This study investigates the effect of a shared concept-mapping task on high school students' learning about kinematics in a collaborative simulation-based inquiry setting. Pairs of students were randomly assigned to a concept-mapping condition (12 pairs) or a control condition (13 pairs). Students in the concept-mapping condition had a computer-supported collaborative concept-mapping tool that aimed to integrate concepts and propositions. Students in the control condition used the same learning environment without the concept-mapping tool. Students' interactions with each other and with the simulation were tracked by log files. Learning was assessed with tests of intuitive and structural knowledge and a proposition test. Students in the concept-mapping condition exchanged significantly more chat messages related to experimentation, interpretation, and drawing conclusions and were more engaged in integration-oriented consensus building, which regression analysis showed to be positively related to learning gains for both intuitive and structural knowledge. Students in the concept-mapping condition outperformed their peers on the intuitive and structural knowledge tests. These results suggest that concept maps can positively influence consensus-building activities and learning in a collaborative inquiry-learning setting. The findings of the current study thereby contribute to the ongoing debate about (shared) graphical representations as scaffolds for collaborative learning.This study focuses on supporting the learning process of students who collaborate within a simulation-based inquiry-learning environment. In such an environment
This article examines antecedents and consequences of the adoption level of standardized information technology (IT) versus customized IT in self-managing teams (SMTs) in a financial services institution. Linkages between speci-The adoption of information technology (IT) across many service industries is rapidly changing the nature of the service delivery process, necessitating employees and encouraging customers to interact with technology, either as a substitute or complement to face-to-face interactions (Parasuraman 2000). It has been argued that the use of IT enhances the performance of service employees, both in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, by enabling customization and flexibility in their encounters with customers (Bitner, Brown, and Meuter 2000). Thus far, the focus in the emerging body of (self-)service technology research has been on the technology-customer linkage (Dabholkar and Bagozzi 2002;Meuter et al. 2000), whereas the technology-employee interface has primarily aimed at internal operations, as opposed to frontline support technologies in boundary-spanning processes (Parasuraman and Grewal 2000). Despite the wide-scale implementation of IT in services, there has been little research-based guidance regarding critical success factors in adoption and customercontact employee usage, as well as the impact on service performance parameters. From the information systems literature (e.g., Davis, Bagozzi, and Warshaw 1989;DeLone and McLean 1992) and from research on the customertechnology interface, there is accumulating empirical evidence that both personal (e.g., innovativeness) and IT (e.g., perceived ease of use) characteristics may explain individual adoption variance.
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