Gerry Stahl

Rational thinking as exemplified in mathematical cognition is immensely important in the modern world. This book documents how a group of three eighth-grade girls developed specific group practices typical of such thinking in an online educational experience. A longitudinal case study tracks the team through eight hour-long sessions, following the students' meaning-making processes through their mutual chat responses preserved in computer logs coordinated with their geometric actions. The examination of data focuses on key areas of the team's development: its effective team collaboration, its productive mathematical discourse, its enacted use of dynamic-geometry tools, and its ability to identify and construct dynamic-geometry dependencies. This detailed study of group cognition serves as a paradigmatic example of computer-supported collaborative learning, incorporating a unique model of human-computer interaction analysis applied to the use of innovative educational technology. A valuable resource for researchers, instructors, and students alike, it offers concrete suggestions for improving educational practice.

The investigations within this volume comprise a selection of seminal and influential articles and critical commentaries that contribute to an understanding of concepts and themes central to the field of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, as well as reflections on past and potential achievements of the field. They include 12 important theoretical articles from the international CSCL journal that expand our understanding of social cognition. They also include 11 recent essays by the editor, documenting theoretical conceptualizations and exemplary instances of collaborative learning. The volume begins with two new reflections on the vision and theory that result from this research.

This was my doctoral dissertation in computer science at the University of Colorado. It was entitled: "Interpretation in Design: The Problem of Tacit and Explicit Understanding in Computer Support of Cooperative Design" and was defended on August 5, 1993. The dissertation explored the implications of the theory of tacit knowledge for the problem of computer capture of design rationale. It discussed a software system for design by teams of NASA designers. The computer environment captured design ideas in a flexible system of professional perspectives. This research led to explorations after graduation in prototyping collaboration software incorporating mechanisms to support perspectives and negotiation.

This volume includes analyses of student teams using the VMT environment with multi-user GeoGebra. These studies are related to the presentations in "Translating Euclid" and "Constructing Dynamic Triangles Together." These essays document the most recent stage of the Virtual Math Teams Project.

These are case studies of student teams using VMT to work on problems in the mathematical domain of combinatorics. The version of VMT used here included a generic whiteboard for sketching graphical representations. Data from these sessions was analyzed by a number of researchers in addition to the VMT project members.The essays in this volume were co-authored with close colleagues.

This introduction to Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning by Gerry Stahl, Tim Koschmann and Dan Suthers is perhaps the most cited paper in CSCL. An updated version from 2020 is included here. It is accompanied by translations of the original version into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Romanian and German.

This doctoral dissertation in philosophy at Northwestern University considers the two most important philosophers of the modern age. I conducted my research during three years in Germany: at Heidelberg, where Heidegger's work was continued, and at Frankfurt, where critical theory extended Marx' thinking. In recent years, I have applied conceptual and methodological perspectives from Marx and Heidegger to the theory of CSCL. In particular, Marx countered the ideology of individualism by analyzing social structures and interpersonal interactions at different units of analysis than the individual person. Heidegger also questioned the traditional ontology of natural objects with innate attributes by proposing dynamic interactive processes of beings in their ecological context.Today, the philosophies of Marx and Heidegger are still extremely relevant-provided one adapts them to the current socio-historical context and adjusts each to the implicit criticisms of the other.

Here is a diverse collection of writings, starting with my undergraduate thesis on Nietzsche. As an undergraduate, I realized that I did not know how to write and I began by experimenting with assembling quotes from the materials I was discussing. After studying German philosophy from Hegel and Marx to Heidegger and Adorno, my writing became excessively complex, trying to capture German syntax in English sentences. Then, during my community organizing days, I learned to write more clearly. This volume reflects those stylistic changes as well as playing with some ideas that are later woven into more academic presentations. This volume includes a wide-ranging diversity of writings on philosophy, aesthetics, politics, technology and history.

These essays are some of the most important papers co-written with my colleagues that supplement the discussion of CSCL research in the published books. These chapters take the discussion in specific directions. They begin with my general reflections on the importance of CSCL as a research field, situating my work on the VMT Project and my theory of group cognition within the field of CSCL. They describe the VMT research project, including its research approach, technology, pedagogy and analysis methods. Mostly, they discuss in some detail the findings that have emerged from the VMT Project about the nature of online interaction in that type of CSCL setting. The volume concludes with reports of work in the project and future directions that were underway.

This volume includes analyses of student teams using the VMT environment with multi-user GeoGebra. These studies are related to the presentations in "Translating Euclid" and "Constructing Dynamic Triangles Together." These essays document the most recent stage of the Virtual Math Teams Project.

Essays in Group-Cognitive Science, intros to CSCL research, methodology and findings. Vol 10 of Gerry Stahl's assembled texts.

The idea of personalizable software is fashionable today. I explored it in a number of software prototypes a decade or two earlier. The perspectives mechanism in Hermes, my dissertation software system, was an initial major initiative in this direction. WebNet was a follow-up system to integrate the perspective mechanism into discussion-forum collaboration software. Subsequent systems explored personalization mechanisms in systems for work and for learning, including TCA for teachers developing and sharing curriculum and systems for automated critics in design systems or reviewers of journal articles. In each case, the mechanisms were intended to support users to view and discuss materials from their personal perspectives and to share those views with others to encourage building group perspectives. The volume is organized in terms of essays on (a) structured hypermedia, (b) personalizable software, (c) software perspectives and (d) applications to health care, education and publishing.

Math games and workbooks with topics for online small groups of teachers or students to collaboratively learn dynamic geometry. The approach is based on "Translating Euclid." The many GeoGebra files used in VMT courses are pictured in the workbook. Several versions of the workbooks are available, including the version used in WinterFest 2013 and analyzed in "Translating Euclid" and "Constructing Dynamic Triangles Together." Also includes the content of a game version that is available as a GeoGebraBook.

The volume includes essays that address the philosophical issues raised in computer support of collaborative learning and by the concept of group cognition. In particular, philosophy of group cognition should tackle the following questions: * What is the nature of group cognition? * What are the conditions of possibility for the existence of group cognition?The essays explore intersubjectivity, joint attention, common ground, collaborative learning and related concepts through analysis of empirical examples and review of the most important philosophic sources.

These are case studies of student teams using VMT to work on problems in the mathematical domain of combinatorics. The version of VMT used here included a generic whiteboard for sketching graphical representations. Data from these sessions was analyzed by a number of researchers in addition to the VMT project members.The essays in this volume were co-authored with close colleagues.

This was my doctoral dissertation in computer science at the University of Colorado. It was entitled: "Interpretation in Design: The Problem of Tacit and Explicit Understanding in Computer Support of Cooperative Design" and was defended on August 5, 1993. The dissertation explored the implications of the theory of tacit knowledge for the problem of computer capture of design rationale. It discussed a software system for design by teams of NASA designers. The computer environment captured design ideas in a flexible system of professional perspectives. This research led to explorations after graduation in prototyping collaboration software incorporating mechanisms to support perspectives and negotiation.

As Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning from its founding in 2006 to my retirement from that position at the end of 2015, I drafted an editorial introduction to each quarterly issue. This provided a venue for me to comment on the importance of each published article (from my perspective) and sometimes to offer my ideas or reflections on the field of CSCL or one of its central issues. The 39 introductions included here provide a glimpse into the evolution of the CSCL field during a key decade of its history, as it became internationally established with conferences around the world and with this journal.

The current volume is intended to provide an overview of the eLibrary and some documentation of my life as the author of these texts.