Group Project: Collaborative Knowledge Construction Environments

1
Group Project Collaborative Knowledge
Construction Environments
UNIVERSITY OF OSLO TOOL5100 COMPUTER SUPPORTED
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

• Presentation by KNOWLEDGE CREATION GROUP
• By Arne Valen, Elena Stamatova, Shazia Mushtaq
• Friday, 9.06.06

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Introduction of the Project

• Given project problem
• Collaborative knowledge construction
  environments
• Make a survey of key systems in this category
• Identify what learning experience they create for
  the users and to what extent they integrate
  learning and working
• Organize the findings
• Documenting the process
• Writing the report

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Collaborated Concept Definition

• According to Wikipedia
• Collaboration
• refers to all processes where people work
  together,
• applying both to the work of individuals as well
  as larger collectives and societies.
• As an aspect of human society, the term is used
  in many varying contexts such as
• science, art, education, and business.
• Knowledge Building/Creation
• Is a phrase, created by Carl Bereiter and Marlene
  Scardamalia,
• to describe the process which expert groups went
  through, when they created
• knowledge.
• Knowledge building refers to creation of new
  cognitive artifacts as a result of
• collective discussion and synthesis of ideas.
• Collaborative Knowledge Creation Environments
• should be built on asynchronous, persistent
  collaborative technologies and be
• deployed on the Internet as a Web-based
  environment. (from lecture slides)

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Our Concept Definition

• During the semester we have been introduced
  to several definitions and explanations of the
  concepts presented below. Here we choose to
  present our understanding of them based on our
  experience during the project work
• Collaboration
• is not so much dependent on face-to-face
  communication, but is a joint activity where the
  participants of the group gather together to work
  on a common goal.
• Knowledge Building/Creation
• is a learning process where the
  participants share their understanding and during
  their discussion, they get better idea about the
  phenomenon, or in other words they see the
  light.
• Collaborative Knowledge Creation Environments
• allows participants of a collective to
  share their understanding, experience and
  questions in order to exhale higher level of
  understanding.
• Introduction of new information affects
  the collective's understanding, as does the
  factor when key members leave the group.
• The two examples for Collaborative Knowledge
  Creation Environments are
• Wiki
• FLE

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Practical Project Work

• As mentioned in the beginning the given project
  problem was redefined
• based on our group discussions
• We will look into systems that will help or which
  can be used as a platform to build up knowledge
  and allow the participants to exchange/interchange
  ideas and experiences.
• We will try to include people with different
  levels of understanding, with possibility to
  exchange information not only textual, but also
  facilitate audio and /or visual communication. We
  will also include possibilities for real meeting
  rooms (eg. in Hospital, factory, schools etc.)
• A system that invites the participants to use it
  in physical environments, such as in a meeting
  room, therapy environment etc. 
• We choose to write our project in connection to
  the metaphors of Wiki. We will look into Wiki as
  a tool, explore its possibilities and areas of
  use, future development of the system.
• The research questions that we will address
  are1. Which parts of Wiki are suitable for
  various learning environments?2. How can Wiki be
  integrated into social settings? 

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The Three Case Scenarios

• Scenario 1 http//www.nrk.no/programmer/tv/brennp
  unkt/5531017.html
• Patient group ADHD.
• An open environment
• User of forum will be Cross age (children and
  relatives)
• various family background (level of
  education, social status etc.)
• Professionals (doctors, practitioners,
  teachers, researchers, pharmacists),
• Other people who have interest
• Content Medical, research, exchange of
  experiences

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The Three Case Scenarios

• Scenario 2

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The Three Case Scenarios

• Scenario 2
• Reception centre for unaccompanied underage
  asylum seekers
• Closed environment, high level of security
• User of forum will be Unaccompanied underage
  asylum seekers
• Cross cultural, multi lingual, possibility
  for illiteracy
• Observers, monitoring Milieu workers, teacher,
  administration
• Content Personal experiences, chat, text, audio
  and visual
• Complexity Additional to physical environment
• Ownership Operator of the reception centre

