Learning Community Projects: IT as a Hub for Collaborative Knowledge Building Dr. Nancy Law, Dr. Allan Yuen Ms. Elaine Wong & Mr. Johnny Yuen Acknowledgment: RGC and UGC

Aims of the project (1) To support and investigate the development of life-long learning abilities in group collaborative learning contexts using technology, focusing on finding the relationships between the development of enquiry and knowledge-building abilities and the changing group dynamics and interaction patterns of the learners (2) To explore possible cultural differences in the formation of knowledge building communities between Hong Kong and schools of other places. (3) To help schools to build up a capacity and culture of learning as knowledge building through the establishment of hub schools.

Online collaborative knowledge building platform Virtual Knowledge Domain Interface In other words, it mediates processing among human mind.

Knowledge Forum  Virtual Knowledge Domain Interface

Knowledge Forum (KF) KF is a problem-centered collaborative knowledge medium that operates over a computer network. KF includes knowledge building and management tools for:  Collaborative learning  Providing scaffolding supports for building idea networks  Providing graphic functionalities for developing concept maps  Identifying knowledge gaps and advances  Viewing database from multiple perspectives The functional design of KF is an embodiment of the knowledge building principles.

We hope that KF can help students in developing their: Thinking skills Meta-cognitive skills in learning Abilities to collaborate with others Life long learning skills

Activities Organized & Preliminary Research Findings

Knowledge Building Symposium and Workshops 18 th –25 th May 2002 The activity served as a means to conduct interim review and disseminate good practice and the use of KF. The focus of the Symposium rested on the conceptual introduction and operational sharing of experience on knowledge building. The Workshops were mainly catered for a smaller audience who were interested in integrating knowledge building supported by Knowledge Forum in the next year.

Peer Tutoring Project June 2002 – October 2002 The partakers in this scheme were the secondary school students from approximately ten schools, ranged from Form 3 to Form 6. The students worked on the topics set by their teachers with their own schoolmates in groups during the summer. They were required to report on their progress in the form of peer tutoring to their schoolmates at the beginning of new semester. This was followed by a cognitive achievement test on the respective subjects to find out the depth of understanding attained by students. Students were also invited to do presentation and sharing in the award presentation ceremony in mid- October.

Research findings drawn the Peer Tutoring Project “ Developmental Trajectory in Knowledge Building: An Investigation” (conference paper) To investigate students’ developmental trajectory in knowledge building through evaluating their discourse on KF when working collaboratively on various study topics, using the 12 knowledge building principles as the evaluation framework  Hierarchy of accessibility to knowledge building principles  Clustering of knowledge building principles  Developmental pattern in knowledge building

12 Knowledge Building Principles Real ideas, authentic problems Improvable ideas Idea diversity Rise above Epistemic agency Community knowledge, collective responsibility Democratizing knowledge Constructive use of authoritative sources Knowledge building discourse Embedded and transformative assessment Pervasive knowledge building Symmetric knowledge advancement

What is the implication of these findings? Students cherished not only their participation and contribution to the community, but also valued their group membership and wanted to share responsibility for advancing the group’s knowledge. Strong ‘copy-and-paste’ culture, take sources as it is, without further interpretation, critical evaluation or extension. Lack experience & confidence to espouse their ideas and contend with authorities. Students lacked of enthusiasm for self-reflection may relate to their lack of experience and/or ability to evaluate and monitor their own learning A critical factor in the success of students’ inquiry and discourse rests on the teacher’s skills in setting the inquiry tasks and their support to the knowledge building process.

What next?

HK/Toronto Collaborations March 2003 – present To promote project-based learning in different cultural settings in Knowledge Forum. At the beginning of the collaboration, teachers agreed on the discussion topic rested on looking at children's relationships with parents in the two countries, and other cultural similarities and differences for teenagers. Later on, due to the outbreak of SARS in the two cities, the issue of SARS became the major focus of the collaboration.

Assessment for Better Learning June 2003 – present students are required to design a structured assessment item on their own subject area. This assessment item should adequately cover a topic in the curriculum of their subject and the time allocation for an individual student to finish the assessment item should be around 20 minutes. Along with the design of this item, students need to design a model/ guided answer and a marking scheme which is able to differentiate different levels of understanding to the assessment item Except from designing their own question and marking scheme, they also need to assess other groups’ proposed question.

Assessment for Better Learning This, in turn, induces every student in the class to work on not only one topic, but also the whole syllabus in order to assess other groups’ work. In order to encourage students to design a good assessment item, some of the items designed by students will be selected and adopted by teachers for the questions of the real examinations.

For More Information… If you want to use KF in your classes… Or simply contact us!