skip to main content
10.1145/1822258.1822273acmotherconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PageswikisymConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

ThinkSpace: the collaborative process of designing new technologies for the classroom

Published: 08 September 2008 Publication History

Abstract

In order to explore some of the potentially problematic implications of introducing new technologies into school classrooms, this paper focuses on one particular instance of innovation. The study introduces ThinkSpace - a specific educational tool - comprised of concept mapping and a wiki. It is aimed at facilitating the learning of higher order skills and construction of coherent understanding of complex concepts. The paper investigates the processes of conceptualisation and experimentation that must be carried out in order to achieve a product that meets both the developer's aspirations for the tool, and also those of the teacher who is to use it.

References

[1]
Ausubel, D. P., Novak, J. D., and Hanesian, H. 1978, Educational psychology: a cognitive view. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston.
[2]
Balcytiene, A. 1999, "Exploring individual processes of knowledge construction with hypertext," Instructional Science, vol. 27, pp. 303--328.
[3]
Barab, S. and Squire, K. 2004, "Design-Based Research: Putting a Stake in the Ground," The Journal of the Learning Sciences, vol. 13, pp. 1--14.
[4]
Bereiter, C., Kirshner, D., and Whitson, J. A. 1997, "Situated cognition and how to overcome it," in Situated cognition: Social, semiotic, and psychological perspectives, Anonymous, Ed. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum., pp. 281--300.
[5]
Bereiter, C., Scardamalia, M., Olson, D. R., and Torrance, N. 1998, "Rethinking Learning," in The Handbook of Education and Human Development. New Models of Learning, Teaching and Schooling, Anonymous, Ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
[6]
Bransford, J. 2000, How people learn: brain, mind, experience, and school, Expanded ed. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
[7]
Britt, M. A., Rouet, J.-F., Perfetti, C. A., Rouet, J.-F., Levonen, J. J., Dillon, A., and Spiro, R. J. 1996, "Using Hypertext to Study and Reason About Historical Evidence," in Hypertext and Cognition, Anonymous, Ed. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 43--72.
[8]
Brown, A. L. 1992, "Design Experiments: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges in Creating Complex Interventions in Classroom Settings," The Journal of the Learning Sciences, vol. 2, pp. 141--178.
[9]
Bruns, A. and Humphreys, S. 2005, "Wikis in teaching and assessment: the M/Cyclopedia project," presented at 2005 International Symposium on Wikis, San Diego, CA.
[10]
Cañas, A. J., Carff, R., Hill, G., Carvalho, M., Arguedas, M., Eskridge, T. C., Lott, J., Carvajal, R., Tergan, S. O., and Keller, T. 2005, "Concept Maps: Integrating Knowledge and Information Visualization," in Knowledge and Information Visualization - Searching for Synergies, Tergan, S.-O. and Keller, T., Eds. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp. 205--219.
[11]
Chen, C. and Rada, R. 1996, "Interacting With Hypertext: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental Studies," Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 11, pp. 125--156.
[12]
Chi, M. T. H., Feltovich, P., and Glaser, R. 1981, "Categorization and Representation of Physics Problems by Experts and Novices," Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal, vol. 5, pp. 121--152.
[13]
Cobb, P., Confrey, J., diSessa, A., Lehrer, R., and Schauble, L. 2003, "Design Experiments in Educational Research," Edcational Researcher, vol. 32, pp. 9--13.
[14]
Cubric, M. 2007, "Wiki-based Process Framework for Blended Learning," presented at WikiSym'07, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
[15]
de Vries, E. and de Jong, T. 1999, "The design and evaluation of hypertext structures for supporting design problem solving," Instructional Science, vol. 27, pp. 285--302.
[16]
Désilets, A., Paquet, S., and Vinson, N. G. 2005, "Are Wikis Usable?," presented at WikiSym'05, San Diego, California, USA.
[17]
Dillon, A. and Gabbard, R. 1998, "Hypermedia as an Educational Technology: A Review of the Quantitative Research Literature on Learner Comprehension, Control and Style," Review of Educational Research, vol. 68, pp. 322--349.
[18]
Dominguez, J., Pozo, J. I., Voss, J. F., and Carretero, M. 2000, "Promoting the Learning of Causal Explanations in History through Different Teaching Strategies," in International review of history education. Volume 2. Learning and Reasoning in History, vol. 2, Anonymous, Ed. London: Woburn Press, pp. 344-344--359.
[19]
Feltovich, P. J., Spiro, R. J., Coulson, R. L., and Frederiksen, N. 1992, "Learning, Teaching, and Testing for Complex Conceptual Understanding," in Test Theory for a New Generation of Tests, Anonymous, Ed. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 181-0--217.
[20]
Fines, J. and Historical Association (Great Britain). 1984, Source-based questions at A-level. London: Historical Association.
[21]
Forte, A. and Bruckman, A. 2007, "Constructing Text: Wiki as a Toolkit for (Collaborative?) Learning," presented at WikiSym'07, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
[22]
Graff, M. 2005, "Differences in Concept Mapping, Hypertext Architecture, and the Analyst-Intuition Dimension of Cognitive Style," Educational Psychology, vol. 25, pp. 409--422.
[23]
Heinze-Fry, J. A. and Novak, J. D. 1990, "Concept Mapping Brings Long-Tern Movement toward Meaningful Learning," Science Education, vol. 74, pp. 461--472.
[24]
Jacott, L., Lopez-Manjon, A., Carretero, M., Voss, J. F., and Carretero, M. 2000, "Generating Explanations in History," in International review of history education. Volume 2. Learning and Reasoning in History, vol. 2, Anonymous, Ed. London: Woburn Press, pp. 294--306.
[25]
Jones, R. A. and Spiro, R. J. 1992, "Imagined Conversations: The Relevance of Hypertext, Pragmatism, and Cognitive Flexibility Theory to the Interpretation of "Classic Texts" in Intellectual History," presented at ACM ECHT Conference.
[26]
Kaptelinin, V. and Nardi, B. A. 2006, Acting with technology: activity theory and interaction design. Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT Press.
[27]
Lave, J. and Wenger, E. 1991, Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[28]
Lee, P. J. 2005, "Historical Literacy: Theory and Research," International Journal of Historical Learning, vol. 5.
[29]
Leuf, B. and Cunningham, W. 2001, The Wiki way: quick collaboration on the Web. Boston; London: Addison-Wesley.
[30]
Lin, C.-H. and Davidson, G. 1996, "Effects of Linking Structure and Cognitive Style on Students' Performance and Attitude in a Computer-Based Hypertext Environment," Journal of Educational Computing Research, vol. 15, pp. 317--329.
[31]
Lund, A. and Smørdal, O. 2006, "Is there a space for the Teacher in a WIKI?," presented at WikiSym'06, Odense, Denmark.
[32]
Novak, J. D. and Canas, A. J. 2006, "The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct Them," Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Pensacola, Report
[33]
Novak, J. D. and Gowin, B. D. 1984, Learning how to learn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[34]
Pohl, M. and Purgathofer, P. 2004, "Hypertext Writing Profiles and Visualization," Computers and the Humanities, vol. 38, pp. 83--105.
[35]
Ralston, J. and Cook, D. 2007, "Colaboration, ICT and Mind Mapping," Reflecting Education, vol. 3, pp. 61--73.
[36]
Rick, J. and Guzdial, M. 2006, "Situating CoWeb: a Scholarship of Application," International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, vol. 1, pp. 89--115.
[37]
Scardamalia, M. 2003, "Knowledge Forum (Advanced beyond CSILE)," Journal of Distance Education, vol. 17, pp. 23--28.
[38]
Scardamalia, M. and Bereiter, C. 1994, "Computer support for knowledge-building communities," The Journal of the Learning Sciences, vol. 3, pp. 265--283.
[39]
Scardamalia, M. and Smith, B. 2002, "Collective Cognitive Responsibility for the Advancement of Knowledge," in Liberal education in a knowledge society, Anonymous, Ed. Chicago: Open Court, pp. 67--98.
[40]
Spiro, R. J., Jehng, J.-C., and Nix, D. 1990, "Cognitive Flexibility and Hypertext: Theory and Technology for the Nonlinear and Multidimentional Traversal of Complex Subject Matter," in Cognition, Education, and Multimedia: Exploring Ideas in High Technology, Anonymous, Ed. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 163--205.
[41]
Stahl, G. 2006, Group cognition: computer support for building collaborative knowledge. Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT.
[42]
Tonkin, E. 2005, "Making the Case for a Wiki," Ariadne, vol. 42.
[43]
Wasson, B. 2007, "Design and Use of Collaborative Network Learning Scenarios: The DoCTA Experience," Educational Technology and Society, vol. 10, pp. 3--16.
[44]
Wineburg, S. S. 1992, "Probing the Depths of Students' Historical Knowledge," Perspectives Online, vol. 30, pp. 11/06--07.
[45]
Wineburg, S. S. 1998, "Reading Abraham Lincoln: An Expert/Expert Study in the Interpretation of Historical Texts," Cognitive Science, vol. 22, pp. 319--346.

