E-Collaborative Learning Affordances

This paper investigates the way that electronic collaborative learning (e-CL) affords the learning process regarding human, pedagogy, content, and framework aspects. By e-CL the communicative shared-knowledge building process with shared-knowledge building goals using networked electronic devices is denoted. As for the human aspect, e-CL enables tutors to control the communication and content of the learning process. Furthermore, to detect and predict the learners’ physical, mental, emotional, social, or learning status and problems. The learners suffering from the latter and having special learning needs are supported in their learning and socialisation by respective assistive technologies. Moreover, e-CL also facilitates ‘deep learning’ through communal and scaffolded articulation and externalisation. Being a communal process it contributes towards motivation, engagement, psychological and social development, socialisation, teamworking skills, and empathy. Through collaboration multiple kinds of knowledge are acquired more easily and entertainingly. As for pedagogy, e-CL supports active and adaptive learning and engagement and facilitates representation, editing, high quality broad communication, and reflection on the learning process. It also enhances sharing and exchanging of learning ideas, emotions, practices, and products and supports a great range of automated and peer feedback. As for the content affordances, e-CL offers richer in terms of quantity and quality, structured and visualised, but cheaper in terms of price content. Finally, regarding framework affordances, e-CL provides spatial, temporal, and sociocultural learning flexibility and usually entails low cost. As a result e-CL enables and fosters ubiquitous, pervasive, multicultural, continuous, and life-long learning.