Catalyzing & Nurturing Online Workgroups to Power Virtual Learning Communities

Drexel University, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

The Math Forum website (www.mathforum.org) combines educational activities, a digital library of resources, automated and manual mentoring, discussion forums and other mathematics-related services for students, teachers and the public. As an intellectual haven for about a million people, it demonstrates how the Internet can host large global learning communities. However, learning here has been primarily oriented toward individual learning. In this project the Math Forum now aims to bring together some of its visitors with similar interests to work on common issues: students exploring a math issue together, teachers developing curriculum, or technologists and educators designing interactive math applets and support tools. Collaborative learning in small workgroups can be particularly effective in motivating interest in math and in building and communicating deep understanding. A proliferation of small groups will heighten the sense of a vital community and increase its ability to become self-sustaining and vigorous. The groups will help people increase their community participation and their interest in mathematics. The Project will investigate these questions and related issues through a series of pilot studies, controlled experiments, prototypes and field studies using group-formation and group-scaffolding software that is designed, implemented and assessed in collaboration with an international, multidisciplinary group of leading HCI, CSCW and CSCL researchers. In particular, three different kinds of groups will be formed and supported: (a) groups of students who visit the site and work on a collaborative problem of the month, (b) groups of teachers, student teachers and mentors who develop new problems and curricular approaches, and (c) multidisciplinary groups of international researchers and developers who design and assess the technologies and interventions of the Project. An unfulfilled promise of the Internet is to bring together systematically people who do not live close by, but who could benefit from interacting within knowledge-rich contexts. This Project addresses core issues of computer support for collaborative learning (CSCL): how best to form and structure intimate learning workgroups within global knowledge-building communities and how to effectively scaffold their interactions. The Math Forum model has substantial broader impact. The automated formation of small groups and support for interactions developing deep understanding of mathematics will be suggestive for virtual learning communities in other domains, taking advantage of other digital libraries. This model provides opportunities for students and teachers excluded from collaborative learning due to geographic isolation, disadvantaged schools, physical disability, discrimination and other physical or social factors. The model stimulates both student motivation and teacher development, transforming interest in mathematics from a social stigma into a bridge to global friendships. Additionally, the Project builds on the PI's prior work on a EU grant. Core aspects of the Project including technology design, pedagogy and assessment will be conducted by workgroups of American and European leaders of the CSCL community in collaboration with Project staff. Annual week-long intensive workshops will bring these collaborators together with each other and with teachers and Project staff.