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POW!Perspectives On the Web

WebNet ’99 – Honolulu, Hawaii – October 1999

Gerry StahlInstitute of Cognitive Science

Center for LifeLong Learning & DesignDepartment of Computer Science

University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USAGerry.Stahl@Colorado.edu

http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~gerry

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POW!

Perspectives On the Web

I. Theory: Web-based Learning Environment

II. System: Perspectives and Collaboration

III. Use Cases: middle school & grad seminar

IV. Assess: 6 Design Issues Encountered

V. Lessons for the Next Iteration

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I. Learning Environments for Knowledge Constructing Communities

• Classroom as “knowledge-building community” (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991) – CSILE

• Computer support for collaborative knowledge construction: Toronto, Michigan, Berkeley, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, SRI, etc.

• Web as medium for sharing ideas (notes, diagrams)

• Computer keeps track of links, relationships

• Persistent, asynchronous collaboration (from class, home, library)

• Annotations, reorganization, edits, history of changes

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Mediated Cognition

• Learning of new cognitive abilities is mediated by external media (people, artifacts, symbols, repositories)

• WebGuide to mediate new powers of collaborative knowledge construction – see case 2

• Should provide external group memory

• Should represent collaborative relationships

• Should support collaborative processing of knowledge

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II. Multiple Perspectives for Collaborative Learning

• Figurative perspective – point of view, interpretation

• Knowledge is perspectival (Heidegger, 1927; Stahl, 1993a)

• Computational perspectives to represent relation of ideas to figurative perspectives of groups and individuals

• Computational perspectives provide structure for large shared repository of notes

• Collaborative learning consists of perspective-taking & perspective-making (Boland et al., 1995) see case 1 & 2

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Computational Perspectives in WebGuide

• A limited, structured view of notes from repository

• Notes entered there & in “included perspectives”

• Organized in an expandable outline hierarchy

• Group perspectives for shared ideas (e.g., class)

• Personal perspective for ones own point of view

• Comparison perspectives for browsing other’s ideas

• “Individuals can change the ideas in their perspective without restriction –- but these changes should not affect any other personal perspective”

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III. Use Case One: Perspective-Making

• Class project: Should acid mine drainage be fixed with constructed wetlands?

• Constructing environmental perspectives in a middle school classroom

• Collaboration of groups: students, mentors, teachers

• Perspectives: environmental protection, government regulation, mine owners, local community

• Web of perspectives: class scaffold, student workspaces, comparisons

• WebGuide interface: arrange titles & view contents

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Use Case One: Web of Perspectives

Gulch class perspective

Mine owner

P8

Minescomp

Gulch class comparison

Environmental Landowner Government

P9P7P6P5BlakeP3P1 P2 P10 P11 P12

Governmentcomparison

Landownercomp

Environcomp

Mentor

Teacher

Student

Studentcomp

Mentorcomp

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Use Case One: WebGuide Interface

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Use Case Two: Perspective-Taking

• Class project: theory of the mediation of human cognition

• Sharing discipline perspectives in a graduate seminar

• Perspectives: educational psychology, cognitive psychology, computer science, philosophy

• Web of perspectives: topics, personal, discipline, comparison

• WebGuide interface: discussion threads in comparison

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Use Case Two: Web of Perspectives

Readings 99 perspective

ComputerScience

P8

CompScicomparison

Readings 99 comparison

Education Philosophy Psychology

P9P7P6P5P4P3P1 P2 P10 P11 P12

Psychcomp

Philcomp

Educcomp

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Use Case Two: WebGuide Interface

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IV. Six Design Issues

Issue 1: Converging Ideas

Issue 2: Promoting System Use

Issue 3: Understanding the Perspectives Metaphor

Issue 4: Representing the Web of Perspectives

Issue 5: Structuring Learning Situations

Issue 6: Distinguishing System Capabilities

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Issue 1: Converging Ideas

Divergence of ideas

Web of perspectives Structured headings in top perspective

Web of linked notes

Readings 99

Computer Science

Paul's personalTammy'spersonal

Gabe's personal

Computer Science Comparison

Readings 99 Comparison

PsychologyEducation

• Need negotiation support!

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Issue 2: Promoting System Use

• Media competition – critical mass of usage

• Technical frustration – slow & awkward – poor accessibility

• Public exposure

• Grading, requirement, restrict alternatives

• Need focal collaborative task in WebGuide!

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Issue 3: Understanding the Perspectives Metaphor

• Where should I put this idea?

• Where should I look for other people’s ideas?

• How are the perspectives related to each other?

• Should I create a new perspective or a new heading?

• Need training & graphic representation of perspective structure!

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Issue 4: Representing the Web of Perspectives

Readings 99

Computer Science

Paul's personalTammy's personalGabe's personal

Computer Science Comparison

Readings 99 Comparison

PsychologyEducation

Need scalable graphics!

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Issue 5: Structuring Learning Situations

• Need effective social practices!

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Issue 6: Distinguishing System Capabilities

• Threaded discussion

– Just respond!

• New idea articulation

– What do I want to say?

• Knowledge construction

– Where does this note go?

– What does it link with?

– What headings are needed?

– Which perspective does it belong in?

• Need to distinguish & support each!

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V. Lessons: The bad news

There are significant open research issues involving:

• The perspectives technology

• Negotiation support

• The design of the learning environment

• The social practices associated with its use

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The good news

• We have successfully implemented and deployed a learning environment for collaborative learning on the Web with perspectives

• Perspectives still seem promising as a way of structuring collaborative knowledge construction

• A perspectives mechanism can be supported in a web-based learning environment

• The hierarchy of perspectives can be designed to support specific use cases

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Conclusions

• There is still much work to do on how to support collaborative learning with computational perspectives

• We learned a lot from our case studies

• We have many ideas for enhancing WebGuide for the next iteration

• For further info:

http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~gerry/webguide

http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~gerry/publications/conferences/1999/aera99/