Ideas for implementing knowledge communities into mathematics classrooms.

1. Convergence Culture
{ Turning a Mathematics classroom into a knowledge
community through the use of New Digital Media

2. What is a Knowledge
Community?
 Groups of people with shared interests using
online forums or blogs to share, gain or
enhance knowledge about a specific topic.
 Knowledge communities have a greater
collective intelligence than indviduals.

3. Benefits of knowledge
communities
 Teaches students
 About New Digital Media
 Internet safety
 Communication strategies
 Interpersonal skills

4. Benefits of knowledge
communities
 Encourages
 Enhanced reading and writing skills
 Collaboration between students and teachers
 Conceptual understanding of mathematic topics
through discussion
 Students with different levels of knowledge to
participate
 Student engagement through technology

5. Specific Benefits for
mathematics classrooms
 For students to gain a deeper understanding of
mathematics they should do the following:
 Discuss problem solving methods
 Discuss results of problem solving
 Justify steps and procedures
 Use mathematical terminology
 Discuss multiple representations of problems

6. Implementation
 Knowledge communities can be used both in and out of the
classroom.
 In the classroom:
 Students can be grouped to solve problems and discuss their
solutions with classmates.
 If internet access is available students can complete web quests
and answer teacher created questions on classroom blogs.
 Students can use graphing technology such as GeoGebra
(GeoGebra.org) to create multiple representations.

7. Implementation
 Out of the classroom:
 From personal computer students can access teacher made blogs,
wiki’s, or web quests to answer discussion questions.
 Before, during and after solving homework problems students
can discuss their thoughts and procedures with other students.
 Teachers can monitor student interactions and give feedback on
discussions.
 Students can create, edit and share their own Wiki sites covering
mathematical topics.
 Students can participate in larger forums to gain more
knowledge to add to their classrooms knowledge community

8. Teacher Resources
 The following websites can help teachers to
implement knowledge communities into their
classrooms:
 Wiki’s: wikispaces.com
 Moodle: Moodle.org
 Blogs: blogger.com
 Web Quests: Zunal.com
 GeoGebra: GeoGebra.org