Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen |
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Department of Educational Sciences |
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Project Coordinator
Dott. Francesco Leonetti
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Project Description Main research goal of this project is to design and implement an educational Virtual Reality environment that fosters collaborative learning at a distance and enables students from schools apart to work together, collaborate, and communicate. It is assumed that Active Worlds translated into practice collaborative and constructive learning principals by allowing students to design and build virtual objects by themselves collaborating to other kids located at a distance under the adults supervisions. Theoretical background used are: a) the "community of learners" model (Brown & Campione 1994) and in particular the notion of distributed cognition and the constructionism as defined by Papert (1991). c) the communication theory applied to the mediation of computer software (Clark & Brennan, 1991). When a community extends its borders behind the classroom-walls, computer mediated communication becomes essential. Language, and communication in general, is considered as a collaborative process of construction and re-constructed of meanings (Bachtin 1981; Dickerson 1996). In this sense communication is a "bridge" between individual cognition and social sharing (Vygotskij 1962) and not merely a way to express individual thoughts. A reciprocal influence between individual thinking and cognition and collaborative knowledge building and social relationships is thus established through communication. A constant process of introducing the individual meanings in the social sphere and re-integrating the social knowledge in the individual cognitive processes is necessary. Carrying on this project kids will: - develop specific communication skills based on technology literacy, iconic and written communication; - overcome, at least partially, differences in culture, gender, and social status, since the communication can be anonymous and users' physical features are not visible; - improve their motivation as well as their collaborative and metacognitive skills; - learn in a less traditional setting the content of an original task, designed just for this project. By verifying these hypothesis, some research questions will be answered: a) what are the distinctive features of a technology sustaining collaboration at a distance? b) how written communication is combined to visual/iconic communication? c) does and how the educational content need to be changed to be suitable to such technology? d) what is the contribution of this type of technology to the educational scenario? | ||
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Project Coordinator
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Project Description This project investigates the development of higher order skills in pupils within the second phase of Dutch secondary education, when using virtual collaborative and three-dimensional constructing environments. The software under investigation is 'open', and not based upon mathematical modeling principles. The focus of the research is on the influence of the usage of and the participation in virtual environments on the development of communications skills and strategies, collaboration skills and strategies, problem solving skills, and self-regulated learning. In addition, the research focuses on the types of thinking and reasoning that are supported and generated. The research is characterized as a combination of developmental research aimed at developing domain-specific didactic scenarios implemented in the different environments and their combinations, and of research into the long term effects of working with the software. The project focuses on Have-VWO students in the studiehuis with the profile "Nature and Technique". This profile offers the best context for introducing collaborative learning in combination with constructing representations in three-dimensional virtual worlds. Students will function in 3D worlds constructed by others in the beginning. Later on they will be asked to construct their own worlds. This will fit into the so-called profile assignments "profielwerkstukken". Topics like water management, airport planning, building a house, bridges, etc. will be used. The definitive choice will be made in co-operation with the teachers involved. For the students this project is, in practice, closely related to learning about and with ICT. They will get experience in working in two different kinds of web based learning environments. Learning about and with ICT is a central issue for secondary education students, especially working in web-based intra- and Internet environments which stimulate the students by self study, project work and discovery learning. (Van den Dool, Moonen, Kraam, 1998) The overarching problem of the project is "In what ways can virtual collaborative and 3-D constructing environments contribute to the development of higher order skills in pupils within the second phase of Dutch secondary education?" Leading research questions are: a) What types of communication and collaboration strategies students use and develop in a virtual reality environment in which text-based and iconic communication are combined. B) What type of problem solving skills are required in such an environment? C) What kind of thinking and reasoning is supported by a virtual reality environment that allows both three-dimensional construction and manipulation, and text and iconic based synchronic and asynchronic communication, and allows multiple connections implying multiple interactions? The research is relevant to the second phase of Dutch secondary education. Among its impact is the introduction of open-ended software for collaboration, construction, and virtual reality around topics belonging to the curriculum, and its benefits for learning as given by the research results. Recommendations for didactical pragmatics in schools are derived. | ||
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