Wen, Yun

In this paper, we articulate a framework (called AppleTree) for assessing collaborative argumentation with the purpose of evaluating and empowering the development of argumentation skills, collaboration skills and content knowledge in school learning. The framework is motivated by the need to achieve “learning to argue” and “arguing to learn” and the necessity to embed on-going and automated formative assessments for collaborative learning as reflected in existing literature. It builds on existing systems for collaborative argumentation and automated assessment of collaborative learning to achieve assessment for learning and to realize it in authentic classroom environments. We illustrate the framework by instantiating it in the conceptual design of one such system for use in schools.

This panel discussion explores the theory-informed utilization of smart technologies in language learning, focusing on contextualized, authentic, and communicative approaches. Integrating advanced smart technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, learning analytics, and robotics into language education offers new avenues for enhancing learner engagement and outcomes. Panelists will present and discuss studies involving various pedagogical strategies that align with contemporary language learning theories. Case studies and research findings will illustrate effective smart technology integration in language classrooms and beyond, addressing practical considerations, challenges, and strategies for leveraging these tools to support second language acquisition and other language learning contexts. The panel aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how to harness smart technologies to create engaging, effective, and theory-aligned language learning experiences, contributing to the academic discourse on the transformative potential of these tools in fostering meaningful language education.

Understanding technology from the perspective of the scaffolding can help us bridge the gap between abstract or general CSCL design principles and the design and enactment of concrete CSCL practices. This study addresses this issue by describing and discussing how we use GroupScribbles (GS) technology coupled with appropriate pedagogical graphic organizers to scaffold effective collaborative learning in the context of L2 students’ vocabulary learning in Singapore classrooms. It is found that the GS technology and pedagogical graphic organizers can jointly scaffold students’ collaborative vocabulary learning to achieve desired learning outcomes. When equipped with graphic organizers to help students plan and organize their problem solving, GS is transformed from a general tool for enabling seamless interactions to a scaffolded software tool integrated with pedagogical design for supporting specific learning, by problematizing important disciplinary content.

This case study investigates the appropriation of a representational tool by students in small groups in the context of collaborative writing and the teacher orchestration in a dual-interaction (both face-to-face and online) environment. The study aims to unravel and discover how different small groups evolve alternative approaches to appropriating online technology in classrooms, and during the process, what role the teacher can play to orchestrate multiactivities for productive interactions.

This study is situated in a real second language (L2) learning classroom setting equipped with a generic representational tool—Group Scribbles—that enables collaborative generation, collection, and aggregation of ideas in multimodal interactions. The notion of representational tools is emphasized to distinguish them from other computer-mediated communication tools for dialogical communication or threaded discussion. The study focuses on analyzing and modelling interactions in which technology-mediated learning takes place. Both statistical analysis and qualitative microanalysis of interaction are addressed to provide a more comprehensive analytical region to examine the interactions that occurred naturally. Underlying the rationale of mutual shaping of participants and technical devices, the study contextually examined and reinterpreted the dynamic interplay between small groups of students, teacher, and medium, and their holistic effect in L2 learning.

Two key findings are generated from the study. First, the functions of inscriptional devices in L2 classroom learning are identified: (1) referencing, (2) pinpointing, (3) accumulating, (4) prompting notice, (5) realizing parallels, and (6) promoting synergy. Second, teachers are suggested to play a dual role as both facilitator and collaborator to monitor and adjust all groups’ work processes and even join in small-group work by providing improvised scaffoldings. The case study does not aim at predicting that all the identified functions will be played out in all the representational tool-supported L2 learning contexts but rather suggests that teachers and researchers should create conditions for enabling the inscriptional device to facilitate more productive group understanding development. A series of principles for teacher orchestration in networked L2 learning are distilled. These principles are not antagonistic with some traditional instructional principles or strategies, such as making learning objectives explicit, holding the attention of the students, or controlling time strictly. Teachers are recommended to monitor small-group progresses by drawing upon group inscriptions throughout the lesson. In the context of L2 learning, teachers are suggested to detect and assist students to in-situ solve language-related problems that emerge in their language use, though they are suggested not to offer ready-made solutions for students in science or mathematics classes.

