Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3(3), 265-283.

This article is similar to the Rogoff article we read earlier in that it focuses on the idea of building a community of learners. Also, like other articles, it addresses the issue of inert knowledge. In general, the authors want students to develop usable knowledge and they believe that this goal can be accomplished by engaging the students in a learning community. What’s unique is that they go about designing a computer environment to support this goal (note, they have a clear idea about the function of this technology and how it relates to a particular learning goal and model of learning).

I find it helpful that they are thoughtful about the type of learning community they seek to develop. Instead of defining a learning community as any environment where people learn and interact (which is just about any environment), they focus on disciplinary communities (such as scientific communities) as a model for restructuring schools. Particularly they focus on the role that scholarly journals play in the knowledge construction process. They give specific discussions of knowledge building, what makes knowledge-building communities work, and specifications for knowledge-building discourse (these could be good topics for us to discuss).

I also like their distinction between first and second order environments. First order are asymptotic—learners adapt to the environment but don't transform it; they appropriate the knowledge, skills, etc. of the old timers, but don't fundamentally transform it. Second order environments are not asymptotic, because learners transform the environment as they adapt to it. (p. 266-267). It seems that second order environments represent true learning communities.

CSILE is the computer system they designed to support this particular type of learning or knowledge constructing community. It is closely modeled after the way knowledge is constructed in disciplinary communities through the use of scholarly journals. The authors discuss how CSILE (and technology in general) can help reframe classroom discourse to support knowledge building. Specifically they discuss how CSILE supports the following:

• A community database at the center of classroom discourse,
• Focus on problems and depth of understanding,
• Decentralized, open knowledge building (teacher isn't doing all the directing), with a focus on collective knowledge. (Collective knowledge means that knowledge is distributed among students – all don't learn same thing. Also, knowledge is cumulatively built over time).

Discussion questions:

• Is the disciplinary community a good model for education?
• What are the affordances and constraints of decentralized, open knowledge building with a focus on collective knowledge?
• • Is it a problem that the students don’t all learn the same thing?
  • Is the teacher being neglected as a valuable resource?
  • What is the motivational effect of such an environment?
  • Does it more closely parallel the real world? Should it?
• How does the technology support this specific type of knowledge building?
• Could the same type of community be created without the technology? What does the technology add? Or take away?
• Are there technologies available to you that could support the development of a knowledge constructing community?

Link to CSILE demo site (note: you can either go to the demo of a CSILE database created by 5/6th graders or to the demo for Web Knowledge Forum, which is a second generation CSILE).

Back to EDP 6/8360