an article by Ulrike Cress and Christoph Held (Knowledge Media Research Center, Tuebingen, Germany ) and Joachim Kimmerle (University of Tuebingen, Germany) published in Computers & Education Volume 60 Issue 1 (January 2013)
Abstract
Tag clouds generated in social tagging systems can capture the collective knowledge of communities.
Using as a basis spreading activation theories, information foraging theory, and the co-evolution model of cognitive and social systems, we present here a model for an extended information scent, which proposes that both collective and individual knowledge have a significant influence on link selection, incidental learning, and information processing.
Two experimental studies tested the applicability of the model to a situation in which individual knowledge and collective knowledge were contradictory to each other. The results of the first experiment showed that a higher individual strength of association between a target in demand and a tag led to a higher probability of selecting corresponding links, combined with less thorough information processing for non-corresponding links.
But users also adapted their navigation behaviour to the collective knowledge (strength of associations of tags) of the community and showed incidental learning during navigation, which resulted in a change of their individual strength of associations.
The second experiment confirmed these results and showed, in addition, that the effects also occurred for indirect associations.
Altogether, the results show that the extended information scent is an appropriate and fertile model for describing the interplay of individual knowledge and the collective knowledge of social tags.
Highlights
► We present a model for an extended information scent.
► Two experimental studies tested the applicability of the model.
► Individual knowledge influenced link selection and information processing.
► Collective knowledge had also an impact on navigation and on incidental learning.
► The effects also occurred for indirect associations.
Figures and tables from this article
Showing posts with label collaborative_learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label collaborative_learning. Show all posts
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Friday, 13 January 2012
Reviewing the need for gaming in education to accommodate the net generation
an article by by G Bekebrede, H J G Warmelink and I S Mayer published in Computers & Education Volume 57 Issue 2 (2011)
Abstract
There is a growing interest in the use of simulations and games in Dutch higher education. This development is based on the perception that students belong to the “gamer generation” or “net generation”: a generation that has grown up with computer games and other technology affecting their preferred learning styles, social interaction patterns and technology use generally.
It is often argued that in education this generation prefers active, collaborative and technology-rich learning, i.e. learning methods that involve extensive computer use and collaboration among students. Gaming is then proposed as a new teaching method which addresses these requirements.
This article presents the results of a survey which studied whether this discourse is also applicable to higher education students from the Netherlands and whether games, considered as active, collaborative and technology-rich learning experiences, are of greater importance in the formal education of today’s students.
Of 1,432 respondents from eight Dutch institutes of higher education surveyed between 2005 and 2009, about 25% fit our criteria of being a clear representative of the net generation. Furthermore, our analysis shows that there is little difference, and no statistically significant difference, in active, collaborative and technology-rich learning preferences between the representatives and non-representatives of the net generation. Furthermore, no large or statistically significant differences were found between representatives and non-representatives of the net generation with respect to the value they accorded to gaming in education.
Overall our dataset did not fit the expectations raised by the net generation theory, with the percentage of students who fit the criteria being much lower than expected. However, regardless of whether they represented the net generation or not, in general our respondents preferred collaborative and technology-rich learning and deemed games a valuable teaching method.
Abstract
There is a growing interest in the use of simulations and games in Dutch higher education. This development is based on the perception that students belong to the “gamer generation” or “net generation”: a generation that has grown up with computer games and other technology affecting their preferred learning styles, social interaction patterns and technology use generally.
It is often argued that in education this generation prefers active, collaborative and technology-rich learning, i.e. learning methods that involve extensive computer use and collaboration among students. Gaming is then proposed as a new teaching method which addresses these requirements.
This article presents the results of a survey which studied whether this discourse is also applicable to higher education students from the Netherlands and whether games, considered as active, collaborative and technology-rich learning experiences, are of greater importance in the formal education of today’s students.
Of 1,432 respondents from eight Dutch institutes of higher education surveyed between 2005 and 2009, about 25% fit our criteria of being a clear representative of the net generation. Furthermore, our analysis shows that there is little difference, and no statistically significant difference, in active, collaborative and technology-rich learning preferences between the representatives and non-representatives of the net generation. Furthermore, no large or statistically significant differences were found between representatives and non-representatives of the net generation with respect to the value they accorded to gaming in education.
Overall our dataset did not fit the expectations raised by the net generation theory, with the percentage of students who fit the criteria being much lower than expected. However, regardless of whether they represented the net generation or not, in general our respondents preferred collaborative and technology-rich learning and deemed games a valuable teaching method.
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