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The Three Case Scenarios

• Scenario 3
• Guest Workers with Families Partially closed and
  open Environments
• User of forum will be Cross cultural, mainly
  English
• Content Personal experiences, chat, text, audio
  and visual
• Observers, monitoring Administration,
  colleagues, families
• Complexity Additional to physical environment,
  administrated
• Ownership Employer, company

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Methods

• We have done survey on Internet (Wiki and FLE).
• Used Confluence Wiki to get experience about the
  functionality of Wiki.
• Participated in the selected wikis(by
  registering), as for example posting messages,
  testing out the access (i. e. editing of pages,
  calendar, etc. in wishwiki allotments4all).
• Looked into theoretical articles to gain
  understanding of the challenges and relate them
  to the findings of wiki.

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Wiki

• What is Wiki?
• wiki is a type of website that allows users
  to add, remove, or
• edit all content, sometimes without the need
  for registration.
• Why we wanted to use Wiki?
• blogs, wiki, and RSS are getting popularity. (see
  the survey)
• Sucess of wikipedia and proclamation of wiki as
  collaborative tool
• makes it as interesting research object.
• Is Wiki suitable for various learning
  environments?
• Joint writing facility
• Free movement of users on the site
• Combination of existing tools into one
  environment use of forum, chat, calender,
  editing functionality
•  " ...the use of computer as a medium or resource
  for collaborative learning ...The computer can
  help ...to communicate and collaborate on joint
  activities, providing assistance in the
  coordination process
• 
   Sitation from Liam J. Bannon,
  1989

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Wiki
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Analysis Document

• AIDS dissident wiki http//www.reviewingaids.org/
  awiki/index.php/Main_Page
  AIDS Wiki is a community gathering place for
  AIDS dissidents to assist and foster activism
• Allotment4All wiki http//www.allotments4all.co.u
  k/joomla/component/option,com_mambowiki/Itemid,37/
  Allotment and Gardening discussion forum using
  Joomla, SMF, and mediawiki
• Wiki site about wishes http//wishwiki.org/index
  .php?titleMain_Page
• Wiki page for juggling http//www.psconclave.com/
  wiki/Thumbaround_NormalThumbaround_TXY_Normal
• Wiki about Educational Technology and related
  fields http//edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Main_Page
• Wiki providing help to learn wiki
  http//www.eduwiki.info/HelpContents
• CollectorsWiki http//collectorswiki.org/index.p
  hp?titleMain_Page

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Findings for Wiki

• The way participants use the Edit functionality
  of wikis
• - provide collaborative knowledge building
  function BUT is it enough?
•  
• The different access functionality
  (password-protection) for registered
• and guest users contributes in
  upholding the restrictions/limitations for
  editing (making changes, access for various level
  of information). 
• Blocking certain IP address - problem for other
  users from the
• same site to get access. (ex. Arnes school)
• fight for acceptance of your comments so they
  can be included in the text which is being
  written. (ex. Wishwiki)
• About visual story telling (ex. Juggling Wiki)
•  

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Story Telling
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Critical Evaluation

• Of project work process
• collaboration (e.g work division)
• positive mutual understanding
• negative dependency on persons
• coordination (e.g. installation)
• access to mediates and artifacts

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Conclusion

• The answers of the three research questions
• Which parts of Wiki are suitable for various
  learning environments?
• How can Wiki be integrated into social settings? 
• Answers
• The decision which wiki one can use depends on
  the type of setting and the requirements for
  functionality which he/she has.  
• Is wiki the only way to build a social setting?
  Here is an example for an alternative community
  which is called 'community server'
• http//communityserver.org/ .
• It can be an interesting topic for
  further research. We have not looked into this
  matter. An example of its use is on the following
  page http//dandyvibe.com/

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Discussion

• Discussion on definition of the terms
  Collaboration and Cooperation
• Discussion about the term collaboration in
  Germany
• Discussion on a topic connected to the project
  (How can you create knowledge if it is something
  you have?
• We think that it is more shared understanding
  than knowledge, it is not necessary something new
  that you build, ex. Definition of Collaborative
  Knowledge Creation Environment is not available
  in Wikipedia )
• Questions?