Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Series - Böcker

We report a study of one aspect of the changing industrial landscape, the use of virtual team working in the supply chain. The supply chain is the group of companies that are involved in the design and manufacture and distribution of products, notably complex products such as cars. Supply chain partnerships often involve cross-company team working, and as members of such teams are rarely collocated, virtual team working supported by IT, offers considerable potential benefits. Companies hope that these technologies can be used to support distributed computer supported collaborative working for purposes such as concurrent engineering and it is this kind of virtual teaming which we decided to investigate. We believe that exploring how virtual teams communicate is an effective way of examining how well they are operating and identifying the impacts of the technologies on their interactions. In the workplace free and open communication is considered to be very important to organizations facing a rapidly changing business environment. Similarly free and equal communication among members has been reported to be important if genuine team working is to be implemented in the workplace, (Carletta et al., 1998). If organizations are to derive benefits such as innovative problem solving from virtual team working then such open communication seems desirable. Communications technologies such as videoconferencing, shared applications etc. clearly offer the possibilities of such communications among geographically distributed or virtual teams.

Research on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is a multidisciplinary field located at the intersection of cognitive psychology, computer science, and education. Yet, the different epistemological and theoretical backgrounds of these disciplines often make fruitful exchange between them difficult. CSCL urgently needs to develop and use boundary concepts that can bring these fields closer together to improve cumulative research and development of computer-supported learning environments. Scripting Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning focuses on one term with the potential to become a real boundary concept in CSCL—"scripting".Scripting Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, which has collected advanced script approaches, demonstrates the opportunities for using synergy to apply the script concept between perspectives and interdisciplinary CSCL approaches to scripting.This volume represents the state of the art of research on scripting computer-supported collaborative learning and provides a starting point for the development of a common understanding of scripting in CSCL. Research on collaboration scripts has an extraordinary potential for advancing the multidisciplinary endeavor of CSCL research and this book provides a rich basis for further exploring and realizing this potential. As such, it will be a valuable resource for research, development, and teaching.

Cooperative learning is widely endorsed as a pedagogical practice that promotes student learning. Recently, the research focus has moved to the role of teachers’ discourse during cooperative learning and its effects on the quality of group discussions and the learning achieved. However, although the benefits of cooperative learning are well documented, implementing this pedagogical practice in classrooms is a challenge that many teachers have difficulties accomplishing. Difficulties may occur because teachers often do not have a clear understanding of the basic tenets of cooperative learning and the research and theoretical perspectives that have informed this practice and how they translate into practical applications that can be used in their classrooms. In effect, what do teachers need to do to affect the benefits widely documented in research? A reluctance to embrace cooperative learning may also be due to the challenge it poses to teachers’ control of the learning process, the demands it places on classroom organisational changes, and the personal commitments teachers need to make to sustain their efforts. Moreover, a lack of understanding of the key role teachers need to play in embedding cooperative learning into the curricula to foster open communication and engagement among teachers and students, promote cooperative investigation and problem-solving, and provide students with emotionally and intellectually stimulating learning environments may be another contributing factor.The Teacher's Role in Implementing Cooperative Learning in the Classroom provides readers with a comprehensive overview of these issues with clear guidelines on how teachers can embed cooperative learning into their classroom curricula to obtain the benefits widely attributed to this pedagogical practice. It does so by using language that is appropriate for both novice and experienced educators. The volume provides: an overviewof the major research and theoretical perspectives that underpin the development of cooperative learning pedagogy; outlines how specific small group experiences can promote thinking and learning; discusses the key role teachers play in promoting student discourse; and, demonstrates how interaction style among students and teachers is crucial in facilitating discussion and learning. The collection of chapters includes many practical illustrations, drawn from the contributors’ own research of how teachers can use cooperative learning pedagogy to facilitate thinking and learning among students across different educational settings.

