Cognitive technologies for establishing,sharing and comparing perspectives on video over computer networks

Abstract

The rapidly increasing presence of digital video recordings and new communication capacities on the Internet has created new possibilities for collaboration in behavioral science research. Unfortunately, digital video has so far proven to be an unnatural medium for collaborative activity due to a lack of adequate tools that support joint analysis of a shared video record. We describe seven socio-technical design challenges that face what we term computer-supported collaborative video analysis. We also describe a software environment that we have created called DIVER that was designed to address these challenges and provide a platform for the fluid exchange of video data as well as the insights that the data elicit. The affordances of DIVER for supporting collaboration around video are grounded in the descriptions of two academic contexts in which the software played a central role in the group's video-based activities. The potential of DIVER to serve as a `cognitive technology' is discussed.

Le développement accéléré des enregistrements en vidéo numérique et les nouvelles possibilités de communication offertes par l'Internet ont donné accès à de nouvelles opportunités de collaboration dans la recherche en sciences du comportement. Malheureusement, la vidéo numérique s'est montrée jusqu'à aujourd'hui un outil inhabituel dans les activités collectives en raison du manque d'outils adéquats permettant l'analyse conjointe d'un enregistrement vidéo partagé. Les auteurs décrivent ici sept défis socio-techniques pour la conception de ce qu'ils qualifient d'analyse vidéo collective assistée par ordinateur. Ils décrivent aussi l'environnement software qu'ils ont créé, le DIVER, pour relever ces défis et fournir une plate-forme permettant l'échange fluide de données vidéo et la visualisation des informations que ces données explicitent. Les `affordances' offertes par le DIVER pour faciliter la collaboration autour de vidéos sont basées sur la description de deux contextes académiques dans lesquels le software a joué un rôle central dans des activités de groupe autour de la vidéo. Finalement, les auteurs discutent le potentiel du DIVER en tant que `technologie cognitive'.

Keywords

Cognitive technologies Collaboration Digital video Socio-technical design challenges

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barron, B. (2003) `When smart groups fail', Journal of the learning sciences 12(3): 307-59.

Bruner, J.S. (1966) `On cognitive growth', in J. S. Bruner , R. R. Olver & P. M. Greenfield (eds) Studies in cognitive growth, pp. 30-67. New York: Wiley.

Cerf, V.G. , Cameron, A.G.W. , Lederberg, J. , Russell, C.T. , Schatz, B.R. , Shames, P.M.B. , Sproull, L.S. , Weller, R.A. & Wulf, W.A. (1993) National collaboratories: applying information technology for scientific research. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Clark, H.H. (1996) Using language. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Derry, S. J. , ed. (2007) Guidelines for video research in education: recommendations from an expert panel, prepared for the National Science Foundation, Interagency Education Research Initiative and the Data Research and Development Center. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. (available at: http://drdc.uchicago.edu/what/video-research-guidelines.pdf )

Finholt, T.A. (2003) `Collaboratories as a new form of scientific organization' , Economics of innovation and new technologies 12(1): 5-25.

Forster, E.M. (1927) Aspects of the novel. New York : Harcourt, Brace & World.

Goldman, R., Pea, R. D., Barron, B. & Derry, S., eds (2007) Video research in the learning sciences. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Goodwin, C. (1986) `Gestures as a resource for the organization of mutual orientation', Semiotica 62: 29-49.

10.

Goodwin, C. & Heritage, J. (1990) `Conversation analysis', Annual review of anthropology 19: 283-307.

11.

Heath, C. & Luff, P. (1993) `Disembodied conduct: interactional asymmetries in video-mediated communication', in G. Button (ed.) Technology in working order: studies of work, interaction, and technology, pp. 35-54. London: Routledge .

12.

Jordan, B. & Henderson, A. (1995) `Interaction analysis: foundations and practice' , Journal of the learning sciences 4(1): 39-103.

13.

Lampert, M. & Hawkins, J. (1998) New technologies for the study of teaching, Report to the National Science Foundation from a workshop held 9-11 June 1998, Ann Arbor, Michigan. (NSF Grant #REC-9802685)

14.

Latour, B. (1986) `Visualization and cognition: thinking with eyes and hands', in H. Kuklick & E. Long (eds) Knowledge and society, pp. 1-40. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

15.

Levy, D.M. (2001) Scrolling forward: making sense of documents in the digital age. New York: Arcade Publishing.

16.

MacWhinney, B. & Snow, C. (1999) Multimodal studies of instructional discourse, Report to the National Science Foundation from the Classroom Discourse workshop. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University. (available at: http://tinyurl.com/ys2rl8 )

17.

Marx, K. & Engels, F. (1978) `A critique of the German ideology', in R. Tucker (ed.) The Marx-Engels reader, pp. 146-200. New York: Norton, 2nd edn. (orig. pub. 1846)

18.

Mills, M.I. & Pea, R.D. (1989) `Mind and media in dialog: issues in multimedia composition', in K. Hooper & S. Ambron (eds) Full-spectrum learning, pp. 14-37. Cupertino, CA: Apple Computer, Inc.

19.

National Science Foundation, Cyberinfrastructure Council (2007) Cyberinfrastructure vision for 21st century discovery . (available at: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf0728/nsf0728.pdfanddownloaded 29 December 2007)

20.

Pea, R.D. (1985) `Beyond amplification: using computers to reorganize human mental functioning', Educational psychologist 20: 167-82.

21.

Pea, R.D. (1987) `Cognitive technologies for mathematics education' , in A. Schoenfeld (ed.) Cognitive science and mathematics education, pp. 89-122. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

22.

Pea, R.D. (2006) `Video-as-data and digital video manipulation techniques for transforming learning sciences research, education and other cultural practices', in J. Weiss , J. Nolan & P. Trifonas (eds) International handbook of virtual learning environments , pp. 1321-93. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.

23.

Pea, R.D. & Hay, K. (2003) CILT workshop on Digital Video Inquiry in Learning and Education, 25-6 November 2002, Report to the National Science Foundation. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning. (based on NSF grant #0124012)

24.

Pea, R. & Hoffert, E. (2007) `Video workflow in the learning sciences: prospects of emerging technologies for augmenting work practices', in R. Goldman , R. D. Pea , B. Barron & S. Derry (eds) Video research in the learning sciences, pp. 427-60. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

25.

Pea, R.D. & Kurland, D.M. (1987) `Cognitive technologies for writing development' , in L. Frase (ed.) Review of research in education, vol. 14, pp. 277-326. Washington, DC: AERA Press.

26.

Pea, R. , Mills, M. , Rosen, J. , Dauber, K. , Effelsberg, W. & Hoffert, E. (2004) `The DIVER™ project: interactive digital video repurposing', IEEE Multimedia 11(1): 54-61.

27.

Scacchi, W. (2004) `Socio-technical design', in W. S. Bainbridge (ed.) The encyclopedia of human-computer interaction. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group.

28.

Stevens, R. , & Hall, R. (1997) `Seeing tornado: how video traces mediate visitor understandings of (natural?) phenomena in a science museum', Science education 81(6): 735-47 (special issue on informal science education).

29.

Stevens, R. , Cherry, G. & Fournier, J. (2002) `Video traces: rich media annotations for teaching and learning', in G. Stahl (ed.) Proceedings of the computer supported collaborative learning conference. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

30.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.