The design discussion area: a collaborative learning tool in support of learning from problem-solving and design activities

  • Authors:

  • Janet L. Kolodner;Kristine Nagel

  • Affiliations:

  • Georgia Institute of Technology;Georgia Institute of Technology

  • Venue:
  • CSCL '99 Proceedings of the 1999 conference on Computer support for collaborative learning
  • Year:
  • 1999

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Abstract

The Design Discussion Area (DDA) supports student reports to each other about their design efforts as they are learning science from design activities. Its scaffolding was designed to support both the writing of well-formed stories about their design efforts and discussion about each design effort. At their best, these discussions are a source of ideas for other students; a venue for talking science, using evidence in support of claims, getting advice, and providing explanations that others can understand; and a vehicle for some of the reflection necessary to turn one's experiences into well-formed and well-indexed cases in one's memory. DDA was trialed with 200 students; it was easy for students to use but it wasn't as straightforward to integrate into classroom activities as we had supposed and didn't provide as useful scaffolding as we had imagined.