Dilemmas That Promote Online Collaborative Knowledge Integration

• In Event: Technology Methods and Tools for Promoting Understanding Within Collaborative Environments

Abstract

Collaborative learning has potential to support the development of conceptual understanding. Often collaborators add the ideas of others without integrating them with their own views. We explore ways to support collaboration that leads to knowledge integration. We compare alternative dilemmas that were presented to 181 14-year-old students collaborating in an online environment to develop understanding of evolution. We analyzed the impact of the different dilemmas on students’ patterns of collaboration in each of the six discussions and summarized our insights. We discuss the implications for the design of collaborative, technology-enhanced discussions.

Authors

• Adi Kidron, University of California - Berkeley

• Marcia Linn, University of California - Berkeley