Review by: Hasanbegovic, Jasmina (2005-04-25)

Pierre Dillenbourg introduces the script concept as a way to enhance computer-supported collaborative learning by structuring productive interactions. In particular, the author investigates the compatibility of the socio-cultural approach of collaborative learning and the approach of educational engineering. He presents a syntax for collaborative scripts and emphasises the semantics of these scripts for the transparency of the educational meaning and added value of collaborative learning. A collaboration script is a set of instructions specifying how the group members should interact, how they should collaborate, and how they should solve the problem. It is a detailed and explicit contract between the teacher and a group of students regarding their mode of collaboration.

First, the author illustrates examples of CSCL scripts like the grid script, the ArgueGraph script, the UniverSante script, and others he used in his own courses or in research projects. Second, he describes scripts as a linear sequence of phases which specify how students should collaborate and solve the problem. He introduces five attributes of a script: the task definition, the group definition, the intra- or/and intergroup distribution of input, activity, the mode of interaction, and the timing of collaborative scripts. Third, he completes the grammar of scripts by introducing the semantics and the pedagogical meaning of the scripts. The design rational reflects a hypothesis which relates the social interactions supported by the script with respect to the learning objectives. Moreover, several levels of “coercion” and the most achievable appropriation (simplicity of the script guarantees students and tutors to adopt and internalise the script) have to be emphasised as well the issue of generalisibility concerning target knowledge and adaptation to the target audience discussed. Finally, the author summarises the specification of the script features as a pre-condition to establish effective scripts but also discusses the risk of over scripting collaboration.

This book chapter can be regarded as an introduction to CSCL scripts which are a promising method for designing and developing computer-supported collaborative scenarios as well as for enhancing the dialogue between educational theory and educational engineering. For this dialogue, more research is necessary to investigate the semantic representation of scripts to avoid fake collaboration, the multidimensional approach including student-student interactions as well as student-teacher interactions, and the balance between abstraction level and domain specifity to support generalisability.