Collaborative Dialogue Technologies In Distance Learning

In April 1993, an interdisciplinary NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Collaborative dialogue technologies in distance learning" was held in Segovia, Spain. The workshop brought together researchers in fields related to distance learning using computer-mediated communication. The statement of justification of the NATO ARW follows hereafter. Justification of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Collaborative Dialogue Technologies in Distance Learning Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) systems have features that reduce some temporal, physical and social constraints on communication. Theories of communication have shifted from viewing communication as a linear transmission of messages by a sender to a receiver, to viewing it as a social paradigm, where individuals are actors in a network of interdependent relationships embedded in organizational and social structures. Recent research focuses on models of information-sharing to support not only the activities of individuals but also the problem-solving activities of groups, such as decision-making, planning or co writing. This area of research is called Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). The Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach uses knowledge-based systems to enhance and facilitate all these processes, including the possibility of using natural language. The traditional model of distance education places a strong emphasis on indepen dent study, supported by well developed learning materials. This model can be characterized as one-way media. However, the potential of CMC to provide better guidance to the student in Higher Distance Education has been quickly recognized for at least two kind of activities: information sharing and interaction.

Highlighted are the pedagogical, organizational, cultural, social, and economic factors that influence the adoption and integration of emerging technologies in distance education. Advice is offered on how educators can launch effective and engaging distance education initiatives, in response to technological advancements, changing mindsets, and economic and organizational pressures.

Digital Learning and Collaborative Practices offers a comprehensive overview of design-based, technology-enhanced approaches to teaching and learning in virtual settings. Today’s digital communications foster new opportunities for sharing culture and knowledge while also prompting concerns over division, disinformation and surveillance. This book uniquely emphasises playful, collaborative experiences and democratic values in a variety of environments—adaptive, augmented, dialogic, game-based and beyond. Graduate students and researchers of educational technology, the learning sciences and interaction design will discover rich theories, interventions, models and approaches for concretising emerging practices and competencies in digital learning spaces.

The Handbook of Distance Education, 4th Edition is a comprehensive compendium of research in the field of distance education. The volume is divided into four sections covering the historical and theoretical foundations of distance education, attributes of teaching and learning using technology, management and administration, and different audiences and providers. Throughout, leading scholars address future research needs and directions based on current research, established practices, and recent changes to implementation, pedagogy, and policy.

The full title of the HCM network project behind this volume is VIM: A virtual multicomputer for symbolic applications. The three strands which bound the network together were parallel systems, advanced compilation techniques andarti?cialintelligence witha commonsubstrate in the programminglanguage Lisp. The initial aim of the project was to demonstrate how the combination of these three technologies could be used to build a virtual multicomputer — an ephemeral, persistent machine of available heterogeneous computing resources — for large scale symbolic applications . The system would support a virtual processor abstraction to distribute data and tasks across the multicomputer, the actual physical composition of which may change dynamically. Our practical objective was to assist in the prototyping of dynamic distributed symbolic app- cations in arti?cial intelligence using whatever resources are available (probably networked workstations), so that the developed program could also be run on more exotic hardware without reprogramming. What we had not foreseen at the outset of the project was how agents would unify the strands at the application level, as distinct from the system level o- lined above. It was as a result of the agent in?uence that we held two workshops in May and December 1997 with the title “Collaboration between human and arti?cial societies”. The papers collected in this volume are a selection from presentations made at those two workshops. In each case the format consisted of a number of invited speakers plus presentations from the network partners.

This book empowers people to go beyond themselves into new spheres of learning, thinking and creativity. Drawing on recent work in communications theory as well as psychology, computer science and philosophy, it reveals some key characteristics of learning dialogues. It also demonstrates ways in which computers and networks can deepen, enrich and expand such dialogues. The book’s central argument is that this dialogic perspective in education and the latest developments in information and communications technology make ideal partners.

Students who know how to collaborate successfully in the classroom will be better prepared for professional success in a world where we are expected to work well with others. Students learn collaboratively, and acquire the skills needed to organize and complete collaborative work, when they participate in thoughtfully-designed learning activities.Learning to Collaborate, Collaborating to Learn uses the author’s Taxonomy of Online Collaboration to illustrate levels of progressively more complex and integrated collaborative activities.- Part I introduces the Taxonomy of Online Collaboration and offers theoretical and research foundations.- Part II focuses on ways to use Taxonomy of Online Collaboration, including, clarifying roles and developing trust, communicating effectively, organizing project tasks and systems.- Part III offers ways to design collaborative learning activities, assignments or projects, and ways to fairly assess participants’ performance.Learning to Collaborate, Collaborating to Learn is a professional guide intended for faculty, curriculum planners, or instructional designers who want to design, teach, facilitate, and assess collaborative learning. The book covers the use of information and communication technology tools by collaborative partners who may or may not be co-located. As such, the book will be appropriate for all-online, blended learning, or conventional classrooms that infuse technology with “flipped” instructional techniques.

Collaborating Online provides practical guidance for faculty seeking to help their students work together in creative ways, move out of the box of traditional papers and projects, and deepen the learning experience through their work with one another. Authors Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt draw on their extensive knowledge and experience to show how collaboration brings students together to support the learning of each member of the group while promoting creativity and critical thinking. Collaborating Online is the second title in the Jossey-Bass Guides to Online Teaching and Learning. This series helps higher education professionals improve the practice of online teaching and learning by providing concise, practical resources focused on particular areas or issues they might confront in this new learning environment.