Barriers and Biases in Computer-Mediated Knowledge Communication: And How They May Be Overcome

ISBN-13: 9780387243177 / Angielski / Twarda / 2005 / 334 str.

Rainer Bromme; Friedrich W. Hesse; Hans Spada

Opis

We report a study of one aspect of the changing industrial landscape, the use of virtual team working in the supply chain. The supply chain is the group of companies that are involved in the design and manufacture and distribution of products, notably complex products such as cars. Supply chain partnerships often involve cross-company team working, and as members of such teams are rarely collocated, virtual team working supported by IT, offers considerable potential benefits. Companies hope that these technologies can be used to support distributed computer supported collaborative working for purposes such as concurrent engineering and it is this kind of virtual teaming which we decided to investigate. We believe that exploring how virtual teams communicate is an effective way of examining how well they are operating and identifying the impacts of the technologies on their interactions. In the workplace free and open communication is considered to be very important to organizations facing a rapidly changing business environment. Similarly free and equal communication among members has been reported to be important if genuine team working is to be implemented in the workplace, (Carletta et al., 1998). If organizations are to derive benefits such as innovative problem solving from virtual team working then such open communication seems desirable. Communications technologies such as videoconferencing, shared applications etc. clearly offer the possibilities of such communications among geographically distributed or virtual teams.

Spis treści

Barriers, biases and opportunities of communication and cooperation with computers: Introduction and overview.- Facilitating collaborative knowledge construction in computer-mediated learning environments with cooperation scripts.- How to support synchronous net-based learning discourses: Principles and perspectives.- Instructional support for collaboration in desktop videoconference settings.- Barriers and biases in computer-mediated expert-layperson-communication.- Exploring why virtual teamworking is effective in the lab but more difficult in the workplace.- Social dilemma in knowledge communication via shared databases.- Enhancing sociability of computer-supported collaborative learning environments.-Knowledge sharing in teams of heterogeneous experts.- Knowledge communication in design communities.- Designing biases that augment socio-cognitive interactions.- How do people learn?- Technology affordances for intersubjective learning, and how they may be exploited.- Name index.- Subject index.

O autorze

Friedrich W. Hesse, geboren 1948, ist Professor für Angewandte Kognitions- und Medienpsychologie an der Universität Tübingen; Direktor des Instituts für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen. Er ist Sprecher einer Reihe von Forschungs- und Entwicklungsinitiativen zum Einsatz von Wissensmedien, etwa des ersten deutschen "Virtuellen Graduiertenkollegs der DFG" und eines DFG-Schwerpunktprogramms zur "Netzbasierten Wissenskommunikation".

Blurb

This books deals with computer-mediated cooperation and communication scenarios in teaching and learning situations, leisure activities (e.g. laypersons looking for expert information on the internet), and net-based communication at work. Such scenarios will become increasingly important. But the successful use of such computer-mediated settings is not trivial. Cooperative learning and work itself requires special skills and strategies. And the technical settings with sometimes restricted, sometimes new possibilities for communication add problems on top of the cooperation itself. What are the barriers in computer-mediated communication for cooperative learning and work? Which are the most relevant biases in computer-mediated information processing? Based on empirical research the contributors from psychology, education and computer sciences offer different perspectives on the nature and causes of such barriers. The chapters also give an answer to the question how it might be possible to overcome these barriers and biases to fully gain advantage from the new technical opportunities. These results and answers are of interest for students as well as for researchers in all fields related to the use and evaluation of computer software in communication settings.