49 Copyright © 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 4 Using and Acquiring Shared and Unshared Knowledge in Collaborative Learning and Writing Aemilian Hron Knowledge Media Research Center (KMRC), Germany Ulrike Cress Knowledge Media Research Center (KMRC), Germany Sieglinde Neudert Knowledge Media Research Center (KMRC), Germany AbstrAct The aim of this study is to examine means of fostering videoconference-based collaborative learning, by focussing on three issues: (1) to induce collaborative learners to write a co-construct, applying (in addition to their shared knowledge) their unshared knowledge, which tends to be neglected, according to the social-psychological research paradigm of information pooling; (2) to activate these learners in their dialogues to exchange unshared knowledge possessed by one learning partner, so that it becomes shared knowledge possessed by both partners (knowledge transfer); (3) to try out, as an instructional support measure, scripted, content-specifc visualisation, combining a content scheme with an interaction script. An experiment was conducted with 30 learning dyads, divided into three conditions of videoconference- based learning with application sharing: without instructional support, with content-specifc visualisation, and with scripted content-specifc visualisation. As expected, the scripted content-specifc visualisation led to a higher transfer of previously unshared knowledge to shared knowledge. But, contrary to ex- pectation, the scripted content-specifc visualisation did not induce the learning partners to apply more unshared knowledge in writing their co-construct. Instead, in all three experimental conditions, learners brought signifcantly more shared knowledge into the co-construct than would have been expected from the distribution of shared and unshared knowledge measured before collaboration. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61692-898-8.ch004