The study explores the beneficial affordances of the representational tool that supplement face-to-face communication for both learning and teaching in L2 learning classrooms and, thus, provides insights to task/script design and enactment of collaborative L2 learning in networked classroom environments where face-to-face and online interactions are intertwined. Methodologically, this study is sympathetic to calls from computer-supported collaborative learning researchers who are concerned with classroom learning and multimedia/multimodal interactions. It provides a workable approach to exploring how small-group interactions interweaving social and cognitive dimensions take place in networked classroom environments.

The logographic nature of Chinese script is a major dissuading factor for learning handwriting. The challenge is the complex psycholinguistic process behind handwriting. Thus, we developed AI-Strokes, a Chinese handwriting learning tool that assists teachers in facilitating students’ handwriting practice in various modalities, and provides personalized feedback for the students. By leveraging a trainable Machine Learning back-end framework, the tool diagnoses and scores students’ handwriting errors. This paper reports a pilot study in a Singapore primary school with an early prototype of AI-Strokes. Two classes of students went through AI-Strokes-based Chinese handwriting lessons (the experimental group) and conventional lessons (the control group) respectively. Pre- and post-tests were administered, and their handwriting processes were analyzed regarding errors in stroke orders, extra/missing strokes, and errors in stroke directions. The results show that the experimental group has yielded significantly better learning gains than the control group. It is posited that the personalized feedback of AI-Strokes has formed a feedback loop to support students’ trial-and-error process in improving their handwriting skills. The multimodal handwriting task design may have also fostered their orthographic awareness through the activation of alternative psycholinguistic pathways during their handwriting lessons.

Little research has examined second language (L2) learning from a Knowledge Building (KB) perspective. Most KB research is conducted in the context of science or mathematics learning which focuses on idea development and refinement. This paper proposes to investigate students' L2 learning using a KB approach, drawing upon our school-based research work which examines how L2 students learn and practice language skills through a Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) tool called GroupScribbles. We hope to develop a theoretical framework with empirical evidence from a real classroom context to explore how KB unfolds in L2 learning.

Online discourse is widely used in diverse contexts of learning and professional training, but superficial interactions and digression often occur. In the face of these problems and the large-scale unstructured text data, the traditional way of learning analytics has been challenged in terms of providing timely intervention and feedback. In this paper, a workflow for automatically detecting in-service teachers’ cognitive engagement in an online professional learning community is described. Discourse data of 1834 in-service teachers involved in a teacher professional development program was collected and processed using the Word2vec toolkit to generate lexical vectors. The method of vector space projection was used to calculate the new information contained in each post, cosine similarity was used to calculate topic relevance, and cluster analysis was used to explore in-service teachers’ discourse characteristics. Results showed that in-service teachers’ average contribution was 4.59 posts and the average length of each post was 39.47 characters in Chinese. In the mathematics online professional learning community, the average amount of new information contained in each post was 0.221 and in-service teachers’ posts contained much new information in the early stages of online discourse. Most in-service teachers’ posts were relevant to the discussion topic. Cluster analysis showed three different groups of posts with unique characteristics: high topic relevance with much new information, high topic relevance with little new information, and low topic relevance with little new information. Finally, limitations are discussed and future research directions are proposed.

Despite the potential advantages of using Augmented Reality (AR) in education, most of the existing AR studies have failed to analyse the impact of pedagogical approaches as well as the pedagogical strategies of implementing AR in teaching and learning. An inquiry based learning framework, coined QIMS, was proposed in this study by considering AR affordances. Through a quasi-experimental design, this study compared three conditions for science learning in a primary school. Results indicated that though students did not demonstrate statistically significant improvement in their academic performance when AR was used, students’ self-directed learning and creative thinking skills did significantly improve via experiencing the QIMS inquiry-based learning activities. The use of AR played a more significant role in enhancing students’ critical thinking and knowledge creation efficacy. Integrating QIMS and AR was more effective for students with lower abilities. The study provided suggestions on how to integrate AR with inquiry-based learning in science learning.