Negotiation spaces in human-computer collaborative learning

Negotiation Spaces

In order for negotiation to take place, there must be some 'degree of latitude' [Adler et al 88] available to the agents - otherwise there would be nothing that is negotiable. This defines the global space of negotiation within which the two agents attempt to build a shared understanding of the problem and its solution. Actually, the negotiation space is not naturally flat. We observed [Dillenbourg et al. submitted] that human partners do not negotiate a ‘unique’ shared representation of the problem (as Roshelle & Teasley’s definition above mentioned might suggest), but actually develop several shared representations, i.e. they move across a mosaic of different negotiation spaces. These spaces differ by the nature of information being negotiated (e.g. some aspects require explicit agreement more than others) and by the mechanisms of negotiation (e.g. the media being used). However, in human-computer collaboration, more precisely in the HCCLS presented below, we have often designed a unique negotiation space. We will return to this difference in our conclusions.

We believe that the word ‘collaborative learning’ is too general and therefore attempt to describe the negotiation space(s) more precisely. At the present state of our research we view the following seven dimensions as particularly relevant. We present first the two main dimensions what can be negotiated in a given space (object) and how it is negotiated (mode). The five subsequent dimensions describe more specific parameters of these first two general dimensions.