Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning

This paper describes how we have adapted the WISE technology and curriculum for use in an international setting. We also report on a cross-cultural collaboration between the two authors, representing the WISE project in the U.S. and its counterpart, called Viten (see ) in Norway. After introducing the WISE platform and describing our collaboration, we present a brief comparison of the Norwegian and U.S. educational systems. We then describe "Viten.no," the national level program that has grown around this effort. Next, we present our designs for a collaborative activity where students from our two countries first perform a WISE (or Viten, respectively) inquiry project concerning wolf populations and biodiversity, followed by a sequence of online discussions designed to capitalize on cultural and geographic differences for purposes of conceptual learning. Finally, we describe the outcomes of our classroom trials of this international curriculum, which are limited in scale but sufficient to allow the framing of some design principles. We close with a discussion of the implications of such curriculum, and our own current efforts to continue this line of research.

In science, the term model refers to a schematic, simplified and idealized representation of an object or a domain, in which the relations and functions of the elements are made explicit. Modeling is understood as the activity of creating, manipulating and using models. This article presents a discussion of how collaborative modeling activities, an essential part of collaborative inquiry learning, can be facilitated by supporting group processes either by embedding concrete learning tools or through externalized learning process specifications that can provide scaffolding or feedback. We illustrate these design options with a small-scale classroom study where a collaborative modeling environment called Cool Modes was employed to support students as they investigated topics of probability. The study involved multiple learner groups who first worked on a task individually or in small groups, and then pooled their results as part of an inquiry cycle.

Chemistry problems can be tough nuts to crack for students, particularly when the problems are of a mathematical type. Collaborative inquiry activities that are embedded in computer-supported learning environments can provide students with opportunities to construct the kind of knowledge required to solve complex chemistry problems. Yet, directing learners' collaborative inquiry in computer-supported learning environments to such useful ends remains a challenge. In this article, we introduce a new approach to facilitating learning from computer-supported collaborative inquiry. The approach we present is a collaboration script that guides pairs of learners through a sequence of inquiry activities and prompts effective interactions in an adaptive fashion. We developed an initial version of a learning environment that included the collaboration script, a simulated chemistry laboratory and a note-taking and mind-mapping tool. In an experimental study involving two conditions (scripted collaboration, unscripted collaboration), we had pairs of students work on a stoichiometry problem using the learning environment. We compared the learning outcomes and learning experiences of the two conditions, and explored learner-learner and learner-system interactions employing a case study methodology. Based on the quantitative and qualitative results, we derived a set of design recommendations for the next development cycle. Our main recommendations are to (a) inform learners about the value of the script support, (b) add algebra practice items and some general chemistry instruction to the learning environment as well as support for interrelating the multiple external representations in the simulated chemistry laboratory, (c) develop tools for assessing learners' prior knowledge and skills in collaborative inquiry learning, general chemistry and basic algebra, (d) increase the degree to which the learning environment can adapt to different learner needs, and (e) improve the interface and interaction design of the simulated chemistry laboratory.

This article addresses how computer-based simulations may support conceptual learning in science education. The study investigates how these interactions unfold, and explores how it may inform design. The article reports on project-based learning in schools where four pairs of students from upper secondary school use a future climate simulator integrated in a web-based learning environment. Our analytical focus is on how the students make use of the simulator to make meaning through the process. The analysis shows a considerable variety in how the students interact with the simulator, and in how they engage in a conceptual level of understanding. The findings indicate that the design was engaging, and three main modes of surprisingly stable uses were identified: utilizing the simulator as a way to get facts, enjoying the aesthetics of interaction as playability, and finally, making use of the simulator as a tool for discovery through cumulative micro-experiments.

Learning Villages (LV) is a computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning (CSCIL) platform, which facilitates students' issue-based discussion in a massively multiplayer online role-play gaming (MMORPG) environment to attain the goal of argumentative knowledge construction. Regarding argumentative knowledge construction, it can be achieved only if students are able to make argumentative elaborations properly in the discussion process. This paper discusses a study of using posting templates to enhance students' argumentative elaborations in LV. Seventy-four fifth-grade students and two of their teachers from two Hong Kong elementary schools participated in this study. The results showed that the posting templates proposed in the study, to a certain extent, could empower the students to construct arguments containing reasons and grounds to rationalize and warrant their arguments. In addition to the provision of the posting templates, it was also found the students' face-to-face peer-sharing (facilitated by the teachers) could help them reach and retain a relatively higher level of attainment of argumentative elaborations in CSCIL.