Using Tagclouds to Scaffold College Students’ Collaborative Knowledge Construction

• In Event: DDL - Web-Conferencing, Tagclouds and Learning

Short Description

Group discussion is critical for constructing understanding and knowledge. Tagclouds provide an intuitive overview about the group’s collective cognition and could potentially be used as an anchor for group discussion. This experimental study investigated the effect of using tagclouds as scaffolding strategies in small group discussion and the quality of learning. This study showed that participating in tagcloud-anchored discussion resulted in a significant difference in the students’ knowledge construction as exhibited in their concept maps.

Authors

• Shu-Yuan Lin, Idaho State University

• Ying Xie, Northern Illinois University