VMTWiki: ResearchDay06

[Announcement] - [Proposal Submission] - [Floor Map]

 Abstracts (Maximum 250 words) due:   Monday Midnight April 3rd,  2006 
 Presentation:  Tuesday, April 25, 2005; 11am-3pm (Daskalakis Athletic Center)
 Poster Board Dimensions: 4 ft. (height) x 8 ft. (width)
 IST will cover the cost of Research Day posters, posters must be completed by Tuesday, April 18th
 Contact the Drexel Copy shop in advance for scheduling. Contact Marie Fazio for the account information. 
 IST Research Poster Gallery on Thursday, April 20th from 4-5:30 pm at the Paul Peck Center

Categories:

Creative Arts/Design (e.g. live performances) 
Basic - Applied Science 
Advances In Clinical Practice
Humanities 
**Innovation In Education and Outreach**
**Emerging Technology**
Business Research Initiatives

Criteria for Evaluation:

Presenter Discussion: How well was the presenter able to discuss the rationale, purpose,  Conclusions and significance?
Presenter Involvement in Project: How much of the work was actually performed by the presenter?
Content: Originality and significance
Visual Presentation: Clarity, organization and visual appeal

Things to include in the poster:

Rationale - Purpose: Why do this? What for?
Methods - Activities: What did you do? How did you do it? 
Findings - Conclusions:  What did you find? 
Significance - Next Steps: So What?  What next?

: Posters:

Virtual Math Teams: Understanding and supporting collaborative problem solving over time

: Presenters: Johann, Wes

: The Virtual Math Teams (VMT) project is an NSF-funded research program through which researchers at the College of Information Science and Technology (IST) and the Math Forum investigate the innovative use of online collaborative environments to support effective K-12 mathematics learning. A key research issue in this program is to understand how mathematical team problem-solving evolves over time and how sustained engagement in problem solving can be supported effectively. This pilot study reports on findings from data collected from five small teams of K-12 students distributed across the U.S. who worked on an open-ended mathematical task during a series of four online sessions. Transcripts of the online interactions and records of their artifacts are analyzed to identify the local and longitudinal dynamics of their "joint problem space". Preliminary findings point to a range of “bridging” methods through which team members, mentors, and other participants construct mathematical knowledge over time, evolve their sense of team and online community, and interlink the online environment with other interaction spaces, offline (e.g. school, classroom) and online. These findings contribute to our knowledge of how to design system supports and activities for the longitudinal development of teams and online communities.
: (195 words)

: [Poster Draft]
: [Poster (pdf)]

Virtual Math Teams: Information Behavior of Online Small Groups

: Presenters: Nan, Gerry

The Virtual Math Teams (VMT) project is an NSF-funded research program in which researchers at the College of Information Science and Technology (IST) and the Math Forum investigate the innovative use of online collaborative environments to support effective K-12 mathematics discourse. As part of the VMT project, this study aims to investigate the occurrence and nature of students’ information behavior when they collaborate in small groups to solve mathematical problems within synchronous Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments. Learners in CSCL environments exhibit distinctive patterns in their information needs, information seeking, and information use. Their information behavior is shaped by the ways in which learning is achieved through the co-construction of knowledge in computer-mediated collaboration. To capture and understand students’ information behavior, we analyze transcripts of student interactions during collaboration sessions. Preliminary findings are reported that include:

: 1)Analysis of processes of student information behavior;
: 2)Description of the resources students employ to seek information;
: 3)A compilation of categories of student information needs;
: 4)A study of how successfully information needs in different categories are met.

: By studying student information behavior in VMT, implications can be drawn for improving the design of learning environments, such as designing scaffolding and digital resources to facilitate collaborative learning.

: (205 words)
: [Poster Draft]
: [Poster (pdf)]

Virtual Math Teams: Methods of Negotiation in Online Collaborative Mathematics Problem-Solving

: ID: 539

: Presenter: Ramon Toledo, Alan Zemel

: The Virtual Math Teams (VMT) project is an NSF-funded research program through which researchers at the College of Information Science and Technology (IST) and the Math Forum investigate the innovative use of online collaborative environments to support effective K-12 mathematics learning.

: Negotiation is an indispensable element in collaboration, especially in the resolution of situations whose complexity is such that understanding them is enhanced by multiple perspectives made possible through collaboration. Some mathematics problems which are described as ‘ill-structured’ because they admit of several possible interpretations and multiple solutions, are candidates for collaborative problem-solving. Negotiation is necessary to make this collaborative approach possible, inasmuch as sense- and meaning-making associated with this particular approach to problem-solving has for its distinctive characteristic, the dynamics of a group rather than the jig-saw style of cooperating individuals.

: A research methodology based on conversation analysis is used to identify how negotiation is conducted in online mathematics problem-solving by locating its methods as negotiation is initiated, processed and concluded. Initial findings show:

how changes in the tempo of turn-taking indicate shifts in the conduct of problem-solving,
how repetition and ‘forced conclusions’ are used to negotiate a choice among several problems at hand,
how intervals and transitions are used by participants to indicate preferred responses and responders,
how referencing tools impact negotiation.

: Findings from this research can assist in the design of CSCL environments, especially in the transformation of generic communication applications to collaborative technology.

: (241 words)
: [Poster (pdf)]

Virtual Math Teams: How small groups create and use mathematical objects to do joint problem solving in chat

: Presenter: Murat, Steve

: The Virtual Math Teams (VMT) project is an NSF-funded research program through which researchers at the College of Information Science and Technology (IST) and the Math Forum investigate the innovative use of online collaborative environments to support effective K-12 mathematics learning. One of the main concerns of the VMT project is to study how small groups are engaged in math problem solving through synchronous communication tools (e.g. chat, shared whiteboard). During our experimental sessions we observed that groups bring various mathematical objects (e.g. shared representations of relevant math concepts and concerns) into discussion via available interactive tools to address their common task. This study will focus on how these math objects are organized and related to each other by the participants through their actions on the interface as they are co-constructing a solution to their problem. In particular this study will focus on:

How math objects mentioned in the problem statement are brought into discussion.
How new math objects are offered and made relevant to the objects suggested by the problem definition.
How proposed objects are taken up and assessed by other members.
How math objects are organized and linked together to co-construct solution accounts.

: The main goal of the study is to get insights about different ways math activities are coordinated and conducted by the participants in the VMT-Chat environment. Based on this exploratory structural analysis, portraits of student interaction will be documented. Finally, requirements for further software support for small groups will be investigated.
: (250 words)

: [Poster (pdf)]

Title

Presenters:
Abstract
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