The Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) conference has become an internationally-recognized forum for the exchange of research findings related to learning in the context of collaborative activity and the exploration of how such learning might be augmented through technology. The theme of the 2007 conference, Of Mice, Minds, and Society, denotes the relationship between the technological interfaces (of mice) that supports individual or group cognition (of minds). The theme also reflects the larger societal context in which collaborative activity is valued, promoted, and encouraged (of society). The goal of the conference is to sharpen the community's perspectives on how these threads of CSCL are interwoven and how they interactively contribute to an understanding of the nature of learning in technology-supported environments. An important theme in the CSCL conferences is the development of an active student community. The CSCL conference's Doctoral Consortium provides a forum for students to meet and network with their peers and leading members of the CSCL community. The continued development of young researchers occurs through the Early Career Consortium where newer researchers will have the opportunity to learn from seasoned researchers about issues of content and methodology.
This award funds both the Doctoral Consortium and the Early Career Consortium. The intellectual merit of this funding is the development of cross-disciplinary research amongst the graduate students, early career faculty, and senior faculty in this cross-disciplinary field. The broader impact is in the development of the next generation of researchers in CSCL.
