Author: Gail Casey This report presents the results of a classroom action research that looked at how one teacher redesigned her curriculum while integrating social media, Web 2.0 and face-to-face teaching in an Australian public high school.

1. From the field
Knowledge-building: Designing for learning using
social and participatory media
Author This report presents the results of a classroom action research that looked at how one
teacher redesigned her curriculum while integrating social media, Web 2.0 and face-to-
Gail Casey, Deakin
face teaching in an Australian public high school.
University, Geelong,
Oceania
It explores the qualities that social and participatory media bring to the classroom
gcas@deakin.edu.au
while focussing on students as active and valued participants in the learning process.
Building knowledge using the uniqueness of social media enabled students to become
active and valued resources for both the teacher and their peers. Designing for learning
Tags
is a key challenge facing education today; this case offers ideas for learning designers
social and participatory and contributes to a research base that can support educators from all sectors.
media, online learning,
knowledge-building,
classroom action research,
secondary school 1. Introduction
Today’s youth are growing up in a digital world. Where and how they learn is changing as
mobile learning and social networking become part of their every day life. As a result of this
phenomenon, what it means to teach and learn is changing as new technologies make it
possible to easily tap into the knowledge and skills that students bring with them into the
classroom. Valuing their often hidden talents can be a difficult task within a high school cur-
riculum program. As this research found, venturing beyond the walls of the classroom, to
design learning that involves knowledge-building activities, is well supported by the integra-
tion of online social media, Web 2.0 and face-to-face teaching; producing a flexible student-
centred environment.
Course design using Web 2.0 technologies needs to be seen as ‘emergent’ (Mason 2008, p.
155). When designing the projects used throughout this research the teacher/researcher in-
corporated concepts of student empowerment, user generated content, and the harnessing
of collective intelligence which Mason (2008, p. 155) describes as a mismatch between cen-
tralised control (traditional course design) and increased user control (course design reflect-
ing Web 2.0 practice). This is a time where pervasive media and a technology landscape is
becoming increasingly global, participatory and connected, one in which learners and teach-
ers can increasingly become creators of knowledge rather than mere consumers of prepared
messages and ideas (Jacobsen 2010).
Schools at present are justifiably wary of social media in their classroom. Over the last four
years the researcher has been using social media in her classroom and, as a result, provided
students with an environment involving more freedom and flexibility than the traditional
classroom. A major issue of concern is that teachers are not available to monitor students
twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; hence, an element of trust and understanding
must be built. For some young people, monitoring their own developed online site for new
activity or comment can become a seemingly addictive pastime but as Mason (2008, p. 70)
discusses, there are many advantages in using the unique qualities of social media when in
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2. From the field
the classroom: they require students to participate, think, con- proximately 900. The data collected included teacher planning
tribute and become active in their learning. documents, field notes, student work, end-of-week reflections,
mid-term and end-of-term reflections as well as critical friend
2. Research Design and peer feedback. Students used pseudonyms when online
which they could change at any time hence they often could
This research is a qualitative study investigating emergence, not identify who a student was or from which class they were
connections and designs for learning. The connections now be- a member.
ing made, outside the classroom, with social media and learn-
ing, demonstrate that what it means to teach and learn is chang-
ing. The researcher combined Graham Nuthall’s (2007) “lens on
3. Designing for learning - knowledge
learning” with Luckin’s (2010) knowledge building pedagogy to building
help her conceptualise and analyse data whilst making links to Knowledge building pedagogy is based on the premise that au-
social constructivist teaching in addition to chaos and complex- thentic, creative knowledge work can take place in school class-
ity theories. rooms – knowledge work that does not merely emulate the
work of mature scholars or designers but that substantively ad-
This study uses an action research method. The researcher is
vances the state of knowledge in the classroom community and
a PhD student as well as the classroom teacher and uses Arm-
situates it within the larger societal knowledge building effort
strong and Moore’s (2004, p. 13) framework of the action
(Scardamalia & Bereiter 2006). By using one online Ning each
research spiral which explicitly seeks to encourage inclusive
semester as a shared social networked classroom the teacher/
processes through research design, practice and process, and
researcher could observe the building and sharing of knowledge
research outcomes. This action research cycle included the de-
that occurred through formal teacher directed projects and in-
signing of learning experiences that combined social media with
formal student directed activities. One could also monitor the
face-to-face teaching and Web 2.0. The data was collected over
visitors to the Ning from around the world. At times classes en-
approximately 18 months commencing July, 2010 and was col-
gaged in global projects but the Ning was not used directly for
lected from all of the teacher/researchers semester long-class-
these. It is interesting however, to see the selection of wider
es. The teacher/researcher taught 7 semester-length classes
audience shown in Figure 1 which shows the automated visitor
during the first semester and 5 during the second semester.
maps for each of the 3 Nings at the time of writing this paper
The third semester of data collection was still in progress at the
(each computer’s unique identifier ensures that any one com-
time of writing this paper. Students were aged between 13 and
puter is only registered once). This perhaps shows some work
16 years of age and the average class size was 25. All students
towards building, what Scardamalia and Bereiter call, societal
during the first two semesters of data collection were from one
knowledge.
