Article Summary Of:

Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3(3), 265-283. http://micro189.lib3.hawaii.edu:2056/login.aspx?direct=true&;db=aph&AN=7598757&site=ehost-live

Primary Topic(s) Addressed:  collaborative learning / CSCL

Secondary Topic(s) Addressed:  educational technology; online learning communities

How this might be used on my dissertation:

p. 267:  How messed up today's schools are

Questions Raised (potential topic for me):

Different learning mediums have tradeoffs... which one is best?  Each type of learning can have it's own preferences, each type of learner can have their own preferences... how do we / teachers decide?

Summary of Paper:

We need a knowledge building community that transcends school walls, so that knowledge construction can be a collective goal (utilize educational technology for social support)

CSILE- a means for restructuring classroom discourse to support knowledge building communities that go outside the school

Schools favor inert knowledge and don't utilize tacit knowledge- opposite relationship needed to create experts

Paper favors a knowledge building community (community of inquiry) to help fix these problems

These provide benefits over traditional classrooms- can allow students time to think, less pressure, peer-reviewed work, etc

 

Terms / Definitions defined:

1. CSILE:  Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments

Good Quotes:

see paper (circled)

p. 267- discussion of how bad US schools are

p. 279- benefits of using knowledge-building communities