Designing biases that augment socio-cognitive interactions
Abstract
This chapter questions the assumption that the best environment for computer-supported collaborative learning is the one that most closely reproduces the features of face-to-face collaboration. Empirical studies have failed to establish the superiority of group interaction with richer media. Instead, the chapter explores media features that do not exist in face-to-face interactions and explains how these features might augment group cognition. The first feature, the persistency of the information display, turns the medium into a shared working memory. The second feature, storing the context in which the message is emitted, should enhance the construction of a shared understanding. The third feature, the display of a graphical summary of group interactions, is expected to facilitate group regulation. In these three examples, the medium is more than a neutral wire. It constitutes a functional component within the distributed cognitive system formed by the learners and the collaborative environment. (http://www.springerlink.com/content/u077239317657586)