Year 7 to 12 co-educational public high school in Geelong, Aus-
tralia. Students were predominantly from mid-range socioeco- Throughout this research, students were faced with a wide
nomic backgrounds and the school student population was ap- range of tools which encouraged them to think, create and
Semester 2, 2011 classroom Ning
Semester 2, 2010 classroom Ning Semester 1, 2011 classroom Ning Screen clipping taken: 19/10/2011
Screen clipping taken: 19/10/2011 Screen clipping taken: 19/10/2011
Figure 1: Visitors recorded on each of the three online Nings used during the research
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3. From the field
share. Multimodal methods of learning were at their fingertips them as members of a knowledgbe building community (Scar-
and new literacies became part of the day-to-day learning cycle. damalia & Bereiter 2006, p. 98).
Some examples of student work follow and are drawn from the
Figure 2 shows a screen clip of an animated podcast made by a
large quantity of data collected as students used a wide range of
Year 7 (13 year old) student during an Internet safety project.
Web 2.0 tools. These included:
This was made using a ‘Voki’ at http://www.voki.com/ and this
• Survey generators - http://polldaddy.com/ can be heard by following the link below the screen clip. The
• Picture podcasting - http://voicethread.com/, http://www. work involved students choosing an animated character fol-
voki.com/, http://blabberize.com/ lowed by them choosing a character voice. They then typed an
• Photo editing - http://www.picnik.com/, http://click7.org/ Internet safety message onto the screen which was read aloud
image-mosaic-generator/?create, http://zoom.it/arOi by the animated character when their work was published.
• Word clouds - http://www.tagxedo.com/, http://www. Students were keen to hear each others Voki and struggling
wordle.net/ students quickly understood the requirements of the task by
• Cartoon makers - http://www.toondoo.com/, http://www. watching the work of their peers. Learning occurred not only by
makebeliefscomix.com/ students producing their own work but by listening to the work
• Movie making with copyright free music - http://animoto. of others.
com/
• Animation creators - http://www.xtranormal.com/
watch/6919105/identity-theft-2
• Picture globe generator - http://taggalaxy.de/
• Picture editor - http://www.picnik.com/
• Mind mapping - https://bubbl.us/, http://www.wallwisher.
com/
• Real world pictures - http://www.google.com/earth/index.
html, http://photosynth.net/, http://maps.google.com/
• Timeline creator - http://www.timetoast.com/
• QR code generator - http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/
Figure 2: Animated podcast made by a student using a ‘Voki’ for
qr-code-generator/ an Internet Safety project, http://ghs2010.ning.com/group/int
• Data visualization - http://ghs2011.ning.com/group/data- ernetsafety?groupUrl=internetsafety&id=6203891%3AGrou
visualisation p%3A4301&xg_pw=&page=2#comments
Screen clipping taken: 17/10/2011, 4:28 PM
Knowledge-building represents an attempt to refashion educa-
tion in a fundamental way (Scardamalia & Bereiter
2006, p. 97) so that it becomes a coherent effort to
initiate students into a knowledge-creating culture.
The following discussion of student work provide ex-
amples of students not only developing knowledge-
building competencies but also coming to see them-
selves and their work as part of, what Scardamalia and
Bereiter call, the civilisation-wide effort to advance
knowledge frontiers. In this context, the integration
of social media, Web 2.0 and face-to-face teaching
became a realistic means for students to connect
with this civilisation-wide knowledge and to make
their classroom work a part of it. This is a shift from
Figure 3: Video clip made by a student using ‘Animoto’ for a
treating students as learners and inquirers to treating digital footprints project, http://ghs2010.ning.com/group/
digitalfootprints, Screen clipping taken: 17/10/2011, 4:28 PM
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4. From the field
Figure 3 shows a 30 second long video made online by a Year 7 room, new literacies, that are becoming part of students’ out-
student using Animoto (http://animoto.com/) during a digital of-school lives, were also easily incorporated. These concepts
footprints project. By using Animoto the student could upload are supported by many academics including Alvarez (2001),
their own still pictures and select from a wide variety of music Fletcher, (2007) Glover and Oliver (2008) and Hahn (2008). Aca-
which is free of copyright to add to their video. Students en- demic interest in the consequences of the use of technology
joyed watching the created works of their peers and this moti- and the use of media in the expansion of knowledge and the
vated them to learn the concepts of the project, complete the development of learning and pedagogy, have shifted away from
task and to integrate their own creativity, knowledge and skills. the linear issues of ‘use’ and ‘outcomes’ to more nuanced con-
cerns with the design and evaluation of learning technologies,
4. Designing for learning - Integrating as well as the social complexities of their use (Selwyn & Loliver
2011).
