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Article of Volume 1, Issue 3, September 2006

Technology affordances for intersubjective meaning making: A research agenda for CSCL

Author: Daniel D. Suthers

Abstract: Now well into its second decade, the field of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) appears healthy, encompassing a diversity of topics of study, methodologies, and representatives of various research communities. It is an appropriate time to ask: what central questions can integrate our work into a coherent field? This paper proposes the study of technology affordances for intersubjective meaning making as an integrating research agenda for CSCL. A brief survey of epistemologies of collaborative learning and forms of computer support for that learning characterize the field to be integrated and motivate the proposal. A hybrid of experimental, descriptive and design methodologies is proposed in support of this agenda. A working definition of intersubjective meaning making as joint composition of interpretations of a dynamically evolving context is provided, and used to propose a framework around which dialogue between analytic approaches can take place.

Keywords: CSCL research agenda, Intersubjective meaning making, Representational guidance, Technology affordances

Citation: Suthers, D. D. (2006) Technology affordances for intersubjective meaning making: A research agenda for CSCL. ijcscl 1 (3)

DOI: 10.1007/s11412-006-9660-y

Preprint: suthers_1_3.pdf

About this article at link.springer.com [http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11412-006-9660-y] including a link to the official electronic version.