MIND BRIDGES ][: A Distributed Collaborative Learning Environment with Integrated Multimedia Document Support YAM SAN CHEE Department of Information Systems and Computer Science National University of Singapore, Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 0511 E-Mail:
[email protected]
Abstract: Recent work in the fields of cognition and education has drawn attention to the benefits of attempting to understand cognition from a social constructivist viewpoint and facilitating learning through computer-supported collaboration. This paper outlines the rationale for grounding cognitive and educational research on a social foundation. This rationale provides the motivation for developing MIND BRIDGES ][, a computer-based environment for collaborative learning. MIND BRIDGES ][ features media-rich support for students’ articulations in a distributed, client-server computing environment. The system is described by means of an illustrative example. Introduction Cognitivistic and individualistic approaches to trying to understand human mental functioning have been on the wane for the past several years (see, for example, Still & Costall, 1991; Wertsch, 1985). Concomitant with this decline, we have witnessed the rise of situated and developmental approaches to understanding cognition (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Clancey, 1991; Clancey & Roschelle, 1991; Jost, 1995; Wozniak & Fischer, 1993). In the context of this milieu, social constructivism is a viewpoint that increasingly dominates the fields of education and the learning sciences (Prawat & Floden, 1994). Bredo (1994) provides a penetrating analysis of the underlying paradigm shift that is taking place. Social constructivism is based on a contextualist world view, one in which acts or events unfold in context. From this perspective, the main task of intelligent human effort is to make stability of meaning prevail over the instability of unfolding real-world events (Dewey, 1925/1981). Knowledge and knowing result from processes of social interchange and interaction with the environment. Knowledge acquisition does not entail absorbing truth, as defined by some outside criteria, into one’s mind. Rather, it is the direct consequence of social interaction (Rowe, 1991). Things that individuals perceive and experience are mediated by their own interpretation of surrounding phenomena. These interpretations are constrained by the interactions of individuals with other people as well as by their personal goals. In the context of the above, then, the goal of instruction is to nurture the ongoing processes by which learners ordinarily and naturally come to understand the world in which they live.
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The role of teaching shifts from seeking to maximize the communication of fixed content or skills to one in which students are led to construct interpretations, appreciate multiple perspectives, develop and defend their own positions while recognizing the views of others, and to become aware of and be able to manipulate the social process of knolwedge construction itself (Knuth & Cunningham, 1993). These processes of human learning inherently entail social couplings based in language. Human learning is, in a very real sense, human languaging, the exchange of conversation and dialog. Consequently, human learning is best understood as a process of developmental socialization (Jost, 1995). This idea is a common thread reflected in the work of Vygotsky (1978), Mead (1934), Dewey (1925/1981), and Wittgenstein (1953). Wertsch (1979; 1985), for example, argues that for both Vygotsky and Wittgenstein, socialization in general and social interaction in particular play a significant role in their views of human cognitive development because individuals come to see the world by representing it socially—through conventional means, such as language, and for social purposes, such as communication. The speaking of language requires a variety of supporting practices and behaviors: a form of life. Jost (1995) argues that for Wittgenstein, “the language-game creates and sustains the representative relationships between language and reality” (p. 14). Without the context of social interaction and cultural norms which regulate the interaction, language-games would be meaningless. Computer-Based Collaborative Knowledge Building Environments The central role of language, as a vehicle through which a socialized form of learning occurs, has led us to develop MIND BRIDGES, a tool intended to facilitate and augment this kind of learning process. In an earlier paper (see Chee, 1995), we reported on our first effort to develop M IND BRIDGES . In this paper, we report on M IND BRIDGES ][ , a reimplementation and enhancement of the original MIND BRIDGES learning environment. The development of MIND BRIDGES follows in the spirit of CSILE, a computer-supported intentional learning environment, that allows school children to engage in building knowledge together through the use of networked computers (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1989; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1992a). Using such an environment, students learn to pursue knowledge related to goals, to relate new knowledge to old, to monitor understanding, to infer unstated information, and to review, reorganize, and reconsider their own knowledge (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1989). Scardamalia & Bereiter have demonstrated how learning environments of this kind can give rise to qualitative differences in learning. In particular, children learn to ask educationally productive questions that manifest a shift from text-based questions to knowledge-based questions (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1992b). Scardamalia et al. (1992) document the effects of CSILE use on the 2
