Scripting Computer Supported Collaborative Learning

Scripting Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

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.

Flexible Scripting to Facilitate Knowledge Construction in Computer-supported Collaborative Learning

This book discusses the significance of flexible scripting to structure CSCL against the framework of “Script theory of guidance” and reports on findings from two empirical studies on the effects of flexible scripting on collaboration in CSCL scenarios. In the first empirical study flexibility was accomplished through adaptivity, and through adaptability in the second. The results of these studies show that adaptive and adaptable scripts enhanced the quality of collaborative knowledge construction processes as well as learners’ collaboration skills, compared to inflexible scripts. The findings presented in this book will contribute to theory building of the scripting approach in CSCL. The authors propose two innovative ways of achieving flexible scripting and address the mechanisms by which adaptive versus adaptable script influences collaborative knowledge construction. Moreover, the adaptive and adaptable scripting approaches provide hands-on examples for practitioners and contribute to their understanding of teaching design in CSCL settings.

Scripts for Computer-supported Collaborative Learning