Scripting and Orchestration of Collaborative Inquiry: An Increasing Complexity of Designs

Abstract

The emergence of increasingly social and connected technologies is providing new opportunities for computer supported collaborative learning designs, (e.g., user-contributed content, tangible and embodied interactions, and augmented reality), while raising challenges and complexities in the scripting and orchestrating of these interactions. This poster responds to these challenges, introducing an orchestration framework (S3) within the context of two grade 11 physics classes in a smart classroom setting. As CSCL interventions become increasingly complex in terms of the interactions we require between students, teachers, materials, and the learning environments, there is a growing need to structure these interactions in the form of pedagogical scripts (Dillenbourg & Jermann, 2007). Further, with the increasing complexity and duration of our CSCL scripts, there is greater need to give teachers the information and tools to orchestrate their enactment – even as they may unfold “on-the-fly” (i.e, requiring real-time decisions). Orchestration is achieved through direct social interactions as well as through technological supports. In response, we are developing SAIL Smart Space (S3), an open source framework that coordinates complex pedagogical sequences, including dynamic sorting and grouping of students, and the delivery of materials based on emergent semantic connections (Tissenbaum & Slotta, 2012). To inform our development of the S3 intelligent agent framework, we developed PLACE.web (Physics Learning Across Contexts and Environments) a 13-week high school physics curriculum where students capture examples of physics in the world around them (through pictures, videos, or open narratives), which they explain, tag, and upload to a shared social space. Within this knowledge community, peers are free to respond, debate, and vote on the ideas submitted by their peers. Driven by the KCI Model the goal of PLACE.Web is to create an environment where the class' collective knowledge base is ubiquitously accessible allowing students to engage with the ideas of their peers spontaneously and across multiple contexts. We will focus on the culminating activity, which occurred across three contexts, employed user contributed materials, leveraged the spatial aspects of the room, and used intelligent agents in a consequential way. Culminating Smart Classroom Activity The curriculum culminated in a one-week activity where students solved ill-structured physics problems based on excerpts from Hollywood films. The script for this activity consisted of three phases: (1) at home solving and tagging of physics problems; (2) in-class sorting and consensus; and (3) smart classroom activity. In the smart classroom, students were heavily scripted and scaffolded to solve a series of ill-structured physics problems using Hollywood movie clips as their domain (i.e., could IronMan Survive a shown fall). Four videos were presented to students, with the room physically mapped into quadrants (one for each video). The activity was broken up into four stages: (1) Principle Tagging; (2) Principle Negotiation and Problem Assignment; (3) Equation Assignment, and Assumption and Variable Development; and (4) Solving and Recording. In each step students moved, or were sorted, within the room completing a set of collective and collaborative tasks that built upon the emerging knowledge base, using their tablets or large format interactive displays. During the acidity the teacher used a set of specially designed feedback technologies to aid in its orchestration. Orchestration of the culminating script: Ambient Feedback: A large Smartboard screen at the front of the room (i.e, not one of the 4 Hollywood video stations) provided a persistent, passive representation of the state of individual, small group, and whole class progression through each step of the smart classroom activity. This display showed and dynamically updated all student location assignments within the room, and tracked the timing of each activity, using three color codes (a large color band around the whole board that reflected how much time was remaining): “green” (plenty of time remaining), “yellow” (try to finish up soon), and “red” (you should be finished now). Scaffolded Inquiry Tools and Materials: In order for students to effectively engage in the activity and with peers, there is a need for specific scaffolding tools and interfaces for students to interact, build consensus, and generate ideas as a knowledge community (i.e., personal tablets, interactive whiteboards). Two tools were provided to students, depending on their place in the script: individual tablets tied to their S3 user accounts; and four large format interactive displays that situated the context (i.e., the Hollywood video), providing location specific aggregates of student work, and served as the primary interface for collaborative negotiation Real-Time Data Mining and Intelligent Agency: To orchestrate the complex flow of materials and students within the room, a set of intelligent agents were developed. The agents, programmed as active software routines, CSCL 2013 Proceedings Volume 2: Short Papers, Panels, Posters, Demos, & Community Events