Cited By

View all
  • (2009)SAVVY WikiProceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration10.1145/1641309.1641319(1-8)Online publication date: 25-Oct-2009

Index Terms

  1. ThinkSpace: the collaborative process of designing new technologies for the classroom

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image ACM Other conferences
    WikiSym '08: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Wikis
    September 2008
    219 pages
    ISBN:9781605581286
    DOI:10.1145/1822258
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

    Sponsors

    • University of Porto

    In-Cooperation

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 08 September 2008

    Permissions

    Request permissions for this article.

    Check for updates

    Author Tags

    1. collaborative knowledge building
    2. concept mapping
    3. design-based research
    4. history
    5. wiki

    Qualifiers

    • Research-article

    Conference

    WikiSym08
    Sponsor:
    WikiSym08: 2008 International Symposium on Wikis
    September 8 - 10, 2008
    Porto, Portugal

    Acceptance Rates

    Overall Acceptance Rate 69 of 145 submissions, 48%

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • Downloads (Last 12 months)1
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1
    Reflects downloads up to 17 Feb 2025

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    Cited By

    View all
    • (2009)SAVVY WikiProceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration10.1145/1641309.1641319(1-8)Online publication date: 25-Oct-2009

    View Options

    Login options

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    Figures

    Tables

    Media

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media