Talk by Alexander McAuley and Stian Haklev at IKIT Knowledge Building Summer Institute 2010. Abstract: In terms of the range both of available tools and the extent of the networks on which they run, digital supports for knowledge creation have evolved hugely since the late 1980s when CSILE first made its appearance as a groundbreaking tool for collaborative learning. Both the CSILE platform and the conceptual "intentional learning" framework on which it was based have progressed through several iterations to become the current Knowledge Forum platform and Knowledge Building Principles. Moreover, numerous studies have informed this progression and have demonstrated the potential for knowledge building in numerous contexts. On the other hand, however, despite their demonstrated benefits and the currency of the "knowledge building" meme in educational discourse, neither the Knowledge Forum technology nor the knowledge building principles have achieved their due in terms of depth or breadth of impact in the mainstream educational context. This paper begins with the "walled garden" nature of Knowledge Forum, contrasts it with the open nature of current online initiatives, and suggests possible directions for future development. Download MP3 from here: http://www.archive.org/details/KnowledgeBuildingForWeb2.5MakingTheTransitionToANetworkedWorld

1. Knowledge Building for Web 2.5:
Making the transition to a networked
world
Sandy McAuley (UPEI)
Stian Håklev (OISE/UT)
IKIT Summer Institute
Toronto
August 3, 2010

2. KF & the Web
1996 2005 2???
Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Web 3.0
The The The
“read” “read-write” “semantic”
web web web

3. The Question?
• Why are knowledge building and
Knowledge Forum not getting the traction
they need in increasingly networked
education?

4. The Problem?
• The closed nature of Knowledge Forum
compromises the knowledge building
principles that underlie its design

5. The Compromised
• Epistemic agency
• Democratizing knowledge
• Idea diversity
• Pervasive knowledge building

6. Open Education
• Started with Open Educational Resources
• David Wiley’s Intro to OER
• “Wiley wikis”

7. intro open ed I
7

8. Peer2Peer University
• A platform for running open courses, and
conduct research on open education
• Since September 2009, ran 21 courses with
more than 1000 participants (another 30 in
September, 2010)
• Limited enrollment, but content and
discussions open to anyone

11. Almost all participants also reported using at least one
(and usually several) tools that were not required to
access the content specified on the syllabus or follow
the instructors. These tools included social networking
sites like Ning, LinkedIn, and Facebook, blogging tools
like WordPress, virtual environments like Second Life,
and Twitter for “backchannel” communications, brief
comments, and resource sharing. Additionally, content
aggregation tools (e.g. PageFlakes and RSS) and social
bookmarking and link sharing tools like Twine and Diigo
were key elements for several participants.
Eric Calvert (2009) citing a study by Fini (2009)

14. The Challenge?
• How can Knowledge Forum remain
relevant, how can these open learning
processes be enhanced through Knowledge
Building principles and technology?

15. A more web-savvy KF
• Exposing the full graphical features of KF
directly in the browser
• Making KF a “full member” of the Web 2.0:
web APIs, ability to input data from a
number of sources, ability to output data in
open formats
• Platform is open source, course contents
available to anyone (if teacher chooses so),
nodes and views have individual URLs,
googleable

16. Alternative 1: A more web-savvy KF
APIs

19. Harvesting Gradebook
Washington State University

20. A KB open web overlay
• All content authoring is done in distributed
Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, twitter,
Youtube)
• A KB plugin for web browser, follows you
around, adds scaffolding
• Use open APIs and semantic data to enable
pulling together and organizing
contributions on many different platforms

21. Alternative 2: A KB open web overlay
Rise above
build-upons
initial post

22. Why is this important?
• Open Education is growing very rapidly, has the potential
for powerful research
• Very open-minded and experimental community
• Mix of course/conference/research collaboration -
metaphor fits KB
• Unique constraints: what is the role of the teacher (level
of training?), length of courses, level of teacher
involvement
• Get out there and engage with the community
• Future of continuing education
• China: 350 million

23. A place to start
• A simple way to publish views to the web
• A simple way to integrate two published
views

24. Contacts
• Sandy McAuley amcauley@upei.ca
• Stian Håklev shaklev@gmail.com