supporting social interaction for group dynamics through social affordances in cscl: group awareness...
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Supporting Social Interaction for Group Dynamics through Social Affordances in CSCL: Group Awareness Widgets
Karel Kreijns (Department of Informatics)
Paul A. Kirschner (Educational Technology Expertise Center)
Wim Jochems (Educational Technology Expertise Center)
Hans van Buuren (Department of Psychology)
Outline
Characterizing CSCL environments Barriers and pitfalls of social interaction Need for sociable CSCL environments Theoretical framework (Social Affordances, Social
Presence, and Sociability) Group Awareness Widget
Characterizing the CSCL Environments
Focus solely on educational functionality, therefore, they are functional CSCL environments
Educational functionality is meant to support cognitive processes (grounding, deep learning, construction of knowledge, competence based learning, etc.)
Educational functionality (positively) affects learning performance
Research report Positive findings Mixed and negative findings
Mixed and Negative Findings
Two categories: Failures regarding the learning process itself:
Social interaction is impeded. Social interaction is a key in collaborative learning
Failures regarding group forming and group dynamics: These processes are also impeded. Group dynamics is important for creating trust, building relationships, sense of community, etc.
Usually, social interaction and group dynamics are taken for granted (pitfalls)
Rings of Barriers
Ring 1: CSCL Pedagogy
There is yet no suitable CSCL pedagogy that exploits the full potential of CSCL environments and accounts for the effects of communication media on learning.
Ring 2: CSCL Communication Media-1 communication is restricted to verbal communication (No non-
verbal cues; No social context information).
Non-verbal cues are expressed by: Vision: “body language”, facial expression, direction of gaze,
posture, gestures, eye-contact Audition: voice volume, inflection, soft speaking Tactile: touch Olfaction: smells, body odors
Social context cues by: Geographic: revealing physical location Organizational: revealing position in the hierarchy Situational: topic of communication, norms and conventions
Ring 2: CSCL Communication Media-2Effect 1: Impediment of social interaction
Effect 2: Grounding problems
Effect 3: Problems with coordinating conversations
Effect 4: Hampers impression formation
Effect 5: Hampers group forming and group dynamics Feelings of dislike by the mere use of CSCL environments Uncertainty about message-medium match Uncertainty about messages not being equivocal Uncertainty about the other in the communication May increase communication anxiety Uncertain when to “speak” (turn-taking)
Ring 2: CSCL communication media-3
Effects 4 & 5 are amplified because episodes of exchanging socio-emotional content is limited in the CSCL environment No facilities for off-task contexts Pre-emption of communication as soon as the
task is done
Ring 3: CSCL Environment
CSCL environments may not be designed using usability principles and therefore difficult to learn or to handle, thereby de-motivating students to use the environment
CSCL environments may also not be attractive. Designing CSCL environments should involve aesthetics and emotion in order to increase the user’s experience. Don Norman speaks about “Emotional Design” (book to appear in 2004).
Need for Sociable CSCL Environments
Our research focuses on the second Ring. Our aim is to encourage social interaction for group dynamics.
We identified the need for sociable environments (they should not be functional only) that incorporate a kind of ‘social functionality’
Sociable CSCL environments
Theoretical Framework: Ecological approach
to social interaction
Centers around the concept of social affordances Social affordances are the “properties of a CSCL
environment that act as social-contextual facilitators relevant for the learner’s social interactions”
This definition emphasizes the unique relationship between the CSCL environment and the learners with respect to social interaction
Properties of (Social) Affordances
Perception-Action Coupling Reciprocal relationship between what the CSCL
environments offers and the social needs of the learner
Goal of Social Affordances
Social affordances aim at Increasing the number of impromptu
encounters Informal conversations (‘not’ casual
conversations) Bridging the gap that exists due to
asynchronous communication (history) Implies proximity to be an important dimension
Spatial proximity (tele-proximity) Temporal proximity can be bridged using
traces (footprints)
Hypothesis
It is hypothesize that social affordances devices, will facilitate the group forming and group dynamics.
Real Life Example of a Social Affordances
Device based on spatial proximity: The
Coffee Machine
Constructing Social Affordances Devices in
CSCL Environments-1
Based upon tele-proximity through group awareness (i.e. perceiving the others in their activities).
Providing group awareness: Through a ‘media space’ : Using a mix of video
camera’s, audio equipement, and desktop computers
Graphically: Visualizing the awareness information ‘Abstract’: For example by signal processing an
audio signal into a video signal (Pederson & Sokoler, 1997)
Using sound space: (Gaver, 1990)
Constructing Social Affordances Devices in
CSCL Environments-2
Provide a set of communication media Tightly integrating this set in the awareness
information subsystem warrants the perception-action coupling
The composition of the set of communication media is unclear: Think of the effects of using communication
media in CSCL environments Walter (1999): Visual cues have little place in
CMC Gay & Lentini (1995): Use a ‘sufficient’ set.
Group Awareness Widgets
Social Affordances Devices in CSCL environments Group Awareness Widgets (GAWs)
GAWs: Provide group awareness graphically Provide history awareness graphically Provide a standard set of communication
channels (e-mail, newsgroups, and chat) GAWs augment CSCL environments
GAW segment (prototype)
Real GAW (prototype)
Current and Future Work
Current work: Testing the hypothesis: “Social affordances, such as GAWs, will facilitate the group forming and group dynamics” using our prototype of a GAW
If so, then social affordances devices are a key for creating sociable CSCL environments
Future work: More testing Implementing other GAWs Determining an ‘ideal’ set of communication media Etc.
Thank You For Listening!
Karel Kreijns ([email protected])
Paul A. Kirschner ([email protected])
Wim Jochems ([email protected])
Hans van Buuren ([email protected])