Looking at computer support for collaborative learning (CSCL) in terms of (a) collaborative knowledge building, (b) group and personal perspectives, (c) mediation by artifacts and (d) micro-analysis of conversation provides a rich, multi-dimensional starting point for conceptualizing and studying CSCL. The notion of collaborative knowledge building defines a useful paradigm for conceptualizing learning as social practice. The social interactions and knowledge management activities in which shared knowledge is constructed can be analyzed as the result of interweaving group and personal conversational perspectives. In general, collaborative interaction is mediated by artifacts: sometimes only by transitory artifacts like spoken words or gestures, but increasingly by physical or digital artifacts and media. Empirical studies of collaborative knowledge building employing micro-ethnographic analysis of speech, gesture, artifacts and media can make the details of these collaboration interactions visible, highlighting the interplay of perspectives and artifacts in the trans-personal construction of knowledge. A theoretical framework incorporating models of knowledge building, perspectives and artifacts – and grounded in empirical analysis of collaborative interaction – can guide the design of computer-based artifacts and media as support for collaborative learning with appropriate, elaborated and unified conceptualizations.

An approach to information visualization based on algebraic semiotics is introduced, and illustrated with examples. Semiotics is the general theory of signs, and algebraic semiotics is a new approach combining algebraic abstract data type theory with a grounding in social reality. The most important new ideas are to use semiotic spaces for systems of related signs, semiotic morphisms for representations of signs, and preservation orderings for the quality of representations.

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Clarification requests are an important, relatively common and yet under-studied dialogue device allowing a user to ask about some feature (e.g. the meaning or form) of an utterance, or part thereof. They can take many different forms (often highly elliptical) and can have many different meanings (requesting various types of information). This thesis combines empirical, theoretical and implementational work to provide a study of the various types of clarification request that exist, give a theoretical analysis thereof, and show how the results can be applied to add useful capabilities to a prototype computational dialogue system. A series

cognition in computer-assisted

More than we realize it, knowledge is often constructed through interactions among people in small groups. The Internet, by allowing people to communicate globally in limitless combinations, has opened enormous opportunities for the creation of knowledge and understanding. A major barrier today is the poverty of adequate groupware. To design more powerful software that can facilitate the building of collaborative knowledge, we need to better understand the nature of group cognition — the processes whereby ideas are developed by small groups. We need to analyze interaction at both the individual and the group unit of analysis in order to understand the variety of processes that groupware should be supporting. This paper will look closely at an empirical example of an online group problem-solving experience and suggest implications for groupware design.

In light of recent attempts to design location-based mobile services, we present findings from a study of the ways in which positioning is done in everyday talk over the mobile phone. We show that a location is more than a coordinate on a map, and give examples of how people formulate location in a number of different ways according to the particulars of the activity. Based on these findings, we argue that rather than delivering location information in the form of geographical coordinates, location-based services should describe location in ways relevant to the users, thereby supporting the existing positioning practice.

Academic conferences provide a social space for people to present their work, learn about others ’ work, and interact informally with one another. However, opportunities for interaction are unevenly distributed among the attendees. We seek to extend these opportunities by allowing attendees to easily reveal something about their background and interests in different settings through the use of proactive displays: computer displays coupled with sensors that can sense and respond to the people nearby. We designed, implemented and deployed a suite of proactive display applications at a recent academic conference: AutoSpeakerID augmented formal conference paper sessions; Ticket2Talk augmented informal coffee breaks. A mixture of qualitative observation and survey response data are used to frame the impacts of these applications from both individual and group perspectives, highlighting the creation of new opportunities for both interaction and distraction. We end with a discussion of how these social space augmentations relate to the concepts of focus and nimbus as well as the problem of shared interaction models.

Abstract. CSCL faces the challenge of not only designing educational technologies and interventions, but of inventing analytic methodologies and theoretical frameworks appropriate to the unique character of collaborative learning as an interactional group accomplishment. This paper argues that thinking in CSCL settings should be primarily analyzed at the small-group unit of analysis, where contributions coming from individual interpretive perspectives are interwoven into group cognition. The collaborative discourse is the agent of knowledge building that requires computer support and curriculum design. Groups can think; with the help of CSCL in the next decade, they may be able to overcome the limitations of the individual mind.

Studies have previously shown that young people are more expressive in their use of technology than the adult user. Therefore, it is essential to use a different approach when designing for this age. This paper explores how methods from social science, Ethnomethodology and Conversation analysis, can be used to inform the design of new information technology for young people. Ethnomethodology and Conversation analysis, in taking members' own accounts into consideration, provide insight into how teenagers go about producing social order: what is it that they do in order to be teenagers. We identify three categories of mobile phone use, and discuss methods suitable to study these different categories. Keywords: conversation analysis, ethnomethodology, ethnography, mobile phones, teenagers. 1. Introduction "Two Nokia phones were out walking, and then one of them got run over by a steamroller and got all squashed, and the other said -- `come on Ericsson, let's go'." Mogge, 13-yearold mobil...