Abstract
The purpose of the present article is to examine the knowledge-practice based approach to technology-enhanced learning. Toward that end, the article reports the efforts of an elementary-school teacher and researchers in promoting genuine inquiry at the 4th and 5th grade of a Finnish elementary school. We will describe implementation and social organization regarding ‘The Project of Artefacts––the Past, the Present and the Future’ that engaged students in collaborative inquiry and design across 13 months (almost three semesters). Knowledge Forum (KF), a virtual platform for the interchange of information, provided tools and practices that facilitated creative working within participating students and teachers. This was accomplished in a meaningful social setting which was culturally rich and where material and conceptual artefacts played dominant roles. In this article, the analysis of the teacher’s project diary and the contributions to the KF database provides an overview of the knowledge practices enacted during the project. The distribution of knowledge-creation activities during the project reveals that the teacher assumed a role of organizer concerning shared knowledge practices instead of controlling all aspects of students’ learning. Simultaneously, however, students were not left working without guidance; the teacher structured their collaborative efforts with the help of KF and by directing classroom activities.
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Acknowledgements
The project is funded by the Academy of Finland, under project no. 217068. We would like to thank Marianne Bollström-Huttunen and her students for their participation on the study. Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, Kai Hakkarainen and teacher Marianne Bollstöm-Huttunen co-designed the present project through repeated cycles. Marjut Viilo and Kaiju Kangas assisted and were responsible for video recording of the project. Marjut Viilo developed the method of collecting and analysing the project diaries. She, together with Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Kai Hakkarainen, wrote this article. Ms Viilo studies in the Doctoral Programme for Multidisciplinary Research on Learning Environments. The knowledge-practice perspective that was used to conceptually framing the study was development within context of Knowledge-Practices Laboratory project (www.kp-lab.org).
Authors’ contributions
The study was based on Professors Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen’s and Kai Hakkarainen’s development work in the field of computer-supported collaborative learning and designing. M.Ed. Marjut Viilo is a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Multidisciplinary Research on Learning Environments. She and Professor Seitamaa-Hakkarainen designed the study, collected the data, and developed methods used in analysis. Viilo was responsible for analysis of the project diary data and interpretation of the results. Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Viilo wrote the manuscript together with Professor Kai Hakkarainen. Professor Hakkarainen provided theoretical and methodological guidance during the process. This research work was supported by the Academy of Finland under project no. 201751.
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Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, P., Viilo, M. & Hakkarainen, K. Learning by collaborative designing: technology-enhanced knowledge practices. Int J Technol Des Educ 20, 109–136 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-008-9066-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-008-9066-4