This book relates "new" information and communication technologies (ICT) to their specific teaching and learning functions, in particular how ICT is appropriated for and/or by educational or learning communities. We categorize consumer-oriented educational multimedia as established technologies, not of primary importance for innovative approaches to collaborative learning. Internet connections in schools and academic institutions are no longer new, though the learning culture originating from this technology may still lack a sufficiently rich definition. The technological "hot spots" of interest in this book are in turn: groupware or multi-user technologies such as group archives or synchronous co-construction environments, embedded interactive technologies in the spirit of ubiquitous computing, and modeling tools based on rich representations.Important features of these new technologies are: the move from individually oriented software tools to multi-user tools providing group awareness as well as facilities for the co-construction of knowledge; a definition of software use beyond a single piece of software towards multiple applications or tools which are not only technically interoperable but also task and role compliant in a social situation (social interoperability); high interactivity and creative potential with high productive activity and initiative on the part of the user (as opposed to the receptive scheme of usage of many educational multimedia applications); new kinds of peripherals in the spirit "of ubiquitous computing and augmented reality", which allow for redefining the borderline between physical action on the one hand and virtual or symbolic on the other.

Dialogic Education and Technology is about using new technology to draw people into the kind of dialogues which take them beyond themselves into learning, thinking and creativity. The program of research reported in this book reveals key characteristics of learning dialogues and demonstrates ways in which computers and networks can deepen, enrich and expand such dialogues. A dialogic perspective is developed drawing upon recent work in communications theory, psychology, computer science and philosophy. This perspective foregrounds the creative space opened up by authentic dialogues. Whereas studies of computer-supported collaborative learning have tended to see dialogue as a means to the end of knowledge construction the dialogic perspective taken by this book sees dialogue as an end in itself - in fact moving learners into the space of dialogue is described as the core aim of education. The central argument of the book is that there is a convergence between this dialogic perspective in education and the affordances of new information and communications technology. A genuinely dialogic perspective is relatively new to the field of educational technology and there is a considerable amount of interest in this topic amongst researchers who wish to see what extra insights, if any, a dialogical approach can offer them. "This is an exciting book that synthesizes, clarifies and extends mounting discussions of dialogical thinking related to computer-supported education [...]. It is not only a delightful personal statement, but provokes thought on central issues of CSCL and enters into challenging dialog with the relevant alternative approaches. As a result of reading this book, I am convinced that we urgently need to open new online spaces for people to understandingly interact with different perspectives and creatively generate new insight and respect for difference."-Gerry StahlExecutive Editor of the International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative LearningThis book offers a set of lenses which give deep insight into education and the use of technologies for learning. The moves between empirical studies, theoretical reflections and discussion of the design of learning environments make the book very thought provoking. Ideas are not just treated as ideas but they become transformed into principles for design. Wegerif is convincing that the use of technology for the creation, maintaining and development of dialogical spaces has the potential for transforming and expanding educational experiences in a way which offers a needed vision of learning for the future.-Sten LudvigsenDirector of the InterMedia Centre for design, communication and learning University of Oslo

The field of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) has traditionally focused on virtual learning environments and has somewhat neglected the physical environments in which students interact with each other and with their teachers. However, over the last years, scholars have devoted growing attention to the interplay between digital and physical environments. Interactive Artifacts and Furniture Supporting Collaborative Work and Learning reveals how these advances in computer science and human-computer interaction impact CSCL environments.The underlying theme of the contributions is the social affordances of physical objects, i.e. the understanding of how technology-augmented physical objects support interactions among groups in a way more intuitive or natural than traditional computers. This collection of leading researchers investigates how artifacts may trigger rich interactions among groups, which is a central quest for researchers in CSCL.Interactive Artifacts and Furniture Supporting Collaborative Work and Learning illustrates a turn in the field of CSCL and emphasizes an important message for a generation of CSCL designers and researchers.

Arguing to Learn: Confronting Cognitions in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments focuses on how new pedagogical scenarios, task environments and communication tools within Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments can favour collaborative and productive confrontations of ideas, evidence, arguments and explanations, or arguing to learn.This book is the first that has assembled the work of internationally renowned scholars on argumentation-related CSCL research. All chapters present in-depth analyses of the processes by which the interactive confrontation of cognitions can lead to collaborative learning, on the basis of a wide variety of theoretical models, empirical data and Internet-based tools.

