Getting Started with Knowledge Building Creation methodology: workshop for beginnersKaterine Bielaczyc, National Institute of Education, Nayang
University, Singapore. The Knowledge Building Community model of Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter has a long history in research on learning and teaching with educational technology. The main drivers for such a model are found in advances in social-constructivist theories of learning and teaching, the move toward a “global village” requiring multicultural collaborations involving multiple perspectives, and the need to empower people to flexibly learn and innovate in the Knowledge Age. The vision of classrooms based on the Knowledge Building Community model centers on students building collective knowledge with “fidelity to the ways work with ideas is carried out in the real world” (Scardamalia, 2002, p. 6). This vision represents a shift from traditional views of education to “idea-centered education” where problems are found in authentic attempts to understand the world and ideas are treated as objects of inquiry that can be tinkered with, combined with other knowledge objects, and improved upon. Knowledge building brings ideas to life in the public domain, making them available for use, challenge, synthesis with other ideas, and progressive refinement. The model is also embodied in Knowledge Forum, a technology-based tool that supports the construction of a communal multimedia knowledge base. This workshop is itself run as participation in a knowledge building community --- allowing for deep understanding of the underlying design principles, learning theories, and teaching strategies of the Knowledge Building Community model. Participants will work with cases drawn from a variety of primary to university-level classroom settings and will work hands-on with Knowledge Forum in order to work together to advance their understanding of problems such as:
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