S

The Knowledge

Connections AnalyzerJ. van Aalst, C. K.K. Chan, S. W. Tian, Y. Y. Chan, & S.-W. Wan

Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong

Goals/Background

S Transformative and embedded assessment essential to

knowledge building (Scardamalia, 2002) and epistemic agency

S Previous studies: students can develop e-portfolios of KB and

this work helps them understand how to interact online (Lee et

al. 2006; van Aalst & Chan 2007)

S But portfolio assessments not embedded, labor intensive, and

difficult. Need tools and strategies for making it more feasible

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Knowledge Connections

Analyzer

S Converts Knowledge Forum database to MySQL

database

S Note texts, titles, keywords, links, etc.

S Queries to answer 4 basic questions students may have

about their work in Knowledge Forum

S Questions designed to help students reflect on the KB

principles

S See http://kbc2.edu.hku.hk (Tools)

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4 Questions

1. Are we a community (class) that collaborates?

2. Are we putting our knowledge together?

3. How do our ideas develop over time?

4. What’s happening to my own ideas?

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Are we a community that

collaborates?

S All students should have an audience for their work

(readership, responses, etc.)

S Big picture overview of extent of interaction (not quality)

S Linked to principles such as democratization of

knowledge, idea diversity

S Aim to shift attention from individual behaviors to how the

community as a whole is doing

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Students who have at least 5

students who have created a

build-on note

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Are we putting our knowledge

together?

S Besides direct responses, are students creating links

between ideas and creating rise-above notes to integrate

ideas and achieve higher levels of conceptualization?

S Most relevant principles: rise-above, community

knowledge

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Note linking

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How do our Ideas Develop?

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What is Happening to my own

Notes?

S Allows students to reflect on the effectiveness of their

own notes

S Rank student’s own notes by #reads, build-ons, etc.

S Propose theories about patterns between students

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What’s Happening to my Own

Notes?

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Usability tests

S Systematic checks on accuracy of interpretation of SQL

tables

S Feedback from teachers on interface design, features

S Testing by teachers and students on their own databases

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S “One person’s thoughts can be limited; no matter how

perfect you think your idea is, there is always room for

advancement. I feel happy that not only my buddies but

also others came and built onto my notes. I will certainly

write more notes that inquire [into] things happening

around me everyday. Then, everyone will be able to say

something, to write response to my notes. Ultimately, I

want to expand my thoughts by seeing how others

respond to my notes.”

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S “It’s not ‘the more the better.’ Here from ‘Are we a community that collaborates’, I can see I do not have many collaborators. But I’ll cross examine what I have learned, how the ideas are improved, how our thoughts are sharpened in the other three functions (‘Are we putting our knowledge together?’/‘How do our ideas develop over time?’/‘What’s happening to my own notes?’) before I make an assessment about myself. [The] KCA definitely helps me ‘visualize’ the process. I am happy that two of my notes have been built-on . . . seven times, which [makes it] one of the top developed notes. This is a big encouragement although my collaborators are not many.”

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Current work

S Explorations of a wide range of KF databases to study

the range of results

S Extended trials in classrooms that are embedded in KB

efforts

S Band 3 (Bottom-10) school, visual arts course grades 9-11

S Band 1 school: Grade 12 Chinese

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http://kbc2.edu.hku.hk

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