This work should be of interest to researchers and students, designers, educators and industrial trainers across various disciplines including education, cognitive, social and educational psychology, didactics, computer science, linguistics and semiotics, speech communication, anthropology, sociology and design. Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is a genuinely interdisciplinary field that strives to create a better understanding of collaborative learning that is mediated by a diverse set of computational technologies. The theme of CSCL 2003 "Designing for Change in Networked Learning Environments" reflects a commitment to influence educational practice in times of the Internet. The contributions in this volume include discussions on knowledge building, designing and analysing group interaction, design of collaborative multimedia and 3D environments, computational modelling and analysis, software agents and more.

This book is the first that presents an overview of the main topics involved in the study and implementation of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) from a learning viewpoint. It is also one of the few - or the only one - that does this from a research and practical instructional design perspective. Too many books begin with the medium and/or the environments used for CSCL, as if you would write a book on building a house by focusing almost primarily on hammers, saws and screwdrivers. The main topics are clustered in four sections that are derived from reverse ordering the CSCL acronym, because CSCL is all about learning through collaboration that is supported by computers. Although CSCL is increasingly advocated in higher education, specific CSCL implementations - i.e. something more than proving technology without a well developed educational rationale - are uncommon in higher education. The topics covered in this book, each including a review and several examples of current best practices in higher education, can stimulate 'informed' implementation of CSCL in higher education.

Networked learning is learning in which information and communications technology (ICT) is used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners; between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources. Networked learning is an area which has great practical and theoretical importance. It is a rapidly growing area of educational practice, particularly in higher education and the corporate sector. This volume brings together some of the best research in the field, and uses it to signpost some directions for future work. The papers in this collection represent a major contribution to our collective sense of recent progress in research on networked learning. In addition, they serve to highlight some of the largest or most important gaps in our understanding of students' perspectives on networked learning, patterns of interaction and online discourse, and the role of contextual factors. The range of topics and methods addressed in these papers attests to the vitality of this important field of work. More significant yet is the complex understanding of the field that they combine to create. In combination, they help explain some of the key rela

Studying Virtual Math Teams centers on detailed empirical studies of how students in small online groups make sense of math issues and how they solve problems by making meaning together. These studies are woven together with materials that describe the online environment and pedagogical orientation, as well as reflections on the theoretical implications of the findings in the studies. The nature of group cognition and shared meaning making in collaborative learning is a foundational research issue in CSCL. More generally, the theme of sense making is a central topic in information science. While many authors allude to these topics, few have provided this kind of detailed analysis of the mechanisms of intersubjective meaning making. This book presents a coherent research agenda that has been pursued by the author and his research group. The book opens with descriptions of the project and its methodology, as well as situating this research in the past and present context of the CSCL research field. The core research team then presents five concrete analyses of group interactions in different phases of the Virtual Math Teams research project. These chapters are followed by several studies by international collaborators, discussing the group discourse, the software affordances and alternative representations of the interaction, all using data from the VMT project. The concluding chapters address implications for the theory of group cognition and for the methodology of the learning sciences. In addition to substantial introductory and concluding chapters, this important new book includes analyses based upon the author's previous research, thereby providing smooth continuity and an engaging flow that follows the progression of the research.The VMT project has dual goals: (a) to provide a source of experience and data for practical and theoretical explorations of group knowledge building and (b) to develop an effective online environment and educational service for collaborative learning of mathematics. Studying Virtual Math Teams reflects these twin orientations, reviewing the intertwined aims and development of a rigorous science of small-group cognition and a Web 2.0 educational math service. It documents the kinds of interactional methods that small groups use to explore math issues and provides a glimpse into the potential of online interaction to promote productive math discourse.

