TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence - TL•NCE

TeleLearning Network develops software with universal learning appeal

Here's a tall order: develop a computer program that works effectively in schools, businesses and policy-driven organizations. And oh yes, it should also be useful for people with learning disabilities and student who use English as a second language.

Sound impossible? Researchers at the TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence (TL-NCE) have done just this in the form of Knowledge Forum, a problem-centred collaborative database operated over a computer network.
"Users create text and graphic notes, read and build onto each others' notes, and create views to represent different aspects of their collaborative work," says Dr. Marlene Scardamalia, project leader of the Knowledge-building Communities project. "Using the computer as an organization and support tool, users carry on discussions and debates to develop a working, knowledge-building community."

A particularly interesting example of the software in action has emerged from Rose Avenue School in Toronto. This inner-city elementary school is populated by English as a Second Language (ESL) students, representing 80 or more different languages. A couple of years ago, the researchers began using Knowledge Forum in a grade three and a grade four class.

"The kids loved it, and so do the teachers," says Mary Lamon, a member of the research team. She visits the Rose Avenue School a few times a week to give ongoing professional development support to teachers using Knowledge Forum. "They became very sophisticated about theories and theory-building. This learning transfers to other domains and helps them develop a generalized way of thinking and tackling problems."

The experience also showed that students are very motivated to express their ideas and keen to get beyond the surface details to look deeper into a topic; in other words, to think about what they're thinking about. Knowledge Forum became part of the very fabric of the classroom.

In 2001, the researchers used Knowledge Forum in a database exchange project to link the grade four ESL students with their counterparts at the Institute for Child Study (ICS), the OISE laboratory school. Each class used questions generated by the other on specific topics to make the connection: the students at ICS shared their knowledge of light and sound, while the students at Rose Avenue shared their knowledge of earth sciences.
Both teachers and students felt that database exchanges were an excellent way to learn.

"We were extremely pleased with the results of the exchanges," says Richard Reeve, a teacher/researcher at ICS. "It was a great example of the power of telelearning: schools helping other schools in knowledge building, and kids helping other kids to learn."

The benefits of Knowledge Forum are not limited to the classroom, however. Consulting companies use the program to map out strategies, consult with various businesses, keeps clients up to the minute on projects, and gain instant feedback. Healthcare organizations seeking best practices also use it. "Because best practices evolve continually, people need to keep up with new developments and new ways of implementing them" says Lamon. "People also come at the information from a number of different disciplines. Knowledge Forum provides the perfect tool for exchange."

Knowledge Forum is currently used in 18 other countries.

The TL-NCE is one of 20 federally funded Networks of Centres of Excellence, the objectives of which are to enhance the Canadian economy and our quality of life. The program is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), in partnership with Industry Canada.

To learn more about TeleLearning research initiatives, visit http://csile.oise.utoronto.ca.