Characterizing Digital Contexts of Collaborative Learning: An Updated Classification of Computer-Mediated Communication

The learning sciences is concerned with studying how learners interact with each other in technologically-mediated environments, but core similarities and differences among tools are rarely addressed, limiting our ability to build a collective knowledge base. To address the issue, we present a revised version of Herring’s (2007) scheme for classifying technological contexts of communication, updated for current technologies and their uses. The learning sciences has a long tradition of carefully documenting learner interactions in technologicallymediated environments, with patterns in communication connected to specific affordances of the tools and the ways they are taken up in the context of established or emergent practices. However, in attending to the particulars of design, we often lose sight of fundamental technological characteristics that play a role in shaping activity. Characterizing common aspects of tools can offer a language with which to discuss computer-mediated communication (CMC) across tools and contexts. Drawing on literature from communication, linguistics, informatics, and sociology, Herring (2007) presented a scheme for such classification (see Table 1a). No element is deterministic, but each describes a key characteristic that can influence the structure and substance of online talk. While Herring’s scheme has been used extensively in other fields, there has been limited uptake in the learning sciences. At the same time, there have been dramatic changes in the technological capabilities of CMC and socio-cultural practices surrounding its use, creating a need to update the original elements. The revised scheme is shown in Table 1b. Some elements have merged with others, some were added in response to new technological capabilities, and some retained their name but changed greatly in the underlying description. Table 1: (a) Original and (b) Updated Technological Characteristics of CMC Contexts Original Technological Characteristics Updated Technological Characteristics