Children's collaborative use of a computer microworld

• Authors: Janice Singer;Stephanie D. Behrend;Jeremy Roschelle
• Venue: CSCW '88 Proceedings of the 1988 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work
• Year: 1988

This paper will discuss a framework and methodology for understanding the use of computers in collaborative learning. In particular, we are interested in how learning occurs when students work together using a computer microworld. Collaborative settings provide a particularly rich environment for studying learning. Many theorists (see Brown and Palinscar, in press) have proposed that learning occurs when students have to explain, develop, or justify their ideas to others. In a collaborative setting, students communicate their ideas in order to coordinate their activity towards shared goals. When dilemmas arise in the course of productive work, the combination of communication and activity can lead to learning (Vygotsky 1978, Dewey 1923, Mead 1934).The microworld used in this studies, the “Envisioning Machine” (Roschelle, 1987) was designed to help students learn Newtonian physics. The Envisioning Machine presents students with an interactive graphical simulation of the Newtonian concepts of velocity and acceleration. This graphical model was intended to be an externalization of the mental models that physicists use when solving problems.Originally we thought that by manipulating and observing graphical objects on the computer screen, students would internalize correct Newtonian models of velocity and acceleration. However, our observations of pairs of students interacting with the Envisioning Machine has lead us to adopt an alternate view. Students do not simply internalize an external model. Instead, they continually invent interpretations of the model as they interact with it. Though students work by developing their own interpretations, these interpretations converge towards the target concepts.The methodology we present helps us to understand how students collaboratively invent, develop, and refine their ideas. We are interested in how interactions both between the students and the computer and between the students themselves enables them to move from one state of knowledge to the next. These interactions form the basis for cognitive and social activities that support the evolution and eventual rejection or acceptance of ideas.In the body of this paper, we examine characteristics of the microworld and the students learn process. First, we present a characterization of the Envisioning Machine as a computer-supported collaborative learning environment. We propose that this environment can be viewed as a Notational System. Second, we present our methodology with a case study that illustrates how one pair of students learn in this environment.