Knowledge Forum
Tool developed by Marlene Scardamalia, Carl Bereiter, Christopher Teplovs and more at OISE to promote knowledge building, which builds on constructivist ideas. Initially called CSILE—Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments— first used in early prototype version in 1983 in a university course, more fully implemented in 1986 in an elementary school (Scardamalia et al., 1989Scardamalia, M., Bereiter, C., {McLean}R. S, Swallow, J., & Woodruff, E. (1989). Computer-supported intentional learning environments. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 5(1), 51–68.).
Although programs such as CMAP allow for the collaborative creation of concept maps, CSILE/Knowledge Forum remains one of a few digital environments, if not the only one, that supports collaborative knowledge construction by means of movable, user-created digital objects in a two-dimensional space: text has meaning; images, graphics and multimedia have meaning; and that meaning can be augmented by spatial relationships. Work continues to explore the roles of animation and three-dimensional space as means to understand the processes by which knowledge is created in an online environment, and how they can be supported and improved. McAuley et al., 2010McAuley, A., Stewart, B., Siemens, G., & Cormier, D. (2010). The MOOC Model for Digital Practice.
