Christopher M. Hoadley and Sherry Hsi
Graduate Group in Science and Mathematics Education (SESAME)
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, California 94720
(510) 642-9717 * (510) 642-4993
tophe@cs.berkeley.edu * hsi@garnet.berkeley.edu
ABSTRACT
We describe a multimedia tool developed for scaffolding constructive conversation and sharing information by means of a public kiosk. The Multimedia Forum Kiosk (MFK) provides an environment where users communicate asynchronously with video, audio, and text. Unlike unstructured media such as email, the interface provides multiple representations of the structure of the discourse which aid in understanding the previous discussion, eliciting and refining new ideas, and developing a sense of community with other users. The software has undergone evaluation, testing, and revision as a tool for an education research community. Preliminary results indicate that users learn the interface unproblematically without training, and that they successfully explore and contribute to the discussions. We introduce the MFK as a tool for collaborative discussion and learning, and discuss several potential uses for the tool, both pedagogical and utilitarian. A more formal testing plan to evaluate the software and interface design is underway.
KEYWORDS: communication, computer-supported cooperative work, discourse, education, multimedia.
From the adjunct proceedings of InterCHI `93, joint conference of ACM SIG-CHI and INTERACT, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, April 24-29, 1993: ACM Press. (p. 103-104)
INTRODUCTION
One of the greatest roles of the computer in society is to enhance communication. Many tools and interfaces have been developed specifically to support collaborative work, and collaborative learning. Technologies for collaboration have gained importance in education, both due to promising studies on group work and socio-cognitive theories of learning. These theories emphasize the importance of developing knowledge in a social context of a community.
Social theories of learning, beginning with those of Vygotsky, treat learning as a social phenomenon. Under this view, a person learns by first observing and listening to others. Then, with the help of others, the learner begins to internalize, use, and apply the knowledge where they could not do so unaided. Over time, the knowledge becomes fully internalized and the learner can function alone [1]. Recently, educational research has focused on the need for "communities of practice" for learning, or social groups where the knowledge and skills to be learned are used in day-to-day life. The values and practices of the community support the learning and knowledge-use of the individuals within that community. [1, 2]
Computer technology has much to contribute to inducing social learning. The Internet was originally built to link research communities nationwide. More recently, software for school collaborative learning such as CSILE [4] ICLN, and LDLN [3] have proven the effectiveness of computers in aiding learners to work together. We believe new interactive multimedia technologies that combine video, audio and images, can produce a better collaborative tool. Specifically, we hope to use multimedia to create an interface that encourages reflective discourse, engages users, and helps people build knowledge in social context.
Our goal was to design an interface to encourage learning through community discussion. This should occur through exploration and participation in an asynchronous electronic discussion. Users could take advantage of and internalize the stored community knowledge by reading comments of others, and they could integrate and apply knowledge by adding comments of their own. Multiple representations of the discussion would help the user to consider different perspectives and to organize knowledge. Moreover, the interface would represent individuals, not just opinions or remarks, which would allow users to develop a sense of community with other users. This ongoing construction of community perspective should allow individual users to learn about the topics they discuss and to gain experience in crystallizing and expressing their thoughts.
We studied four subjects in depth using videotape and protocol analyses. Subjects were asked to use the software without assistance and to think aloud. Detailed analysis of the videotapes broke subject activities into five categories: interface issues (including both time spent figuring out the interface and time waiting for the computer to respond), reading or rereading comments, making comments, thinking aloud about comments, and making strategic or meta-cognitive comments. The interface category was further examined for impasses, in which a subject demonstrated noncomprehension of the interface.
Graphs of activity categories demonstrated that subjects engaged in reflective thinking. No subject made a comment without reading and considering others. Each of the four subjects exhibited a pattern of reflective reading in which each period of reading a comment was followed by thinking aloud, or reflecting on the comment; sometimes reading and thinking also had metacognitive, strategic comments interspersed. This high level of participation leads us to believe subjects are engaged in the subject discussed and will, we hypothesize, learn more about it than someone who simply reads a text containing the same information as the comments.
Subjects successfully navigated in the interface. All four subjects read comments and interacted with both the Opinion Area and Argument Map; no subject entered an impasse that they did not resolve.
Future development efforts include addressing interface design issues concerning space usages for collapsible node architectures, as well as testing more subjects to evaluate the cognitive goals. Plans include introducing the MFK in science museums, public hallways and classrooms.
Figure 1: The Argument Map
[2] Palinscar, A. S. & Brown, A. L. Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension-Fostering and Comprehension-Monitoring Activities. 1, 2 (1984), 117-175.
[3] Riel, M. & Levin, J.. Building electronic communities: success and failure in computer networking. Instructional Science 19, (1990) 145-169
[4] Scardamalia, M. & Bereiter, C. An Architecture for Collaborative Knowledge-Building. In E. Decorte, M. Linn and H. Mandl (Ed.), Computer based learning environments and problem solving. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, in press 92.