Knowledge processes in various online communities

Title:
Knowledge processes
in various online communities

This presentation provides some examples from a social network interview
with Dutch teenagers.

The examples are used to show that online social spaces provide for (the
development of) different knowledge processes that might be useful in
schools.

These slides were part of a presentation by Wired Up at the 6th ‘Get-In!’
conference (http://get-in.info/) in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, from 18
to 21 May, 2011 and earlier published at: http://get-
in.info/downloads.php?p=presentations

Fleur Prinsen (PhD) was responsible for this part of the presentation.

Can an online chat-community help one
develop Social Knowledge?
Without sociability, access to distributed knowledge is
limited

Interviewer: “Can you tell me about something you have improved
in?”
Dutch boy: “[I have improved]… in talking to people, through…
chatting… I am [was] not that socially apt”
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Interviewer: “Can you use what you learn online at school?”
Dutch Boy: “Yes, maybe with something social, like it went with my
online friend, for instance, when there is people in your class that
you don‟t engage with, that you learn to talk to them, that you can
learn [to become] more social”

Can passive participation in an online
debating community help with the
development of knowledge processes?

Knowledge creation needs active engagement –
Students learn ways to express opinion and build
arguments:

Interviewer: “Are there people in your online network with whom
you undertake activities in which you would like to improve?

Dutch-Moroccan girl: “Debating, for instance”…“Some people are
very good at, for example, starting a discussion and they
provoke very well. Some people know how to give their opinion.
It‟s not like I learn from them directly, that they know like you
do it this or that way, but I watch them and see how they do it.”

Can an online forum community help build
reflective/ social knowledge?

Students learn that values affect what people in communities
believe to be true and how to adjust to different audiences:

Dutch-Moroccan girl: “[on the Dutch] forum, sometimes people put
something that‟s really risky. For example, a discussion about the
pope and what he thought of gay people. Someone responded to that
with ”Gay people are freaky people and they are ill” or something.
And everyone started to respond to him and I think that person
should have thought twice before he put that on the forum. Cause
that thing he said was not very useful.

I think I learned something from that… think before you do. Cause
you can hurt people with things you say.”

Different knowledge processes in different
domains/ knowledge communities?
To evaluate knowledge, sources need to be checked (e.g.
for authority of the source), but are they checked equally in
every domain?

Interviewer: “What might be the difference? If you want to learn
something, for instance about Math, and H [tutor at Schoolonline.nl]
reacts, you don‟t want to know about his prestige then… What‟s the
difference?”
Dutch-Moroccan Boy: “Yes because during eh, when you are on
Morocco.nl, you really need a reliable source, and with eh school you
don‟t, because when you hear something wrong from him, then you could
ask someone else, but with Morocco, that is really… Morocco.nl I find more
important.”
Interviewer: “Why is it more important to get eh… yes reliable information
about the Islam?”
Boy: “Yeah, because if you make mistakes you can be punished for it in the
afterlife, that I find more important than school, (…) belief always is
important.”

Do online communities afford different ways
of learning?
Online learning communities provide different affordances
for the gain of practical knowledge (like visual and social
affordances)

•Interviewer: “If you had to learn online to draw better, how would
that have worked out?”
•Dutch Student: “Uhm, YouTube movies, yes I sometimes watch
those... How you can draw Manga-style”
•Interviewer: “And with other people online?”
•Student: “Yes of course, there are fora for people who draw”

Do the preferred knowledge practices of a
specific community limit (online) co-
creation?
Preferences for offline social contact?

Dutch-Moroccan girl: “if you want to say something, and it is
something important, then you say „No, I cannot say this now on
msn… when we see each other‟ and then we set a place and time
to meet and then we start the topic”

=> Moroccan-background students use online SNS’s more often
to set up face to face meetings and they show a preference for
face to face over online communications.

Are knowledge practices of (online and of
school) communities limited?
Informal learning follows different social pathways
&
Perceptions of institutionalised ways of learning may be
limiting to transfer of knowledge practices:

Interviewer: “And if you had had to learn Moroccan online, would it
have been different?”
Student: “It would have been more difficult... I would not have
learned it so fast... Because yes, now you just learn it and
remember it better, if I had had to do it through internet then it
would have been like... That I would have seen it as a sort of
school and I do not really like that... It should just be able to go
automatically, it just happens and that is a more fun way of
learning”.

Conclusion: Do knowledge practices of
different communities provide opportunities
for school learning?

•Students practice epistemic agency online, in different social
communities, and develop sets of knowledge practices in those
communities

•Awareness at school of the different knowledge practices in
different communities provides opportunities for building onto
these practices

Knowledge processes in various online communities

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