Grounding "Subjective Views" - Situation Awareness And Co-Reference In Distance Learning

In high-level learning contexts learners are not viewed as the passive receivers of huge amounts of information, but as social actors capable of making meaning of changing and ambiguous situations. Learning involves collaborative social processes intended to stimulate the meaning-making capabilities of learners; successful collaboration requires that learners share awareness and (some) meaning of the situations they have to face. Distance learning (DL) systems usually give learners little support to stimulate production of shared meaning because creation of a "common ground" among participants to an interactive environment depends on co-reference, which in computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments is often hindered by the fact that context is presented in inadequate ways. Significant efforts have been accomplished to enhance the situation awareness of participants to CMC environments. One level of awareness consists in being informed of the presence, positions and actions of other people in the virtual space. Specific tools - workspace widgets - have been created for this purpose. A further level of awareness is offered by Collaborative Virtual Environments, which allow participants the experience of embodiment. Using avatars, participants can develop "subjective views" of the virtual space and respond to the presence of other avatars. An element of the situation awareness which until now has received little attention is the cultural framework that is essential to structure space as a social scenario for people's action. Every community produces a cultural framework to co-ordinate its members' actions and give appropriate meaning to situations. Social norms and everyday routines, which gracefully and tacitly shape people's everyday environments, should be inscribed in the "virtual" spaces to make them social places inhabited by "real" communities of learners.