ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

Problems in Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning is not “divide and conquer”, but as Dillenbourg, et al. (1996, cited in Chew & Seah, 2005) put it, it requires collaborators to engage in “cognitive processes that may be (heterarchically) divided into intertwined layers”.

Johnson and Johnson (1991a; cited in Kreijns, Kirschner & Jochems, 2002) studied collaboration in face-to-face groups and observed that just placing students in groups and assigning them a learning task does not in itself promote cooperation between and among group members.

Likewise, Kreijns, et al. (2002) noted two major pitfalls that impede the achievement of desired social interaction in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments:

• The tendency to assume that social interaction will occur just because the environment makes it possible.
• The tendency to forget the social-psychological/social dimension of social interaction that is salient in various levels of non-task contexts (i.e. off-task interactions, such as CM3C – communication, coordination, collaboration).

There is also a “tendency for information overload”: For example, Palloff and Pratt (2001; cited in Chew & Seah, 2005) observed from experiences that some participants send frequent online contributions or messages of incredible length, causing students to lose interest both in keeping up with the volume and in the task itself: “a typical reaction to overload is to retreat”. Chew & Seah (2005) also reported this problem especially where the group is too large, “Sometimes the messages are even repetitive or irrelevant, causing much frustration.” They noted that the other members are likely to be discouraged from contributing because “everything that needed to be said has already been said; thus giving the impression that some contribute a lot more than others, unconsciously creating an environment of anxiety and competition.”

Although Davies’ (2004) wiki experiment failed, the panel of experts behind the study includes key wiki players such as Adina Levin (Socialtext founding member), Sunir Shah (Meatball Wiki founder) and Denham Grey (KmWiki founder). Together, they highlighted a number of important social psychological factors in group learning (re-organized below) which explain why ”experiences with collaborative learning using IT have not always been positive” (Hathorn & Ingram, 2002; cited in Lim, 2005). Briefly, in the mere presence of others, people could experience: