CRII: Cyberlearning: Connecting Web Annotations and Progressive Online Discourse in Science Classrooms

研究人员、教师和课程专家不断寻求改善学校科学的方法。中区填海工程旨在通过与公众科学话语的更深层次联系，使学校科学与现实世界科学更紧密地结合起来。PI和他的团队将利用最近的开放网络技术建立一个平台，通过更广泛的网络空间转变课堂上的科学参与。有了这个平台提供的各种理论驱动的支持，学生们将共同努力，在基于知识构建模型的开放网络上建立科学理解。该项目将产生设计创新，使学生能够：浏览复杂的网络空间，并共同理解现实世界的问题；处理学校围墙外复杂的科学思想景观；并且，参与复杂的科学实践，这与现实世界的实验室没有什么不同。本项目将有助于国家科学基金2014-2018年战略计划中所强调的培养合格的科学劳动力和科学素养公民的目标。在项目期间，PI还将参与教师专业发展活动，组织设计和研究研讨会，并指导来自不同背景的新兴学者。遵循基于设计的研究方法，该项目将开发一个技术原型，即开放网络上的进步话语（ProDow），通过协作社会注释将现有知识构建环境中的话语与开放网络连接起来。这项工作基于几十年来对渐进式知识构建话语、对学生如何学习科学的理解以及最新网络技术的研究。研究目标包括：(a)确定ProDow的设计原则和软件架构；(b)探索学生使用ProDow进行循序渐进的科学知识建构话语；(c)确定ProDow是否能够支持科学学习，以及在什么条件下能够支持科学学习。通过科学课堂的设计探究和实证调查，本项目将通过提供支持协作学习的新手段，为网络学习研究做出贡献。通过与教师和研究人员的一系列参与式设计研讨会，将开发设计解决方案和功能原型。实证调查将在明尼阿波利斯一所高中的科学课堂上进行，该高中的学生来自不同种族和经济背景。将收集课堂观察、访谈和系统日志，以调查学生如何利用社会注释来维持他们的科学论述。本项目将产生三个主要研究成果：(a)将社会注释融入科学课堂小组知识构建的设计原则；(b)高中生在渐进式科学探究中使用社会注释的经验知识；(c)创造一个新的技术原型，ProDow，它体现了本调查的设计原则和实证结果。

Researchers, teachers, and curriculum experts continually seek ways to improve school science. This CRII project aims to bring school science into closer alignment with real-world science through deeper connections to public scientific discourse. The PI and his team will harness recent Open Web technologies to build a platform to transform scientific engagement in classrooms with the broader cyberspace. With various theory-driven supports provided by this platform, students will work collectively to build scientific understanding on the Open Web based upon a model of knowledge building. The project will produce design innovations that enable students to: navigate complex Web spaces and make sense of real-world problems collaboratively; deal with complex scientific idea landscapes beyond school walls; and, engage in sophisticated scientific practices not unlike those of real-world laboratories. This project will contribute to the goal of preparing a competent science workforce and a scientifically literate citizenry as emphasized in the NSF Strategic Plan 2014-2018. During the project, the PI will also contribute to teacher professional development activities, organize design and research workshops, and mentor emerging scholars from diverse backgrounds.Following a design-based research approach, this project will develop a technology prototype, Progressive Discourse on the Open Web (ProDow), to bridge discourse in an existing knowledge-building environment and the Open Web through collaborative social annotations. This work is grounded in decades of research on progressive knowledge-building discourse, understanding of how students learn science, and the latest Web technologies. The research objectives include: (a) identifying design principles and software architecture for ProDow; (b) exploring student use of ProDow for progressive knowledge-building discourse in science; and (c) determining whether, and under what conditions ProDow can support science learning. Through design inquiry and empirical investigations in science classrooms, this project will contribute to cyberlearning research by providing new means to support collaborative learning. Through a series of participatory design workshops with teachers and researchers, design solutions and functioning prototypes will be developed. Empirical investigations will take place in science classrooms in a high school with an ethnically and economically diverse student body in Minneapolis. Classroom observations, interviews, and system logs will be collected to investigate how students leverage social annotations to sustain their scientific discourse. This project will lead to three major research outcomes: (a) design principles for integrating social annotations into group knowledge building in science classrooms; (b) empirical knowledge of high-school students' use of social annotations in progressive scientific inquiry; and (c) the creation of a new technology prototype, ProDow, that embodies the design principles and empirical findings of this investigation.