Exploring how primary school students function in computer supported collaborative learning

This study investigated how elementary school students cooperate to complete a shared learning task in a networked environment. A total of thirty students were organised to use a computer supported collaborative system to accomplish group tasks. The task included generating three concept maps. The collaborative system provided each member of each group with the capacity to control and modify shared concept maps. Examination of the students' textual communications showed that students would frequently manage teamwork coordination and collaborate on how to proceed with the group tasks. However, they rarely worked on processing knowledge, which should be central to the generation of concept maps. The findings of this exploratory study will not only enable us to identify the features of computer supported collaborative learning, but also provide hints on how to design or improve a collaborative system when applied in education.