A Model of Collaborative Learning Scripts Instantiated with Mobile Technologies

Approaches To Cscl Scripts

We first clarify how our scripts differ from our colleagues’ work. Researchers in CSCL have developed micro-scripts and macro-scripts. On the one hand, a script may scaffold argumentation by prompting these interactions. i.e. by encouraging specific utterances. For instance, some scripts display scaffolds such as “Please provide counter-evidence to your partner’s statement” (Weinberger, Fischer & Mandl, 2002). On the other hand, the ArgueGraph script (see below) induces argumentation by forming pairs of students with conflicting opinions. The first approach constitutes a conversational script, also called a micro-script, while the second approach, which sequences learning activities, is referred to as a macro-script (Dillenbourg & Jermann, 2007). Micro-scripts constitute the objective of the learning session - the students are expected to internalize a model of well-formed argumentation - while macro-scripts are pedagogical methods, to be acted and forgotten. Micro-scripts reflect a cognitive psychology approach: they zoom in on the collaborative processes. Macro-scripts rather reflect an educational science perspective: they are applied for designing learning activities in real educational contexts. This contribution focuses on macro-scripts. We illustrate our approach with two examples of macro-scripts that are briefly described below. A longer description can be found in Dillenbourg & Jermann (2007) and Dillenbourg & Hong (2008). We then describe the underlying pedagogical model, which can be applied to design many new scripts.

The first example of a script, ArgueGraph (Jermann & Dillenbourg, 1999), aims at triggering argumentation between pair members. It includes 5 phases.