Blogosphere: cooperative and strategic aspects of self-regulated learning in formal and informal settings

The role of metacognition in multimedia environments to improve learning, self-awareness and motivation has been well established (e.g., Cassel, 2002; Cuevas, Fiore, Bowers & Salas, 2004; Cuevas, Fiore & Oser, 2002; Kramarski & Mevarech, 2003; Kramarski & Ritkof, 2002). Findings in the fields of multimedia, distance education and metacognition also suggested that using multimedia tools for enhancing a more aware form of communication should promote more appropriate cognitive processes (e.g. Deaudelin & Richer, 1999; Kramarski & Zeichner, 2001). This can be due to the fact that learning itself seems to be facilitated when words are in conversational style (Mayer et al., 2004). Narratives and shared modalities of online communication can also be seen as forms of “distributed” cognition where knowledge is embedded in situated discourses (Henning, 2003). Moreover, they facilitate the creation of cooperative virtual communities (Garza, 2002). Starting from these assumptions a wide research plan has been devised. This plan was composed by several sub-studies – all aimed to explore the role of blogs in self regulated learning, both in formal and informal settings.