This study analyzed collaborative invention projects by teams of lower-secondary (13-14-year-old) Finnish students. In invention projects, student teams design and make materially embodied collaborative inventions using traditional and digital fabrication technologies. This investigation focused on the student teams' knowledge creation processes…

The use of computational scaffolding is a crucial strategy to foster students' regulation of learning skills, which is associated with increased learning achievement. However, most interventions treat the regulatory processes as individual actions isolated from a social context. This view contradicts the most recent research that points to the…

Self-regulation is critical for successful learning, and socially shared regulation contributes to productive collaborative learning. The problem is that the psychological processes at the foundation of regulation are invisible and, thus, very challenging to understand, support, and influence. The aim of this paper is to review the progress in…

The theory of Instrumental Genesis (IG) accounts for the mutual evolution of artefacts and their uses, for specific purposes in specific environments. IG has been used in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) to explain how instruments are generated through the interactions of learners, teachers and artefacts in 'downstream' classroom…

Collaboration scripts and heuristic worked examples have been described as powerful scaffolds to support skill acquisition in CSCL. While CSCL scripts particularly facilitate argumentative discourse within groups, heuristic worked examples provide heuristics and worked out pathways to solve domain-specific tasks. Yet, both scripts and heuristic…

In this paper, we argue that how we use theories may be preventing us from developing a deeper understanding of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) contexts. We focus the argument on our understanding of orchestration processes and draw on common theories to show how they prioritize a mono-ecological approach: the examination of…

The advent of the social web brought with it challenges and opportunities for research on learning and knowledge construction. Using the online-encyclopedia Wikipedia as an example, we discuss several methods that can be applied to analyze the dynamic nature of knowledge-related processes in mass collaboration environments. These methods can help…

Cognitive group awareness tools are a means to guide collaborative learning activities by providing knowledge-related information to the learners. While positive effects of such tools are firmly established, there is no consistency with regard to the awareness information used and a wide range of target concepts exist. However, attempts to compare…

The purpose of this study was to contribute to a better understanding of learning in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments by investigating the co-occurrence of uncertainty expressions and expressions of learning in a graduate course in which students collaborated in classroom computer-mediated discussions. Results showed…

Conversational agents that draw on the framework of academically productive talk (APT) have been lately shown to be effective in helping learners sustain productive forms of peer dialogue in diverse learning settings. Yet, literature suggests that more research is required on how learners respond to and benefit from such flexible agents in order…

This paper reports on a study of students' conceptual sensemaking with science diagrams within a computer-based learning environment aimed at supporting collaborative learning. Through the microanalysis of students' interactions in a project about energy and heat transfer, we demonstrate "how" representations become productive social and cognitive…

Research on simulator training has rarely focused on the way simulated contexts are constructed collaboratively. This study sheds light on how structuring role-play and fostering social interactions may prove fruitful for designing simulator training. The article reports on a qualitative study of nautical students training in a ship simulator. The…

This paper presents a model of collaborative learning that takes an information processing perspective of learning by social interaction. The collaborative information processing model provides a theoretical basis for understanding learning principles associated with social interaction and explains why peer-to-peer discussion is potentially more…

The links uncovered by research connecting teacher beliefs to classroom practice and student inquiry-based learning are tenuous. This study aims at examining (a) "how" teacher beliefs influenced practices; and (b) "how" the influence on practices, in turn, impacted student inquiry learning in a CSCL environment. Through a fine-grained comparative…

In this paper we examine how two groups of middle school students arrive at shared understandings of and solutions to mathematical problems. Our data consists of logs of student participation in the Virtual Math Teams (VMT) system as they work on math problems. The project supports interaction both through chat and through a virtual whiteboard. We…