencing, voice
mail, and fax),
- resource sharing systems (synchronous screen-sharing and electronic white
boards, concept mapping tools; asynchronous access to fIle systems and
databases),
- group process support systems (project management systems, shared
calendars, co-authoring tools, voting tools, ideas generation and brainstorming
tools).
Previously, these systems tended to be used independently, and the classic audio,
audio graphic, and videoconferencing systems, of course, were in use long before the
advent of multimedia personal computers. However, it is the bringing together of
these three classes of technology into one computer-supported environment, on the
desktop, or in educational resource centres, that will make a major qualitative
difference in the educational potential of computer support for collaborative learning,
multiple dialogue structures, and group work.
Why is the interest in collaborative learning, and its support and mediation
through computers and telecommunications, so strong at the moment? This quote
from another book* in the NATO ASI Series provides a succinct answer:
". .. Computers can provide a conversational environment in which the learner
can apply knowledge to problems and consider their actions as reusable events.
Learners can control their learning, learn from others, and develop reflection on
actions as metacognitive skills ....
We believe that learning environments should support collaborative construc
tion of knowledge involving both teachers and students. [ ... J Collaborative
knowledge construction environments enable all members of a class or learning
Foreword XI
group the opportunity to contribute their interpretation. It is important for
advanced knowledge acquisition that learners realise that there exist multiple
interpretations for every event or object. Those interpretations may be dissonant
or consonant, but they reflect the natural complexity that defines most advanced
knowledge domains. Collaborative environments enable learners to identify and
reconcile those multiple perspectives in order to solve problems."
*
from: Jonassen, D., Mayes, T., and McAleese, R. (1993) A manifesto for a
constructivist approach to uses of technology in higher education. In: Duffy,
T.M., Lowyck, J., Jonassen, D.H. (eds.) Designing Environments for Con
structive Learning. NATO ASI Series F, Vol. 105, Berlin, Springer-Verlag,
pp. 231-247.
The effectiveness of collaborative learning approaches can be attributed to the fact
that participants simultaneously experience the active construction of knowledge;
that they engage in peer teaching and develop oral, written, and graphical
explanation skills; that they learn from each other through exposure to different
models for problem-solving and interaction; all this in a context which can provide
motivating feedback from others. This is not to suggest that collaborative learning
is a panacea to be applied to any subject, to any target group, and to any situation.
Participants need some prior level of competence in the domain, they need to share
and understand common goals, to respect and trust each other, and to accept that
decisions do not have to be based on consensus. If these conditions can be fulfilled
amongst a group of dispersed learners, then it is highly probable that groupware
technologies, with their range and variety of communication modes and group
support tools, can provide the necessary infrastructure for effective collaborative
learning.
The pressures underlying the development of flexible education, training, and re
training programmes for school-Ieavers and adults, and the increasing emphasis on
the importance of team work in many organisations, provide a favourable socio
economic climate for the development of collaborative learning approaches.
Technological developments in computer networking and in design of software for
support of group work provide an increasingly accessible infrastructure for social
networking and exchange of knowledge and skills. In an era when the growth of
users of the InterNet has become exponential (under 2 million in January 1991 to
over 10 million by the end of 1992), and when corporate mergers between telecoms
operators, electronics manufacturers, software companies, and broadcasting and cable
organisations are becoming commonplace in an international market, this book will
have an important role to play in raising basic questions about the effective use of
interactive technologies in education and training at both local and global levels.
Anthony R. Kaye
Institute of Educational Technology, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.
UK Representative, NATO Science Committee Special Programme Panel on
Advanced Educational Technologies, 1992-93