Using Idea Thread Mapper to Support Collaborative Reflection for Sustained Knowledge Building

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: Machines and Digital Agents

Abstract

This paper reports a two-year design experiment conducted in a grade 5/6 classroom that studied a science topic in each year using Knowledge Forum. The focal design innovation focused on engaging students in collaborative reflection on their collective knowledge progress in knowledge building discourse with the support of Idea Thread Mapper (ITM): a timeline-based collective knowledge-mapping tool. Using ITM students reviewed shared focal themes emerging from interactive discourse and identified ideas contributed to each theme as a line of inquiry—an idea thread. Analyses of classroom videos, interviews, online discourse, student portfolios, and pre- and post-test data elaborated the processes and benefits of ITM-aided collaborative reflection to foster student awareness of their collective knowledge and sustained efforts to advance it.

Authors

• Jianwei Zhang, University at Albany - SUNY

• Mei-Hwa Chen, University at Albany - SUNY

• Dan Tao, University at Albany - SUNY

• Sarah Naqvi Naqvi, University of Toronto - OISE

• Ben Peebles, University of Toronto - OISE