Towards a New Learning: The Scholar Social Knowledge Workspace, in Theory and Practice

Abstract

This article describes the thinking behind the development of Scholar, a 'social knowledge' technology developed as part of a series of research and development projects at the University of Illinois. Seven pedagogical openings are identified in this article, possibilities for the creation of innovative learning environments afforded by a new generation of educational technologies: ubiquitous learning, active knowledge production, multimodal knowledge representations, recursive feedback, collaborative intelligence, metacognitive reflection and differentiated learning. The article explores these ideas in general terms, and also describes the ways in which the Scholar environment attempts to translate these ideas into practice.

Enriching Online Education through Differentiated Learning

“…Yet, none of these technologies is particularly new, since shifts in educational media have been a long time coming. In fact, digital media do not necessarily change anything fundamental in schools (Cope & Kalantzis, 2017), and some of them have already been present for quite a long time in traditional schooling contexts and not rarely have been used to replicate old teaching and learning practices (Knobel & Lanlshear, 2007;Lankshear & Knobel, 2008;Cope & Kalantzis, 2013).…”

“…These elearning ecologies are, therefore, pedagogical and epistemic forms that underlie reflexive/inclusive education (Cope and Kalantzis, 2017). In order to operationalize such elearning ecologies, Cope and Kalantzis (2013) heuristically segmented them into seven -new learning‖ affordances (e-Learning Affordances): ubiquitous learning, active knowledge production, multimodal knowledge representations, recursive feedback, collaborative intelligence, metacognitive reflection and differentiated learning. The authors also point out that, in the CGScholar environment, these affordances constitute an ‗agenda for new learning and assessment' to reframe the relations of knowledge and learning, recalibrating traditional modes of pedagogy in order to create learning ecologies which are more appropriately attuned to our times.…”

“…In general terms, the intellectual project might be the same, but the topics may vary‖ (Cope and Kalantzis, 2013, p. 354). Therefore, rather than maintaining homogeneity, typical of a traditional classroom, CGScholar deals with the principle of productive diversity or the complementarity of differential knowledge and experiences (Cope and Kalantzis, 2013).…”

Learner differences in theory and practice†

“…Recursive feedback or formative assessment (Black & Wiliam, 1998;Wiliam, 2011) provides responses to learners that are always calibrated to the specifics of who they are, and the knowledge they are representing in their learning. In the era of inexpensive and accessible social knowledge technologies, no learning environment should be without always-available feedback mechanisms -machine feedback and machine-mediated social feedback (Cope & Kalantzis, 2013;Cope, Kalantzis, McCarthey, Vojak, & Kline, 2011).…”

How do students and lecturers experience the interactive use of handheld technology in large enrolment courses?

“…One such opportunity is the use of technology to transform education. Looking for emerging positive openings , educational reformists Cope and Kalantzis () find that “[t]echnology is one such opening, one of the revolutionary changes of our times. In particular, information and communications technologies have transformed human representational and communicative capacities.” (p. 333).…”