Volume 3: Group Cognition:
Computer Support for Building Collaborative Knowledge
Stahl, G. (2006). Group cognition: Computer support for building collaborative knowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Amazon.com (hardbound): http://amazon.com/gp/product/0262195399
Amazon.com (Kindle version): http://www.amazon.com/Group-Cognition-Collaborative-Knowledge-ebook/dp/B004GCIJUG
Barnes & Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=0262195399&itm=1
MIT Press: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10926
Global and local networks of linked computers make collaborative working, learning, and acting possible through innovative uses of computer technology. In Group Cognition Gerry Stahl explores the technological and social reconfigurations that are needed to achieve computer supported collaborative knowledge building--group cognition that transcends the limits of individual cognition. Computers can provide active media for social group cognition where ideas grow through the interactions within groups of people; software functionality can manage group discourse that results in shared understandings, new meanings, and collaborative learning. Stahl offers software design prototypes, analyzes empirical instances of collaboration, and elaborates a theory of collaboration that takes the group, rather than the individual, as the unit of analysis.
Stahl's design studies concentrate on mechanisms to support group formation, multiple interpretive perspectives, and the negotiation of group knowledge in applications as varied as collaborative curriculum development by teachers, writing summaries by students, and designing space voyages by NASA engineers. Stahl's empirical analysis shows how, in small-group collaborations, the group constructs intersubjective knowledge that emerges from and appears in the discourse itself. This discovery of group meaning becomes the springboard for Stahl's outline of a social theory of collaborative knowing. Stahl also discusses such related issues as the distinction between meaning making at the group level and interpretation at the individual level, appropriate research methodology, philosophical directions for group cognition theory, and suggestions for further empirical work.
These are the only errata in the published version known to the author as of the latest update of this page. They have been corrected in the pre-publication version. Please notify the author at Gerry@GerryStahl.net if you discover any additional errors.
Page 11: “Hans-Geory” should be “Hans-Georg”
Page 207, Table 9.1: “Design” should be “Group perspective”
Page 329: “char-acteringed” should be ” char-acterized”
Page 335 and 338: period should come at end of quote, before citation.
Page 372: “consequentially” should be “consequently”
Page 473: “collaborative” should be “collaborators”
* Download PDF free for reading online or printing: gc.pdf
Group Cognition:
Computer Support for Building Collaborative Knowledge
by Gerry Stahl
 | Essays on Technology, Interaction and Cognition: pdf or html |
Part I. Design of Computer Support for Collaborating: pdf or html
| Chapter 1. Share Globally, Adapt Locally: pdf or html |
| Chapter 2. Evolving a Learning Environment: pdf or html |
| Chapter 3. Armchair Missions to Mars: pdf or html |
| Chapter 4. Supporting Situated Interpretation: pdf or html |
| Chapter 5. Collaboration Technology for Communities: pdf or html |
| Chapter 6. Perspectives on Collaborative Learning: pdf or html |
| Chapter 7. Groupware Goes to School: pdf or html |
| Chapter 8. Knowledge Negotiation Online: pdf or html |
Part II. Analysis of Collaborative Knowledge Building: pdf or html
| Chapter 9. A Model of Collaborative Knowledge Building: pdf or html |
| Chapter 10. Rediscovering the Collaboration: pdf or html |
| Chapter 11. Contributions to a Theory of Collaboration: pdf or html |
| Chapter 12. In a Moment of Collaboration: pdf or html |
| Chapter 13. Collaborating with Relational References: pdf or html |
Part III. Theory of Group Collaboration: pdf or html
| Chapter 14. Communicating with Technology: pdf or html |
| Chapter 15. Building Collaborative Knowing: pdf or html |
| Chapter 16. Group Meaning / Individual Interpretation: pdf or html |
| Chapter 17. Shared Meaning, Common Ground, Group Cognition: pdf or html |
| Chapter 18. Making Group Cognition Visible: pdf or html |
| Chapter 19. Can Collaborative groups Think?: pdf or html |
| Chapter 20. Opening New Worlds for Collaboration: pdf or html |
| Chapter 21. Thinking at the Small-Group Unit of Analysis: pdf or html |
| Notes: pdf or html |
| References: pdf or html |
The whole book (pre-publication draft version) for printout ~ 500 pages, 4.5 MB: pdf or html
In addition to the full Webinar on Group Cognition created online with relatively poor video quality in Dec 2012, ISLS created shorter, high quality versions in June 2013:
Webinar video of Gerry Stahl on "Group Cognition, the Foundation of the Learning Sciences: The Philosophy of Group Cognition" from the ISLS NAPLES video project (90 minutes).
Abstract: Cognition is no longer confined to the solitary musings of an armchair philosopher, but takes place, for instance, in problem-solving efforts of teams of people distributed around the world and involving various artifacts. The study of such cognition can unfold at multiple units of analysis. Here, three cases of problem solving by virtual math teams demonstrate the mix of individual, group and social levels of cognition. They show how a resource like a mathematical topic can bridge the different levels. Focusing on the under-researched phenomena of group cognition, the presentation highlights three pre-conditions for the constitution of group cognition: longer sequences of responses, persistent co-attention and shared understanding. Together, these structure a virtual analog of physical embodiment: being-there-together, where what is “there” is taken by the participants as co-experienced.