Rooms, Protocols, and Nets: Metaphors for Computer Supported Cooperative Learning of Distributed Groups

We discuss an integrative design for computer supported cooperative learning (CSCL) environments. Three common problems of CSCL are addressed: How to achieve social orientation and group awareness, how to coordinate goal-directed interaction, and how to construct a shared knowledge base. With respect to each problem, we propose a guiding metaphor which links theoretical, technical, and usability requirements. If appropriately implemented, each metaphor resolves one problem: Virtual rooms support social orientation, learning protocols guide interactions aimed at knowledge acquisition, and learning nets represent socially shared knowledge. Theoretically, the metaphor of virtual rooms originates in work on virtual spaces in human computer interaction, learning protocols are related to speech act theory, and learning nets are based on models of knowledge representation. A prototype system implementing the virtual room metaphor is presented. We argue that by further integrating these three metaphors a cognitively and educationally sound CSCLenvironment can be achieved.