Facilitating Knowledge Convergence in Videoconferencing Environments: The Role of External Representation Tools

Frank Fischer (1) , Heinz Mandl (1)

1 Institute of Educational Psychology

The study analyzed how two types of graphical representation tools influence the way in which dyads use shared and unshared knowledge resources in different collaboration scenarios, and how learners represent and transfer shared knowledge under these different conditions. We varied the type of graphical representation (content-specific vs. contentunspecific) and the collaboration scenario (videoconferencing vs. face-to-face). 64 university students participated. Results show that learning partners converged in their profiles of resource use. With the content-specific external representation, learners used more appropriate knowledge resources. However, learners in the videoconferencing scenarios differed from learners in direct collaboration in how they use the representation tools.

Mots clés: knowledge convergence; shared knowledge; shared external representations; collaborative knowledge construction; videoconferencing

Domaines: Environnements Informatiques pour l'Apprentissage Humain

Frank Fischer, Heinz Mandl. Facilitating Knowledge Convergence in Videoconferencing Environments: The Role of External Representation Tools. Computer support for collaborative learning: Foundations for a CSCL community (CSCL 2002), 2002, United States. pp.623-624. ⟨hal-00197404⟩