We report a study of one aspect of the changing industrial landscape, the use of virtual team working in the supply chain. The supply chain is the group of companies that are involved in the design and manufacture and distribution of products, notably complex products such as cars. Supply chain partnerships often involve cross-company team working, and as members of such teams are rarely collocated, virtual team working supported by IT, offers considerable potential benefits. Companies hope that these technologies can be used to support distributed computer supported collaborative working for purposes such as concurrent engineering and it is this kind of virtual teaming which we decided to investigate. We believe that exploring how virtual teams communicate is an effective way of examining how well they are operating and identifying the impacts of the technologies on their interactions. In the workplace free and open communication is considered to be very important to organizations facing a rapidly changing business environment. Similarly free and equal communication among members has been reported to be important if genuine team working is to be implemented in the workplace, (Carletta et al., 1998). If organizations are to derive benefits such as innovative problem solving from virtual team working then such open communication seems desirable. Communications technologies such as videoconferencing, shared applications etc. clearly offer the possibilities of such communications among geographically distributed or virtual teams.

Research on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is a multidisciplinary field located at the intersection of cognitive psychology, computer science, and education. Yet, the different epistemological and theoretical backgrounds of these disciplines often make fruitful exchange between them difficult. CSCL urgently needs to develop and use boundary concepts that can bring these fields closer together to improve cumulative research and development of computer-supported learning environments. Scripting Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning focuses on one term with the potential to become a real boundary concept in CSCL—"scripting".Scripting Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, which has collected advanced script approaches, demonstrates the opportunities for using synergy to apply the script concept between perspectives and interdisciplinary CSCL approaches to scripting.This volume represents the state of the art of research on scripting computer-supported collaborative learning and provides a starting point for the development of a common understanding of scripting in CSCL. Research on collaboration scripts has an extraordinary potential for advancing the multidisciplinary endeavor of CSCL research and this book provides a rich basis for further exploring and realizing this potential. As such, it will be a valuable resource for research, development, and teaching.

Cooperative learning is widely endorsed as a pedagogical practice that promotes student learning. Recently, the research focus has moved to the role of teachers’ discourse during cooperative learning and its effects on the quality of group discussions and the learning achieved. However, although the benefits of cooperative learning are well documented, implementing this pedagogical practice in classrooms is a challenge that many teachers have difficulties accomplishing. Difficulties may occur because teachers often do not have a clear understanding of the basic tenets of cooperative learning and the research and theoretical perspectives that have informed this practice and how they translate into practical applications that can be used in their classrooms. In effect, what do teachers need to do to affect the benefits widely documented in research? A reluctance to embrace cooperative learning may also be due to the challenge it poses to teachers’ control of the learning process, the demands it places on classroom organisational changes, and the personal commitments teachers need to make to sustain their efforts. Moreover, a lack of understanding of the key role teachers need to play in embedding cooperative learning into the curricula to foster open communication and engagement among teachers and students, promote cooperative investigation and problem-solving, and provide students with emotionally and intellectually stimulating learning environments may be another contributing factor.The Teacher's Role in Implementing Cooperative Learning in the Classroom provides readers with a comprehensive overview of these issues with clear guidelines on how teachers can embed cooperative learning into their classroom curricula to obtain the benefits widely attributed to this pedagogical practice. It does so by using language that is appropriate for both novice and experienced educators. The volume provides: an overviewof the major research and theoretical perspectives that underpin the development of cooperative learning pedagogy; outlines how specific small group experiences can promote thinking and learning; discusses the key role teachers play in promoting student discourse; and, demonstrates how interaction style among students and teachers is crucial in facilitating discussion and learning. The collection of chapters includes many practical illustrations, drawn from the contributors’ own research of how teachers can use cooperative learning pedagogy to facilitate thinking and learning among students across different educational settings.

