Storing Student Projects in a Web-searchable Database to Facilitate Progressive Knowledge Building

1. Storing Student Projects in a Web-searchable Database to Facilitate Progressive Knowledge Building David B Whittier Eisara Supavai Educational Media & Technology School of Education

2. Presentation Outline • Pedagogical framework • Knowledge Building Communities (KBC) • EM&T KBC demo • Student survey • Questions & answers

3. 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”.

4. 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).

5. Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) The represented ideas come from three lines of research and thought

6. 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).

7. 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).

8. 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)

9. Three categories of knowledge-building discourse

10. 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.

11. Web Resources

12. 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

13. Student Survey • Number of students who accessed EM&T KBC in Fall 2010 (N = 13)

14. Student Survey: Administration • Registration process was easy and efficient.

15. Student Survey: Usability • Navigating the EM&T KBC database was easy.

16. Student Survey: Learning Outcomes • Reviewing previous Postman’s Challenge assignments in the EM&T KBC database helped me to better understand the assignment.

17. Student Survey: Learning Outcomes • EM&T KBC helps you see the relevance of Postman’s Challenge to practical classroom settings.

18. 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.

19. Student Survey • Utilizing the EM&T KBC would improve education for appropriate assignments.

20. Student Survey • Would you recommend other students to access EM&T KBC if they have to complete the Postman’s Challenge project?

21. 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 knowledge-building communities. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 1994 3(3), 265-283. • Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2006). Knowledge building: Theory, pedagogy, and technology. In R. K. Sawyer, & R. K. Sawyer (Eds.), TheCambridge 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=2006-07157-007&site=ehost-live&scope=site

22. Questions\Comments • Contact information • David B Whittier: whittier@bu.edu • Eisara Supavai: eisara@bu.edu