Collaborative Learning at CSCL 2013

Abstract

In Madison, Wisconsin, USA, with its Northern European heritage, collaborative learning is fueled by brats and beer. At the international CSCL conference in June, there were many formal and informal opportunities to build knowledge about our field with colleagues from around the world while sipping drinks on the shores of the sunny lakes, along the vibrant college-town avenues, or in the university halls. The intense week of interaction began—at least for some—with a daylong retreat of the ISLS Board. Discussion focused on plans for increasing the impact of the CSCL and Learning Sciences research community globally. A more interactive website is imminent and increased outreach to communities that are just discovering CSCL is planned. Efforts to increase access to the contents of the journals—ijCSCL and JLS—as well as conference papers and the CSCL book series are underway. The pre-conference began the next day with a variety of well-attended workshops. One was on interactional resources spanning multiple levels of analysis in CSCL settings—as discussed in the three preceding issues of ijCSCL. Another of especially general interest was a workshop on creating a cyber-infrastructure that can support engagement by multiple researchers in working toward answers to important theory-driven research questions for design-based research. As always, the doctoral consortium and early career workshops were valuable for the many mentors as well as the participants. The following day began with half-day workshops. We three attended one that seemed particularly promising for the field of CSCL. The international PISA test—which rates student math, science, and reading skills in over 70 countries around the world—is planning to introduce measures of collaborative problem-solving skills in 2015. This could mean that students, parents, teachers, schools, and policy makers in many countries will urgently want to know about collaborative learning. In fact, the test will be computer supported, having students tested through interacting with a computer system. This workshop was the first time Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (2013) 8:267–269 DOI 10.1007/s11412-013-9179-y