This book relates "new" information and communication technologies (ICT) to their specific teaching and learning functions, in particular how ICT is appropriated for and/or by educational or learning communities. We categorize consumer-oriented educational multimedia as established technologies, not of primary importance for innovative approaches to collaborative learning. Internet connections in schools and academic institutions are no longer new, though the learning culture originating from this technology may still lack a sufficiently rich definition. The technological "hot spots" of interest in this book are in turn: groupware or multi-user technologies such as group archives or synchronous co-construction environments, embedded interactive technologies in the spirit of ubiquitous computing, and modeling tools based on rich representations.Important features of these new technologies are: the move from individually oriented software tools to multi-user tools providing group awareness as well as facilities for the co-construction of knowledge; a definition of software use beyond a single piece of software towards multiple applications or tools which are not only technically interoperable but also task and role compliant in a social situation (social interoperability); high interactivity and creative potential with high productive activity and initiative on the part of the user (as opposed to the receptive scheme of usage of many educational multimedia applications); new kinds of peripherals in the spirit "of ubiquitous computing and augmented reality", which allow for redefining the borderline between physical action on the one hand and virtual or symbolic on the other.

Dialogic Education and Technology is about using new technology to draw people into the kind of dialogues which take them beyond themselves into learning, thinking and creativity. The program of research reported in this book reveals key characteristics of learning dialogues and demonstrates ways in which computers and networks can deepen, enrich and expand such dialogues. A dialogic perspective is developed drawing upon recent work in communications theory, psychology, computer science and philosophy. This perspective foregrounds the creative space opened up by authentic dialogues. Whereas studies of computer-supported collaborative learning have tended to see dialogue as a means to the end of knowledge construction the dialogic perspective taken by this book sees dialogue as an end in itself - in fact moving learners into the space of dialogue is described as the core aim of education. The central argument of the book is that there is a convergence between this dialogic perspective in education and the affordances of new information and communications technology. A genuinely dialogic perspective is relatively new to the field of educational technology and there is a considerable amount of interest in this topic amongst researchers who wish to see what extra insights, if any, a dialogical approach can offer them. "This is an exciting book that synthesizes, clarifies and extends mounting discussions of dialogical thinking related to computer-supported education [...]. It is not only a delightful personal statement, but provokes thought on central issues of CSCL and enters into challenging dialog with the relevant alternative approaches. As a result of reading this book, I am convinced that we urgently need to open new online spaces for people to understandingly interact with different perspectives and creatively generate new insight and respect for difference."-Gerry StahlExecutive Editor of the International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative LearningThis book offers a set of lenses which give deep insight into education and the use of technologies for learning. The moves between empirical studies, theoretical reflections and discussion of the design of learning environments make the book very thought provoking. Ideas are not just treated as ideas but they become transformed into principles for design. Wegerif is convincing that the use of technology for the creation, maintaining and development of dialogical spaces has the potential for transforming and expanding educational experiences in a way which offers a needed vision of learning for the future.-Sten LudvigsenDirector of the InterMedia Centre for design, communication and learning University of Oslo

The field of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) has traditionally focused on virtual learning environments and has somewhat neglected the physical environments in which students interact with each other and with their teachers. However, over the last years, scholars have devoted growing attention to the interplay between digital and physical environments. Interactive Artifacts and Furniture Supporting Collaborative Work and Learning reveals how these advances in computer science and human-computer interaction impact CSCL environments.The underlying theme of the contributions is the social affordances of physical objects, i.e. the understanding of how technology-augmented physical objects support interactions among groups in a way more intuitive or natural than traditional computers. This collection of leading researchers investigates how artifacts may trigger rich interactions among groups, which is a central quest for researchers in CSCL.Interactive Artifacts and Furniture Supporting Collaborative Work and Learning illustrates a turn in the field of CSCL and emphasizes an important message for a generation of CSCL designers and researchers.

