Storing Student Projects in a Web-searchable Database
to Facilitate Progressive Knowledge Building
David B Whittier
Eisara Supavai
Educational Media & Technology
School of Education
Presentation Outline
• Pedagogical framework
• Knowledge Building Communities (KBC)
• EM&T KBC demo
• Student survey
• Questions & answers
Computer Support for
Knowledge-Building Communities (KBC)
• Scardamalia’s and Bereiter’s (1994) premise:
• Schools need to be restructured as “communities in which the
construction of knowledge is supported as a collective goal, and
the role of educational technology should be to replace classroom
discourse patterns with those having more immediate and natural
extensions to knowledge building communities outside school
walls”.
Knowledge Building Discourse
• The classroom needs to foster transformational thought,
on the part of both students and teachers, and the best
way to do this is to replace classroom-bred discourse
patterns with . . . patterns whereby ideas are conceived,
responded to, re-framed, and set in historical context (p.
266).
Computer Supported Intentional Learning
Environments (CSILE)
The process of
expertise
Restructuring
schools as
knowledgebuilding
communities
Intentional
Learning
CSILE
The represented ideas come from three lines of research and thought
Scardamalia & Bereiter ask:
• How do schools, with either didactic or child-centered
philosophy, limit knowledge-building potential? (p. 268).
• “For the most part, educational technology has
accommodated itself to the conventional schizophrenia in
which didactic instruction and child-centered instruction
compete for control of the educational mind” (p. 268).
Redesigning schools to support
knowledge building
• Focus on progressive problem solving:
• “The learned disciplines show promise for the redesign of schools”
. . . when conceiving of expertise as a “process of progressive
problem solving and advancement beyond present limits of
competence” (p. 269).
• This system has many imperfections but , as with
Democracy . . . “the major challenge is to explain how
science works so well, given the imperfections” (p. 271).
What is knowledge building community?
• “Discipline-based journals . . . harness
an enormous amount of energy and
get it working toward collective
advance in knowledge, and so they
surely hold a key to what makes
knowledge-building communities work”
(p. 271)
"It has not escaped our
notice that the specific
pairing we have
postulated immediately
suggests a possible
copying mechanism for
the genetic material.“
(Watson & Crick,
Nature magazine, April
2, 1953)
Three categories of knowledge-building
discourse
How can the design of technology resources reframe
classroom discourse to support knowledge building?
• By creating a community database at the center of
classroom discourse.
• By allowing decentralized, open knowledge building, with
a focus on collective knowledge.
Web Resources
CSILE Web Resources
Institute for Knowledge Innovation and Technology at the
University of Toronto
Beyond Bloom’s Taxonomy http://www.uwsp.edu/education/lwilson/curric/newtaxo
nomy.htm
knowledge building in Wikipedia
EM&T KBC (Educational Media & Technology
Knowledge Building Community)
• Is a web-based educational software that supports
progressive knowledge building in a course.
• Provides a web-searchable database of previous student
projects which become models or sources for new
students’ progressive improvement.
• Available at http://emt.bu.edu/kbc
Student Survey
• Number of students who accessed EM&T KBC in Fall
2010 (N = 13)
Did not
access,
2
Access,
11
Student Survey: Administration
• Registration process was easy and efficient.
6
6
5
5
Strongly
Disagree
Disagree
4
3
Agree
2
1
1
0
0
Responses
Strongly Agree
Student Survey: Usability
• Navigating the EM&T KBC database was easy.
10
10
8
6
4
2
0
2
0
0
Strongly Disagree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Agree
Student Survey: Learning Outcomes
• Reviewing previous Postman’s Challenge assignments in the EM&T
KBC database helped me to better understand the assignment.
8
7
6
4
4
2
0
1
0
Responses
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly Agree
Student Survey: Learning Outcomes
• EM&T KBC helps you see the relevance of Postman’s Challenge to
practical classroom settings.
10
9
8
6
3
4
2
0
Responses
Yes
No
Student Survey: Learning Outcomes
• Using the EM&T KBC database for Postman’s Challenge helped me to better
understand the concept of using databases in support of knowledge building
communities.
7
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Strongly
Disagree
Disagree
3
Agree
1
0
Responses
Strongly Agree
Student Survey
• Utilizing the EM&T KBC would improve education for appropriate
assignments.
8
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
3
0
0
Responses
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strong Agree
Student Survey
• Would you recommend other students to access EM&T KBC if they
have to complete the Postman’s Challenge project?
No, 1
Yes, 11
References
• Bloom, B. S.,. (1981). Taxonomy of educational objectives : The classification
of educational goals ; handbook 1 cognitive domain. New York: Longman.
• Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly : The surrender of culture to technology.
New York: Knopf.
• Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C., (1994). Computer support for knowledgebuilding communities. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 1994 3(3), 265283.
• Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2006). Knowledge building: Theory,
pedagogy, and technology. In R. K. Sawyer, & R. K. Sawyer (Eds.), The
Cambridge handbook of: The learning sciences. (pp. 97-115). New York, NY
US: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=200607157-007&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Questions\Comments
• Contact information
• David B Whittier:
[email protected]
• Eisara Supavai:
[email protected]