quantity of writing, depth of explanation, knowledge quality, question asking, and achievement test scores in a Canadian classroom context. The development of MIND BRIDGES is also rooted in the vision of distributed multimedia learning environments as instruments for transformative communications (Pea, 1992; Pea, 1994). MIND BRIDGES is a distributed multimedia learning environment. The name MIND BRIDGES is intended to suggest that the purpose of the distributed learning environment is to function as a bridge between the minds of students. Thus, the experience of learning together apart (Kaye, 1992) becomes possible. MIND BRIDGES is a networked, client-server learning environment designed to support students’ meaning construction through shared discourse. It allows students to generate a communal database over a network of Apple Macintosh computers. Using the system, students can enter questions, findings, ideas, and explanations in all curriculum areas in the form of messages. M IND BRIDGES presently makes use of AppleTalk, Apple Computer’s networking software protocol, on an EtherTalk network. Unlike the original version of MIND BRIDGES, MIND BRIDGES ][ has a completely revamped user interface. One limitation of the earlier version of MB was that different media types were shown in separate windows. Hence, a message consisted of a loose collection of media types (text, graphics, sound, and movie), with the possibility of having multiple instances of any media type. This property of the interface made it difficult for students to express their ideas in a natural, sequential flow. M IND BRIDGES ][ now features a single message document that integrates any number of instances of media types; that is, an integrated multimedia document. M IND BRIDGES ][ also now allows students to record digital movies by controlling a videocamera from within the program. This functionality is particularly useful because it allows students to point the videocamera at themselves. They can then record themselves speaking, or they can zoom in on some artifact while providing ongoing commentary. This form of inter-student communication can be extremely powerful and compelling. TCP/IP support for inter-networking has been built, and work is currently underway to integrate this improved network support into M IND BRIDGES ][. When this work is completed, MIND BRIDGES ][ will no longer be restricted to a local area network setup. It will be capable of supporting inter-school networking as well as inter-nation networking. Geographical separation will no longer matter. Architecture of MIND BRIDGES ][ MIND BRIDGES ][ is divided into distinct environments for different categories of knowledge and distinct thematic spaces differentiated according to topic. Students can move from one environment to another while remaining in the same thematic space, or they may remain within a given environment and move through different thematic spaces. There are two types 3
of messages in the M IND BRIDGES environment: private and public. Private messages are meant to be seen and read by an individual student and are accessible from the Home environment. Public messages are accessible by all users of the system from all environments (except Home) and thematic spaces. MIND BRIDGES ][ consists of seven different knowledge-building environments. The Home environment is the default environment that students are placed in when they log into the system. Private messages of all kinds can be retrieved while students are in the Home environment. To enter a thematic space, students must first select an environment other than Home. The Overview environment provides a global perspective of the thematic space selected. It typically contains messages that address the question WHAT. Messages entered may be introductions to or summaries of some particular topic. The Explanation environment contains messages directed at promoting deeper understanding of a particular topic. The environment deals principally with questions and comments that address the question WHY. It is ideally suited to articulating and reflecting upon students’ evolving theories of natural phenomena. The Processes environment contains messages that focus on explaining how “things” work. These “things” include but are not restricted to machines and other man-made artifacts, physical theories, and biological processes. Consequently, this environment contains comments and questions that address the question HOW. Animation, video clips, and other multimedia illustrations can be incorporated to support students’ expression and presentation of how things work. The Application environment features illustrations of real-world instances of the selected topic. The use of digitized video clips is particularly suited to illustrating the application of a selected topic in a realistic context. Relating concepts and theories to examples in the Application environment is intended to help enhance students’ understanding of the particular topic being investigated. The Conjecture environment allows students to send messages that are of a speculative nature. This environment collects questions of a WHAT IF nature. The Location or Time environment focuses on messages where the place of an event’s occurrence or the time of its occurrence is particularly salient. Locations can be either terrestrial or extra-terrestrial; the time element can relate to the past, present, or future. Hence, this environment addresses questions that deal with WHERE and WHEN. Using MIND BRIDGES ][ In order to illustrate MIND BRIDGES ][, we employ a hypothetical example to illustrate how two students might use the learning environment to engage in collaborative knowledge 4
building. (For the sake of convenience, we shall refer to the system simply as M IND BRIDGES henceforth.) The scenario Suppose that there are two students, Edwin Chan and Jason Lee, who are part of a collaborative learning classroom. Suppose further that the class teacher has been dealing with the subject of the planets in the solar system. She has asked the class to find out more about the topic and to engage in discussion amongst themselves on the topic so that after a fortnight, each student can make a 10-minute presentation to the class on the topic. In a learning context where students are technologically literate and they are given access to the Internet, the introduction of a system like MIND BRIDGES will allow teachers to engage students in a rich, socialized learning experience. An illustrative walkthrough Let us say that Edwin browses through the World Wide Web (WWW) and discovers an attractive movie of the space probe Galileo flying past the planet Saturn. He downloads this resource with the intention of sharing it with his classmates. Edwin then boots up a computer that operates as a MIND BRIDGES client in a client–server computing environment. On starting up the MIND BRIDGES application, a startup movie is played. The system then presents Edwin with a M IND BRIDGES login panel. Edwin types in his name (user names are entered with surnames first) and password (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 Logging in to MIND BRIDGES
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The system performs authentication checks to ensure that Edwin is a bona fide user. It then presents him with its Main Menu (see Figure 2). Three choices are available: Send Messages, Read Messages, and Find Messages.
Figure 2 The main menu of MIND BRIDGES Given that Edwin wishes to share his thoughts on the movie that he has found, he clicks on the Send Messages button. The Edit Mail window appears, allowing him to create a message (see Figure 3). The system automatically inserts the current date and time. It also enters Edwin’s name as the message sender and, as a default, addresses the message to be created to the Public Mailbox, a message “space” within M IND BRIDGES that all system users have access to.
Figure 3 The MIND BRIDGES environment for sending a message
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To begin, Edwin types the subject of his message: “Is the planet Saturn habitable?” He then clicks on the Env/T Space button. A window pops up (see Figure 4) allowing him to choose one or more environments and to select an appropriate thematic space for his message. As Edwin has a conjecture on his mind, he selects the Conjecture environment.
Figure 4 The environment and thematic space dialog By clicking on the Thematic Space area shown in Figure 4, Edwin is able to select an appropriate thematic space from the Choose Thematic Space window that appears (see Figure 5). This window shows the thematic spaces currently available. It also allows the creation of new thematic spaces. Edwin chooses the thematic space Astronomy.
Figure 5 Choosing the thematic space
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With the environment and thematic space set, Edwin then proceeds to import his movie into the multimedia message document. He does so by clicking on the movie icon in the tool palette on the right hand side of the document. A Movie window appears, allowing him to import his movie of Saturn (see Figure 6). (Note that Edwin could also record a movie of himself at this point.)
Figure 6 Importing the movie of the planet Saturn Edwin selects the OK button to close the window. He proceeds to click on the pencil icon (denoting text creation) in the tool palette. The Text window appears. Edwin types in the text of his message (see Figure 7) and closes the window by clicking on OK.
Figure 7 The text of Edwin’s message 8
Finally, Edwin clicks on the Keywords button in the Edit Mail window to define suitable keywords for indexing his message. The Choice of Keywords dialog appears. Edwin chooses the keywords planets and solar system (see Figure 8) and clicks on the button Done. The dialog box closes.
Figure 8 Choosing keywords for the message At this juncture, the message composition is complete, and the system state is depicted in Figure 9. Edwin then clicks on the button Send and the message is sent to the server computer. In a moment, the system notifies Edwin that his message has been sent successfully.
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Figure 9 A composed message ready to be sent Suppose now that the student Jason Lee logs into MIND BRIDGES and decides to find out what conjectures have been made by classmates on the subject Astronomy. Jason selects the Read Messages button from the Main Menu, and he is presented with the Read Message window. Jason selects the Conjecture environment and the Astronomy thematic space (see Figure 10). He then clicks on the button Retrieve. In a moment, the system responds with the message “1 Message(s) Retrieved”.
Figure 10 Retrieving a message to read Jason clicks on the “key” icon in the lower left corner of the window to display the list of received messages (see Figure 11). There is only one message in this instance: the message sent by Edwin Chan.
