Dan Suthers: The Influence of Knowledge Modeling on the Communication Process

1. Timothy Koschmann stated in the introduction of the CSCL2002 conference proceedings that CSCL is " centrally concerned with meaning and the practices of meaning-making in the context of joint activity, and the ways in which these practices are mediated through designed artifacts. " What does this mean for the technical development of computer-enriched learning scenarios? My work on computer support for collaborative learning (CSCL) focuses on the design of representations, so I will reply from that perspective. When people engage in a conversation for learning or problem solving, they often use external representational aids. There is a large literature on representations in individual learning and problem solving which might be summarized with " representation matters " – there are clear influences on how easily individuals solve problems. In CSCL we are more concerned with group rather than individual cognition. The roles that representational aids can play in the meaning-making activities of two or more participants are very complex, but I will highlight a few important aspects. The representations can be the topic or intended product of the conversation, for example when two people are co-constructing a schematic for the design of a physical or information artifact. In such cases the representations are clearly essential for the meaning-making activity. Recently I have been calling these kinds of conversations " artifact-centered discourse. " Artifact centered discourse is very common in learning applications, so it is disturbing that many online learning environments, including some well-known commercial ones, don't provide much support for discussions about user-provided artifacts. My most recent line of work on artifact-centered discourse focuses on how to better integrate discourse representations with other representations such as disciplinary and knowledge representations (Suthers & Xu, 2002). The representations can be secondary to the purpose of the conversation yet still play important roles in a joint meaning making activity. The creation or modification of shared representations can lead to new negotiations of meaning that may have not taken place without the representation. A participant may feel an obligation to discuss additions or modifications to a shared representation before they are executed. Additionally, new representations can also be put forth before agreement about their meanings or even clarity on the part of the representer exists. In either case questions implicitly arise: what will this representational device signify to us? What does the configuration we have created or propose to create imply for our understanding …