[Humans] ... are suddenly nomadic gatherers of knowledge, nomadic as never before, informed as never before, free from fragmentary specialism as never before, but also involved in the total social process as never before; since with electricity we extend our central nervous system globally, instantly interrelating every human experience @Cite(McLuhanM64a ", p. 311").
Although McLuhan was considering the media of his day, primarily television, the quote can be applied even more accurately to the capabilities of today's media. Contemporary computer-supported media offer interactivity among humans and machines. Therefore, humans can be more than gatherers of knowledge on a global scale, we can also share, explore, and construct knowledge universally. With electricity, analog and digital, over cable and phonelines, and through electromagnetic waves between microwave towers and satellites, the physical extensions of human knowledge behaviour are realized. The intellectual extensions include our interaction with information and knowledge resources through links with artificially intelligent expert systems and with naturally intelligent1 human experts and peers.
Considering these possibilities for interaction in terms of their effect on learning and education, a vision of "linked learners" can be projected. As computer and communications technologies become increasingly accessible to people in their homes, offices, community centers, schools, and other locations, the opportunities for learning and educational advancement proliferate. Linked learners will function in an environment of computer-mediated communication that encompasses the full complement of human behaviour and sensoria. Also, linking among peers may result in educational interdependencies that help form the basis for computer supported cooperative learning (CSCL)2 environments.
A theoretical model for linked learners would incorporate some contemporary themes and issues in education particularly well. Life-long learning, for example, becomes a more practical proposition in view of the ubiquitous host of computer communications facilities that comprise this projected scenario. Further, as postmodern changes in the nature of work increasingly involve the methods and technologies of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), the divisions between learning and working are reduced and transitions between the two are eased. Generally, education moves beyond the schools and is integrated with our daily lives. Or, as a line in the motto of the @i(Online Journal of Distance Education and Communication) proclaims: "In the industrial age, we go to school. In the information age, school can come to us"@Cite(OJDEC91a).
Educational computer-mediated communication, as an integral part of the linked learner environment, is a developing area of practice and research. It is in the descriptive phase of theory development and there are numerous variations in media, modes of interaction, interface design, and pedagogical factors that need to be explored. For the present study, the issue of synchronicity was investigated. Nursing students in dyads discussed a nursing case using text-based interaction (i.e., typed on a computer terminal) in two modes. In the asynchronous mode, one member of a dyad would type messages which were stored in the computer, to be read and responded to by the other member at a later point in time. In synchronous mode, the two members of the dyad exchanged messages via the computer network in real-time. Since the learning that occurs in CSCL environments is heavily dependent on verbal interaction, it was important to identify potential operative factors in the communication activity that may reveal components of a learning process. To this end, the construct "interpersonal cognitive facilitation" (ICF) is introduced in this thesis. To measure ICF, verbal elements representing cognitive and cooperative activities were identified in the content of the dyad communications. Other measures used in the comparison of synchronicity effects were based on the outcomes of the task-oriented discussions and the subjective impressions of the participants.
CSCL involves cooperative learning that includes both: groupings of learners around computers, as in conventional classroom arrangements; and groupings of learners via computer networks. The present investigation of synchronicity applies only to human-human communication via computer networks. This is reflected in the title of this thesis "computer-mediated cooperative learning" and is intended to emphasize the verbal interaction that takes place between cooperative learners who are linked through computer networks.
2Please note that a list of all abbreviations appears on page Abbreviations.
