This study examines elementary school students&rsquo / project-based learning (PBL) experiences through Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). The purpose of the study is to explore whether the use of computer-mediated communication tools in a project-based collaborative learning process enhances 5th grade students&rsquo / attitudes toward computer and computer class within an online supported environment, analyze the level of learners&rsquo / satisfaction about the project-based collaborative learning through CMC, and examine students&rsquo / perceptions of their social presence and how effective social presence is as a predictor of overall students&rsquo / satisfaction. The sample of this study is included 36 5th grade students of two private schools in Ankara and Nisde, and convenience and purposeful sampling methods were used. At the beginning of the study, subjects were given the Computer Attitude Scale to measure their attitudes toward computers. At the end of the study, participants were given the CAS again to measure their attitudes toward computers, satisfaction scale and social presence scale. The results indicated that the students&rsquo / attitudes toward computer did not change from the beginning to the end of the study. However, evidence suggests a positive response by students to the use of CMC in the project-based collaborative learning environment. Majority of the students were satisfied with the learning experience they had in the project-based collaborative learning environment through CMC. Moreover, although results on perceived social presence were low, students tried to develop an online community throughout the project. This study also showed that social presence was a strong predictor of satisfaction in a PBCL environment.

The World Wide Web contains rich collections of digital materials that can be used in education and learning settings. The collaborative authoring prototype of Walden's Paths targets two groups of users: educators and learners. From the perspective of educators, the authoring tool allows educators to collaboratively build a Walden's Path by filtering and organizing web pages into an ordered linear structure for the common information needs, which can be extended, tailored and modified into a derivative path from its parent version to meet dynamic and evolving educational requirements. From the students' perspective, Walden's Paths provide a shared knowledge space that facilitates collaborative learning. Specifically, collaborative learners can annotate locally and globally on pages and share among group members, where each annotation fosters the initiation of a thread of discussion. Therefore, knowledge transfer can be achieved in the process of social interaction associated with shared annotations.

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is one approach that seemingly maps neatly to the notion of equipping learners for emergent knowledge-age work practice currently exemplified by Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) or Virtual Teams. However, the difficulty of achieving peer interaction in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments has proved to be a recurrent problem. Seemingly collaborative settings have been interpreted too narrowly referring only to positive phenomenon. There has been a tendency to focus on technology rather than social scaffolds. Little is known about the influence of students' personalities on online collaborative interaction and knowledge-building activity. Within collaborative team based contexts individuals demonstrate preferences towards certain activities. Such preferences and combinations of preferences may affect team knowledge-building activity both in terms of quality and efficiency. This thesis reports on the findings from a study that investigated if knowledge-building activity can be enhanced in tertiary education CSCL environments through the use of teams balanced by Team Role Preference.

Many mobile learning (m-learning) systems have been constructed to transform traditional classroom or computer-based learning activities to be more efficient and ubiquitous, such as being able to present learners with a shared learning space. The work of learners is increasingly seen as collaborative by nature, and there is more collaboration between learners who have different learning experiences. Although these m-learning systems have promised positive collaborative learning outcomes, there has been little empirical work done to translate them into the learning outcomes which mobile collaborative learning environments can provide, where learners acquire new knowledge by contributing to each member’s existing knowledge. This thesis investigates both mobile learning and collaborative learning, and the focus is on: learning performance in mobile learning, types of knowledge created by collaboration and perceived learning satisfaction from this mobile collaborative learning experience. Several experiments were carried out to understand the nature of mobile-supported collaborative learning against traditional face-to-face (FTF) collaboration. The results revealed that, firstly, the learning performance was enhanced when the participants were learning collaboratively with the mobile device; secondly, mobile collaborative learning with a shared learning space contributed to shared knowledge generation.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Environmental issues are complex and understanding them involves integration of different areas of knowledge, feedback and time delays, however strategies to cope with complexity are not often used or taught in environmental education. The aim of this thesis is to examine the benefit of three such strategies for environmental education: multiple external representations, learning from models, and collaborative learning. The socio-environmental system modelled was visitor impact in a national park in Australia. Students in Year 9 and 10 from two schools were given a text description (Text group) and either a system dynamics model (SDM group), an agent-based model (ABM group), or both models (SDM & ABM group). This experimental design allowed learning outcomes (environmental and system dynamics knowledge, and understanding of the socio-environmental system) and use of the model(s) (in terms of the proportion of time spent on each screen, activities, and strategies) to be compared in each learning environment (individual and collaborative). Multiple external representations were the most successful strategy in the individual learning environment in terms of increases in environmental knowledge. However, students given only the system dynamics model had greater understanding of the system, and students given only the agent-based model increased environmental knowledge easily identified in the animated representation. Prior knowledge, patterns of use, strategies for changing variables and the representational affordances of the models explained some of these differences. In particular, prior knowledge was an important indicator of how students coordinated use of the models in the SDM & ABM group. Learning with a system dynamics model was the most successful strategy for students in the collaborative learning environment. Differences between the learning environments were detected in all groups with respect to both learning outcomes and use of the models due to prior knowledge, interrogation of the models, and the learning environments themselves. These experiments have provided evidence that strategies for understanding complex systems provide viable methods of communicating complex ideas to school-aged students with varying levels of prior knowledge. In particular, multiple external representations provided students with flexibility in how they learned; models allowed students to experiment with a system otherwise not allowed; and a collaborative learning environment facilitated students’ interpretation of a system dynamics model.

