Abstract: Our attempts at describing the processes involved in learning and knowledgebuilding activities depend on our ways of conceptualizing the context in which such activities take place. Here we trace the development of the concept of “problem space ” from its inception within the information-processing perspective as a characterization of individual problem-solving activity. We review reformulations and extensions made to the concept within the Learning Sciences, and explore them as attempts to better describe small-group interactions in complex knowledge-building contexts. Using a detailed analysis of sustained, online collaborative problem-solving activity, we propose that a new aspect of the problem space needs to be carefully considered in order to fully account for these kinds of experiences: temporal and sequential orientation to inter-subjective meaning making.

Abstract — We present a computational model of creative design based on collaborative interactive genetic algorithms. We test our model on floorplanning. We guide the evolution of floorplans based on subjective and objective criteria. The subjective criteria consists of designers picking the floorplan they like the best from a population of floorplans, and the objective criteria consists of coded architectural guidelines. We support collaboration by allowing individual designers to view each others ’ designs during the evolutionary process and the sharing of designs via case injection. This methodology supports team design, and reflects the view of creativity that collaboration accounts for much of our intelligence and creativity. We present a description of the model and a comparative study of floorplans created individually versus collaboratively. Our results show that floorplans created collaboratively were considered to be more “revolutionary ” and “original ” than those created individually. I.

Understanding collective creativity is crucial for advancing the general study of human creativity as well as for guiding the design of creativity support tools for small teams and larger collectivities. In this article, a qualitative case study of collective creativity online, derived from an analysis of collaborative interactions of virtual teams of students working in the field of mathematics, is presented. Group creative activity is examined broadly, ranging from the microlevel coconstruction of novel resources for team problem solving to the evolutionary reuse of ideas and solution strategies across teams. The analysis focuses on describing the relationship between the dynamics of creative work present in a single collaborative episode of an online group and their evolution across time and across collectivities. The analysis indicates that the synergy between these two types of interactions and the resulting creative engagement of the teams relies on three fundamental processes: (a) indexical referencing, (b) group remembering, and (c) bridging across discontinuities.