trip. The social aspects are approached by examining the triads shared social practises and the ways in which individuals participate in the activity (Greeno, 2006). Considering the complex nature of learning, it seems justified to study collaboration in close relation to the context, since every act of communication always takes place in a specific context (Clark, 2003). Therefore, the impact of the context for learning and collaboration should be discussed as an inseparable part of the collaborative activity. Today, the number of technology-supported collaborative applications claiming and aiming to facilitate collaboration is increasingly large. To ease the educators’ selection, the suggestion was made to divide tools into the (in which software alone does not scaffold collaboration) and collaboratively usable technology collaborative (in which software is designed specifically to support collaborative knowledge construction), based on the technology instructional and pedagogical aspects of tools (Lipponen & Lallimo, 2004). In this thesis, FLE3mobile (case study I) and Wikispaces (case study III) tools for collaborative knowledge construction can be categorized as example of collaborative technology while other tools (in case studies II and III) are examples of collaboratively usable technology (see Table 3). Although only collaborative technology tools are designed to support those interactions and mechanisms that have been found beneficial to learning, these mechanisms were made explicit to learners in cases II and III in such phases of instructional design where collaboratively usable tools were used. This was done by structuring learners’ collaborative interactions with different scaffolds. Regardless of the medium, the core purpose of all collaborative environments is to create conditions in which effective group interactions are expected occur (Dillenbourg, Järvelä, & Fischer, 2009).
trip. The social aspects are approached by examining the triads shared social practises and the ways in which individuals participate in the activity (Greeno, 2006). Considering the complex nature of learning, it seems justified to study collaboration in close relation to the context, since every act of communication always takes place in a specific context (Clark, 2003). Therefore, the impact of the context for learning and collaboration should be discussed as an inseparable part of the collaborative activity. Today, the number of technology-supported collaborative applications claiming and aiming to facilitate collaboration is increasingly large. To ease the educators’ selection, the suggestion was made to divide tools into the collaboratively usable technology (in which software alone does not scaffold collaboration) and collaborative technology (in which software is designed specifically to support collaborative knowledge construction), based on the instructional and pedagogical aspects of tools (Lipponen & Lallimo, 2004). In this thesis, FLE3mobile (case study I) and Wikispaces (case study III) tools for collaborative knowledge construction can be categorized as example of collaborative technology while other tools (in case studies II and III) are examples of collaboratively usable technology (see Table 3). Although only collaborative technology tools are designed to support those interactions and mechanisms that have been found beneficial to learning, these mechanisms were made explicit to learners in cases II and III in such phases of instructional design where collaboratively usable tools were used. This was done by structuring learners’ collaborative interactions with different scaffolds. Regardless of the medium, the core purpose of all collaborative environments is to create conditions in which effective group interactions are expected occur (Dillenbourg, Järvelä, & Fischer, 2009).
word_testi-tiia.docx