Start 2008 - open-ended project
Budget resources of KMRC
In constructivist approaches to learning, learning through design (constructionism)
is considered a valuable way of implementation of constructivist learning (Kafai
& Resnick, 1996; Paper, 1994). Design tasks applied within this theoretical
framework can be considered ill-structured problems, which in general need to
be solved in collaboration with others. Due to the complexity of such design tasks
and the simultaneous action of several persons (learners), there is the need
to coordinate the collaborative design activities. In order to do so, shared
mental models of the situation, which help to define and structure
the design-related problem spaces need to emerge (Bromme & Stahl, 1999; Goel & Piroli,
1992; Stahl, Zahn, & Finke, 2006).
Against this background, this project investigates how the collaborative work
on design-problems in computer- supported learning scenarios can be influenced
by suggesting or supporting specific mental models.
In a first experimental study we exemplarily compared two metaphors describing
the character of the design product of a visual design task with digital video
and investigated their potential of structuring the participants shared mental
models. With regard to the lack of theoretical models of the production of audio-visual
media, we referred to theoretical approaches to processes of film reception
from cognitive psychology and mapped two contrasting metaphors on collaborative
media production. In detail, the first metaphor (documentary film) represents
an operationalization of (a) a linear filmic information structure, whereas
the second (interactive DVD) represents an operationalization of (b) a non-linear,
spatial structure in terms of Spiro’s (1991) cognitive flexibility theory.
We expected the production of a non-linear filmic information structure to lead
to greater cognitive flexibility than that of a linear one. The content of the
learning material applied was related to the acquisition of historical competences,
with the focus being multi-perspectivity (Hartmann, Martens, & Sauer, 2007)
as an operationalization of cognitive flexibility as the dependent variable.
The impact of the two metaphors is investigated using a prototypical task, which
asks participants to collaboratively decompose a digitized historical news-reel
produced by the allied forces in 1948 using the video-software WebDIVERTM.