DICA-lab is glad to announce its involvement in the organisation of a prestigeous workshop in the area of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL). The workshop “It’s about time: exploring temporality in group learning” will take place within the CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning) and is part of
the second Alpine Rendez-Vous, November 30 – December 3, 2009, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
The Rendez-Vous is a series of independent but collocated workshops broaching Technology-Enhanced Learning with a special focus on “Orchestration”, “Connecting Learners” and “Contextualisation”. The series brings learning sciences researchers from North America, Asia, and Europe together with researchers in the Tempora STELLAR network to explore methods for characterizing and analyzing data related to collaboration and group learning over time.
The full programme of the Rendez-Vous is available http://www.stellarnet.eu/programme/wp3/rendez-vous/
Details on the workshop on temporal analysis of group learning can be found here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Acs1KSmE2rRaZGY0ZzMzeDRfMmZud25ucmM5&hl=en
The workshop is supported by the STELLAR Network of Excellence in Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL).
Details
This workshop supports a recent push towards unpacking the dynamics of interactions (in particular group processes), their complexities and their influence on group performance as they unfold over time. The inherent complexity of dynamics of group processes and interactions has compelled researchers to adopt a temporal view of how groups function and perform (Arrow, McGrath, & Berdahl, 2000; Stahl, 2005). This view presents a unique challenge to traditional analytical measures and methods for analyzing group processes and their role in knowledge construction (Barab et al., 2001). For example, a problem-solving discussion can be conceptualized as a temporal sequence of events or phases. With the events and phases identified, one can describe patterns of social dynamics and begin to understand how patterns (e.g., turn-taking) or dynamics (e.g., cycles of collaboration) unfold providing insights into collaborative activities of connected learning.
Measures and methods for characterizing and analyzing the temporal evolution of dynamics of group interactions are needed and emerging (Akhras & Self, 2000; Barab et al., 2001; Collazos, Guerrero, Pino, & Ochoa, 2002; Reimann, in press). We therefore invite applications from researchers who seek to apply temporal methodologies to explore group processes. At this workshop, we will focus on the use of Lag Sequential Analysis (LSA) and Markov Models (MM). These models are especially promising analytical approaches for capturing emerging structures in evolving collaborative interactions at various time scales. Participants are asked to bring their data so that on-the-spot analyses can be conducted at the workshop to facilitate discussion of advantages and limitations of MM and LSA as techniques to interrogate the robustness of these analytical techniques in various interactional contexts.
The workshop will begin a series of conversations about how to consider the temporal aspects of interactions between people and tools as they occur within activities and to explore how macro-level phenomena (like group learning) emerge from and constrain micro-level dynamics of interaction (e.g., patterns of discourse or gesture, use of objects or practices, or emergence/dissipation of ideas) over variable time periods (e.g., days, weeks, etc). Examples of temporal analyses will be presented and discussed after which participants will conduct analyses in small groups. Participant analyses will comprise the majority of the workshop. Based on participant applications, organizers will suggest small groups that share a research interest or paradigm that will meet to analyze their data collaboratively. Participants will document dynamics that are present in their data (including the development of data visualizations) using LSA or MM. The culminating activity of the workshop will be a planning session for developing a set of collaborative papers that will present results of analyses conducted at the workshop. This paper set will discuss the salience of dynamics made possible by the temporal analysis methods used. Additionally, workshop organizers will contribute a paper that provides a conceptual integration of the workshop analyses. These papers will comprise a special issue to a journal that is selected by the participants, likely CSCL.
Participants
Our goal for the workshop is to bring together researchers from leading international communities in the area of Technology-Enhanced Learning in order to advance methods for characterizing and analyzing the dynamics of interactions between people and tools within activity as they unfold over various timescales. Due to limited funding, the workshop will be limited to 14 participants including workshop organizers.
Researchers interested in participating in this workshop are asked to submit an abstract to the organizers (via the group contact) that describes their interest in these analytic techniques and their relevant research. Organizers will select participants who have formulated research questions that have a temporal dimension that best meet the workshop goal of exploring the connection between macro-level phenomena of group learning and and micro-level dynamics of interaction.
Although not all participants will be asked to bring their data to the workshop, participants will be more likely to be considered for selection if they:
Have event-based data relating to community development or collaboration
Have a sufficient quantity of data points over time to enable MM and LSA analysis
Are willing to pre-code their data in a specific format prior to the workshop (formatting instructions will be provided to participants on the workshop website), however, not all participants will be asked to bring their data for group analysis during the workshop.
To support the goal of collaboration across research communities, we will select participants to provide diverse representation of STELLAR and non-STELLAR researchers, with an emphasis on including different perspectives from the international community.
The working language of the workshop will be English, however verbal data for analysis can be in any language (data will be pre-coded by participants so translation is not necessary). Applications can be submitted in English, French, German or Spanish.
Organizers
Britte Haugan Cheng, SRI International (Group Contact: britte.cheng@sri.com)
Murat Cakir, Drexel University
Manu Kapur, National Institute of Education – Singapore
Vanessa L. Peters, University of Toronto
Vanessa Svihla, University of California, Berkeley
Alyssa Wise, Simon Fraser University
Timothy Zimmerman, Rutgers University
Katerina Zourou, University of Luxembourg