Studying Virtual Math Teams centers on detailed empirical studies of how students in small online groups make sense of math issues and how they solve problems by making meaning together. These studies are woven together with materials that describe the online environment and pedagogical orientation, as well as reflections on the theoretical implications of the findings in the studies. The nature of group cognition and shared meaning making in collaborative learning is a foundational research issue in CSCL. More generally, the theme of sense making is a central topic in information science. While many authors allude to these topics, few have provided this kind of detailed analysis of the mechanisms of intersubjective meaning making. This book presents a coherent research agenda that has been pursued by the author and his research group. The book opens with descriptions of the project and its methodology, as well as situating this research in the past and present context of the CSCL research field. The core research team then presents five concrete analyses of group interactions in different phases of the Virtual Math Teams research project. These chapters are followed by several studies by international collaborators, discussing the group discourse, the software affordances and alternative representations of the interaction, all using data from the VMT project. The concluding chapters address implications for the theory of group cognition and for the methodology of the learning sciences. In addition to substantial introductory and concluding chapters, this important new book includes analyses based upon the author's previous research, thereby providing smooth continuity and an engaging flow that follows the progression of the research.The VMT project has dual goals: (a) to provide a source of experience and data for practical and theoretical explorations of group knowledge building and (b) to develop an effective online environment and educational service for collaborative learning of mathematics. Studying Virtual Math Teams reflects these twin orientations, reviewing the intertwined aims and development of a rigorous science of small-group cognition and a Web 2.0 educational math service. It documents the kinds of interactional methods that small groups use to explore math issues and provides a glimpse into the potential of online interaction to promote productive math discourse.

Analyzing Interactions in CSCL: Methodology, Approaches, and Issues deepens the understanding of ways to document and analyze interactions in CSCL and informs the design of the next generation of CSCL tools. It provides researchers with several alternative methodologies, theoretical underpinnings of the methods used, data indicating how the method worked, guidance for using the methods, implications for understanding collaborative processes and their effect on learning outcomes and implications for design. CSCL research tends to span across several disciplines such as education, psychology, computer science and artificial intelligence. As a result, the methods for data collection and analysis are interdisciplinary, from fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, computer science, and artificial intelligence. This book brings perspectives together, and provides researchers with an array of methodologies to document and analyze collaborative interactions.

This book is an edited volume of case studies exploring the uptake and use of computer supported collaborative learning in work settings. This book fills a significant gap in the literature. A number of existing works provide empirical research on collaborative work practices (Lave & Wenger, 1987; Davenport, 2005), the sharing of information at work (Brown & Duguid, 2000), and the development of communities of practice in workplace settings (Wenger, 1998). Others examine the munificent variation of information and communication technology use in the work place, including studies of informal social networks, formal information distribution and other socio-technical combinations found in work settings (Gibson & Cohen, 2003). Another significant thread of prior work is focused on computer supported collaborative learning, much of it investigating the application of computer support for learning in the context of traditional educational institutions, like public schools, private schools, colleges and tutoring organizations. Exciting new theories of how knowledge is constructed by groups (Stahl, 2006), how teachers contribute to collaborative learning (reference to another book in the series) and the application of socio-technical scripts for learning is explicated in book length works on CSCL. Book length empirical work on CSCW is widespread, and CSCL book length works are beginning to emerge with greater frequency.We distinguish CSCL at Work from prior books written under the aegis of training and development, or human resources more broadly. The book aims to fill a void between existing works in CSCW and CSCL, and will open with a chapter characterizing the emerging application of collaborative learning theories and practices to workplace learning. CSCL and CSCW research each make distinct and important contributions to the construction of collaborative workplace learning.

Analyzing Interactions in CSCL: Methodology, Approaches, and Issues deepens the understanding of ways to document and analyze interactions in CSCL and informs the design of the next generation of CSCL tools. It provides researchers with several alternative methodologies, theoretical underpinnings of the methods used, data indicating how the method worked, guidance for using the methods, implications for understanding collaborative processes and their effect on learning outcomes and implications for design. CSCL research tends to span across several disciplines such as education, psychology, computer science and artificial intelligence. As a result, the methods for data collection and analysis are interdisciplinary, from fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, computer science, and artificial intelligence. This book brings perspectives together, and provides researchers with an array of methodologies to document and analyze collaborative interactions.