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Figure 11 Displaying the retrieved message list Jason selects the message from Edwin. The button Read becomes active. Jason clicks on the button Read. The message from Edwin is displayed (see Figure 12). The context of the message currently being read is preserved: the Read Message window is kept open in the background with the message from Edwin highlighted in the message list.
Figure 12 Reading a retrieved message
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Suppose now that Jason has his own contribution to make to the knowledge building process. He has also been browsing the WWW and has discovered information related to the Shoemaker-Levy comet hitting the planet Jupiter. He has taken a screen snapshot of his favorite comet impact picture and decides that this is worth sharing with his classmates. Jason clicks on the Respond button (see Figure 12) to respond to Edwin’s message. An Edit Mail window is thrown up with appropriate response parameters set by M IND BRIDGES. Jason clicks on the paint brush icon in the tool palette to open a window for importing graphics. He imports his Shoemaker-Levy comet image (see Figure 13).
Figure 13 Importing an image Jason then proceeds to add some text for his message. His completed message is shown in Figure 14. Jason clicks on the Send button to send the message to the Public Mailbox. Note that in this instance, Jason’s message will form part of a thread of messages that originated with Edwin’s question: “Is the planet Saturn habitable?” In this manner, then, a communal database on the topic can develop.
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Figure 14 Responding to a public message Although the above example did not include any instance of messages incorporating sound, MIND BRIDGES is capable of including sound recordings also. With the Macintosh’s inbuilt facility to record sounds directly, no special hardware is required. Thus, audio recordings of relevant sounds, including students’ voice recordings, can be conveniently made and readily incorporated into messages. Other features Suppose now that a third student, Petrina Tan, logs into MIND BRIDGES. Petrina has a special interest in things related to planets. To find out what information MIND BRIDGES contains about this topic, she clicks on the Find Messages button in the Main Menu. A window appears that allows her to search the entire database for messages indexed by the keyword planets (see Figure 15). Message searches can be constrained by specifying up to two keywords and using the operators or, and, and not. Petrina decides to search all environments in the thematic space Astronomy. She clicks on the button Retrieve.
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Figure 15 Specifying the search criteria to find relevant messages MIND BRIDGES executes a search of the communal database and lists all messages satisfying the search criteria (see Figure 16). There are two messages listed. The bottom message is the one that we are familiar with, sent by Edwin to the Public Mailbox. Notice that there is a “+” symbol in the left margin of the message list. This symbol is used to denote the existence of a message thread. The top message is a second message from Edwin posted to the Astronomy thematic space.
Figure 16 Messages found on executing a keyword-based search 14
Petrina can read any message by selecting it and clicking on the Read button. The selected message will be displayed in the usual manner. Clicking on the “+” symbol reveals the thread of messages for any threaded message (see Figure 17).
Figure 17 Selecting a thread in a threaded message MIND BRIDGES also allows students to create digitized movies by connecting a videocamera to the computer. Live recordings can be made in this way. The interface for recording a movie is shown in Figure 18. Students can also digitize a movie from a previously recorded videotape.
Figure 18 The movie digitization dialog 15
As mentioned earlier, work on a TCP/IP version of MIND BRIDGES is underway. Figure 19 illustrates the network connection configuration window that permits the setting of connection parameters.
Figure 19 Configuring a TCP/IP connection Conclusion In this paper, we have attempted to show how the M IND BRIDGES distributed multimedia learning environment has continued to evolve. MIND BRIDGES ][ features a completely revised interface that allows students to create integrated multimedia documents, thereby enhancing the expressive richness of students’ articulations. The communal database of MIND BRIDGES ][ allows students to engage in collaborative knowledge construction, while the distributed, client–server nature of the system allows students to engage in learning together while apart. At present, MIND BRIDGES ][ has been deployed at a local school where it is being used for empirical research on collaborative learning and conceptual change. A Windows version of MIND BRIDGES ][ has been planned. Completion of the TCP/IP integration work will extend the reach of MIND BRIDGES ][, so that it can transcend national boundaries. Learning can then become both collaborative as well as international, thereby enriching the learning experience of students in a manner that remains faithful to theoretically grounded motivations for improving educational practice.
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