Abstracts - Earli

G 830 August 2007 08:30 - 10:30Room: 4.95SymposiumLearning with ICT: New perspectives on help seeking and informationsearchChair: Minna Puustinen, CNRS & University of Poitiers, FranceOrganiser: Minna Puustinen, CNRS & University of Poitiers, FranceDiscussant: Jean-Francois Rouet, CNRS & University of Poitiers, FranceEducational researchers have amply documented the beneficial effects of help seeking on learningand understanding, and actively soliciting help from teachers (or other human sources) when facedwith a difficult task is now considered a self-regulated learning strategy. In a related domain,information search refers to learner-initiated efforts to obtain further task-related information frombooks or other non-human sources when undertaking an assignment. The development ofeducational ICT has offered new perspectives to the research on both help seeking and informationsearch. In fact, effective support – whether human or ICT-based – has proved to be essential tosuccessful technology-based learning. At the same time, however, the definition of help seekinghas apparently undergone a change. While information search systematically (i.e., in traditionaland in technology-based learning situations) implies non-human support, technology-based helpseeking currently refers to both human (e.g., at-distance expert) and non-human (e.g., online helpsystem) type of support. Therefore, the aim of this symposium is twofold: present recent researchon technology-based help seeking and information search by bringing together specialists fromdifferent domains (i.e., psychology, educational sciences, ergonomics, and learning technologies),and give rise to a debate on the essential nature of technology-based help seeking. We believe thatbeyond the obvious theoretical importance of the issue, clarifying the boundaries between helpseeking and information search will contribute to the development of more effective forms ofhuman and non-human support for technology-based learning environments.Not everybody needs help to seek help. Surprising effects of metacognitive instructions to fosterhelp seeking in an online learning environmentElmar Stahl, University of Education, Freiburg, GermanyTobias Bartholome, University of Münster, GermanyRainer Bromme, University of Münster, GermanyOffering help functions is a standard feature of computer-based interactive learning environments(ILE). Nevertheless, a number of recent studies indicate that learners are not using such helpfacilities effectively. We compared the effects of different metacognitive instructions to fosterlearners’ help-seeking behavior in an ILE for plant identification. As a baseline measure, students(n = 51) were asked to determine one plant that was easy to classify with the ILE. Then they weredivided into four groups, each receiving a different metacognitive instruction: activation of priorknowledge (n = 13), a strategic instruction (n = 12), a combination of both (n = 12) or no explicitinstruction (n = 14). Afterwards they were asked to determine a second, more difficult plant.Students had to think aloud and were video-recorded during the experiment and completed aknowledge test at the end of the session. The surprising effect was that students in all groups wereeffective help-seekers. They adapted their help-seeking behavior to the complexity of the plants in– 382 –