This study examines the relationship between self-efficacy for group work and collective efficacy in terms of participation within a computer supported collaborative environment across two collaborative conditions: (a) structured chat, and (b) unstructured chat. The purpose of this study was (a) to examine the relationship between self and collective efficacy and student participation, and (b) to examine the structure of reciprocal teaching roles, scripts and prompts in moderating the relationship between self-efficacy for group work and collaborative chat participation. Data were collected from 62 grade 10 students assigned to one of the two conditions: (a) structured chat enhanced with specific cognitive roles, scripts and prompts, or (b) unstructured chat enhanced by only a text based chat tool. The participants collaboratively discussed a challenging text in groups of 4 using a text-based chat tool. A relationship was found between self-efficacy and participation where collaborative condition moderated the relationship between efficacy and participation.

I denna uppsats undersöks hur studenter och lärare uppfattar att gruppundervisningen påverkar viktiga moment för blivande artister. Är det viktigt att se andra uppträda ur ett inlärningsperspektiv? Vad betyder gruppen for individens prestation? Vad finns för forskning om olika typer av gruppundervisning som t.ex. peer-learning och masterclass? Även forskning om hur grupper påverkar individen har varit intressant. Undersökningen fokuserar på ämnet interpretation i masterclass-form för sångare, där syftet varit att undersöka studenters och lärares uppfattningar om hur gruppundervisning påverkar inlärningsprocessen av artistspecifika moment så som nervositet, scenvana, scennärvaro, repertoarkännedom m.m. Denna undersökning är gjord i enkätform och där lärare, och studerande som fortsatt till högre utbildning inom sång, har medverkat. Resultatet visar att uppfattningen är att masterclass-formen har varit mycket viktig för studenternas utveckling i sitt framtida yrkesval. En viktig och återkommande åsikt har varit att kontinuiteten och frekvensen av ämnet är vital för att uppnå goda resultat.

The need for change within the Further Education sector in line with technological developments in our current society was apparent within my teaching practice. This led to a number of thoughts about virtual learning environments and its application within the teaching role. The role of the computer as a real socio-cultural learning environment was explored to examine if this environment could be nearer to the concrete experiential and situated learning environment that students came from at an early age. It was hoped that this would be a different learning environment that would start slowly and grow in an organic way. It involved the growth of a very different culture of learning, a learning environment that may include a different literature and with different ways of thinking about what is to be learned and how to learn it. It was also hoped that the virtual learning environment would provide a very powerful strategy to allow the operation of the principle of variation and selection which it needed within the college Learnwise Educational system. Education should shift from individual, technology-free cognition to a resourceful collaborative learning, and distributed intelligence. Learners should be empowered through thoughtful and innovative use of technologies, and benefit from social distributions of cognitions. Salomon et al.'s (1998) commented that education should pay more attention to the "effects of" technology rather than the "effects with" technology, so that autonomous performance may be achieved. The attempt of the first part of the research has been to investigate a student-centred strategy in a computer supported collaborative learning environment to see whether this kind of higher-order knowledge can be distributed among peers and environment. The starting point of the second part of my research focussed on the links between constructivist theory and knowledge management in relation to college teaching practice. Since this research formed part of a whole college restructuring of teaching and learning, a baseline for current practice was necessary. Literature concerning the use of technology was explored in order to benchmark where the college was at the start of the research. As a result of this initial investigation, a survey of current college practice resulted in a paper being accepted by the HE Academy at their 8th Annual Conference in 2007. Page 6 Results from this research indicated that, although the college displayed similar results to other FE establishments, it was imperative that a move to a new building with a digital environment philosophy required more than merely a physical move. As a result, research into emerging technologies was deemed to be important if the college was to take advantage of a new digital teaching concept. Investigation into collaborative tools and Web 2.0 techniques was seen as appropriate at this stage. The study of computer-supported collaboration included the study of this software and social phenomena associated with it. Through this element of research it was hoped to investigate these collaborative techniques in the light of constructivist theories in order to develop an appropriate and effective digital teaching model. Expanding the research to explore portal technologies, with a particular focus on the integration of teaching practice, would hopefully highlight a possible path connecting current practices to an educational portal and illuminate the benefits and challenges of such an endeavour. Acquiring and deploying Web-based collaborative functionality within an organisation has become a strategic move to improve relationships between employees, partners and customers. The ultimate aim of the research and hence the thesis being addressed, will be to show that it is possible to create a “Learning or College Gateway” as a solutions framework that helps improve education by integrating the tools staff and students already use and puts them to work connecting people with the information and processes they need to teach, learn and manage more effectively. This will create a powerful educational portal that enables the people throughout the college to share information and work together on activities from a single point of access. The gateway will therefore use innovative collaboration and communications technologies to help staff get more out of existing applications using familiar tools and extending the value of investment made in existing learning environment technologies. The aim of the research was partly answered by using project based scenarios which gave some staff a new insight into the use of ICT. However, those involved in projects were generally the more pro-active teachers. A slightly different approach is needed and College Management has been advised to explore the use of an interactive college intranet and a dedicated eLearning team as a possible way forward.

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abstract: ABSTRACT This study details the pilot of a collaborative peer-coaching model as a form of job embedded professional development, to guide teacher collaboration and planning based on benchmark assessments. The collaborative peer-coaching framework used (including reflection and collaboration about student data, and classroom instruction) was informed by the five propositions outlined by the National Board of Professional Teacher Standards (NBPTS). This intervention included teacher training, discussion (pre and post instruction), collaboration about student benchmark data, and classroom observations with further data collected through surveys and interviews. Using a mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis, I focused on how participants engaged in a collaborative peer-coaching model to guide their instruction based on the use of student data they collected from common benchmark assessments. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2011