The key idea of the book is that scientific and practical advances can be obtained if researchers working in traditions that have been assumed to be mutually incompatible make a real effort to engage in dialogue with each other, comparing and contrasting their understandings of a given phenomenon and how these different understandings can either complement or mutually elaborate on each other. This key idea applies to many fields, particularly in the social and behavioral sciences, as well as education and computer science. The book shows how we have achieved this by presenting our study of collaborative learning during the course of a four-year project. Through a series of five workshops involving dozens of researchers, the 37 editors and authors involved in this project studied and reported on collaborative learning, technology enhanced learning, and cooperative work. The authors share an interest in understanding group interactions, but approach this topic from a variety of traditional disciplinary homes and theoretical and methodological traditions. This allows the book to be of use to researchers in many different fields and with many different goals and agendas.

This book is an edited volume of case studies exploring the uptake and use of computer supported collaborative learning in work settings. This book fills a significant gap in the literature. A number of existing works provide empirical research on collaborative work practices (Lave & Wenger, 1987; Davenport, 2005), the sharing of information at work (Brown & Duguid, 2000), and the development of communities of practice in workplace settings (Wenger, 1998). Others examine the munificent variation of information and communication technology use in the work place, including studies of informal social networks, formal information distribution and other socio-technical combinations found in work settings (Gibson & Cohen, 2003). Another significant thread of prior work is focused on computer supported collaborative learning, much of it investigating the application of computer support for learning in the context of traditional educational institutions, like public schools, private schools, colleges and tutoring organizations. Exciting new theories of how knowledge is constructed by groups (Stahl, 2006), how teachers contribute to collaborative learning (reference to another book in the series) and the application of socio-technical scripts for learning is explicated in book length works on CSCL. Book length empirical work on CSCW is widespread, and CSCL book length works are beginning to emerge with greater frequency.We distinguish CSCL at Work from prior books written under the aegis of training and development, or human resources more broadly. The book aims to fill a void between existing works in CSCW and CSCL, and will open with a chapter characterizing the emerging application of collaborative learning theories and practices to workplace learning. CSCL and CSCW research each make distinct and important contributions to the construction of collaborative workplace learning.

One of the most significant developments in contemporary education is the view that knowing and understanding are anchored in cultural practices within communities. This shift coincides with technological advancements that have reoriented end-user computer interaction from individual work to communication, participation and collaboration. However, while daily interactions are increasingly engulfed in mobile and networked Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in-school learning interactions are, in comparison, technologically impoverished, creating the phenomenon known as the school-society digital disconnect. This volume argues that the theoretical and practical tools of scientists in both the social and educational sciences must be brought together in order to examine what types of interaction, knowledge construction, social organization and power structures: (a) occur spontaneously in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) communities or (b) can be created by design of TEL. This volume seeks to equip scholars and researchers within the fields of education, educational psychology, science communication, social welfare, information sciences, and instructional design, as well as practitioners and policy-makers, with empirical and theoretical insights, and evidence-based support for decisions providing learners and citizens with 21st century skills and knowledge, and supporting well-being in today’s information-based networked society.

Twenty-five self-contained investigations document progress in research on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL)—both in Stahl’sown research and during the first decade of the CSCL journal.The volume begins with two new reflections on the vision and theory that result from this research.

Twenty-five self-contained investigations document progress in research on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL)—both in Stahl’sown research and during the first decade of the CSCL journal.The volume begins with two new reflections on the vision and theory that result from this research.

While some CSCL-relevant topics are addressed in the International Handbook of the Learning Sciences and the International Handbook of Collaborative Learning, these books do not aim to present an integrated and comprehensive view of CSCL.

While some CSCL-relevant topics are addressed in the International Handbook of the Learning Sciences and the International Handbook of Collaborative Learning, these books do not aim to present an integrated and comprehensive view of CSCL.

Mass collaboration on Internet platforms like Wikipedia and Scratch, along with wider movements like the maker space and citizen science, are poised to have profound impacts on learning and education. Bringing together researchers from such fields as: psychology, education, information technology, and economics, the book offers a comprehensive overview of mass collaboration, novel, cross disciplinary, theoretical accounts, and methodological approaches for studying and improving these massively collaborative enterprises. The book is aimed to serve as an information source for researchers, educators, and designers of platforms and learning environments.