Social and Participatory Media with
Face-to-Face teaching
Many students, in the developed world,
come with knowledge that enables them
to create, connect and form a partnership
in the learning process; but these are not
widely used in the classroom, as discussed
by Thomas and Brown.
“The kind of learning that will define
the twenty-first century is not taking
place in a classroom – at least not in
today’s classroom. Rather, it is happen-
ing all around us, everywhere, and it is
powerful”. (p. 17)
Authentic integration of ICT is important
if one is to think differently about learning
and to explore ways to reproduce some of
Thomas and Brown’s ideas of twenty-first
century powerful learning. Throughout her
research, the teacher/researcher found
that she had to, at times, “unlearn” many of
her traditional teaching practices and to be-
come part of a community of learners with
her students.
Social media are about the content and the
building of a sense of community. Using a
social network, such as a Ning, in the class-
room allowed the teacher/researcher not
only to incorporate multimedia and multi-
modal texts but also to share these quickly
and easily, providing a collaborative learn-
ing environment for students to commu-
nicate. By incorporating social media into Figure 4: How I spend my time project – students collected their own data which
they published & communicated online.
the day-to-day lives of students in the class-
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5. From the field
esses; processes that would normally take them
up to five periods (250 minutes) to complete
were completed in only one or two periods (up to
100 minutes). During these occasions a buzz ex-
isted in the classroom and students would be out
of their seat asking each other for help, compar-
ing notes and being enthusiastically supportive to
their peers. The online medium also offered al-
ternatives which helped some students avoid the
face-to-face shyness and awkwardness of other
modes of sharing such as exchanging physical
sheets of paper, moving into physical groups and
standing out the front of the classroom present-
ing PowerPoint slides.
Figure 5: The number of peer replies to student made help
videos varied depending on the video topic and how When discussing our networked society, Bonk
long the video took to publish. (2009, p. 327) asserts that this new economy now includes mul-
tiple voices and viewpoints that can be raised, debated and ex-
tended, based on personal experiences and observations. But
Luckin (2010, p. 169), when discussing new opportunities for
who helps to ready our students for such an economy? Figures
learning, describes the increased connectivity between people
5 and 6 are screen clips from the classroom Ning showing exam-
and between the physical and virtual realities of their world.
ples of these multiple voices. These voices provided supportive
Examples of this can be seen in Figure 4, 5 and 6 where stu-
and constructive peer feedback that continued to evolve over
dents connect with each other through projects that contained
time through the action research cycle. The teacher/researcher
elements that related to their real lives. When students shared
believes that she had far greater success with developing stu-
their analysis and published work online, it supported students
dent voices online when comparing peer feedback with her face-
in a variety of ways. Some students used it as a support struc-
to-face classroom. When using student face-to-face feedback,
ture for their own work and others engaged in a comparison
often students would quickly loose interest in their peers’ work
with their own work while some preferred to provide critical
and provided little if any constructive feedback; class time given
commentary. All students are different and as Luckin (2010, p.
to this type of activity usually led to students being distracted
173) points out; “we need to pause and consider how we might
from the task. Students in Figure 5 produced ‘supporting’ mate-
take more of a learner’s resources into account when designing
rials for their peers and in return their peers provided feedback
technology-rich learning activity and, as a result, how we may
to support improvement of work, as can be seen in the number
do better by our learners”.
of replies in the screen clip. The Ning provided a mechanism for
Figure 4 is a screen clip showing a student’s published analysis students to share their skills and knowledge, to help others, and
and graph of the data they collected on how they spend their hence not only to become active in the teaching and learning
time during a specific week; this student’s pseudonym was process but to become valued participants. Students became
‘Mouse’ at the time the screen clip was taken. Through this increasingly aware of their online voices, and their growth as
project, students gained a deeper understanding of themselves digital citizens was essential as the research progressed.
and their daily lives as well as an awareness of how they differ
Figure 6 shows a screen clip of three examples of peer feedback
from their peers. Students were not only engaged but motivated
and some initial peer assessment. For a student to be able to
to gain the skills and knowledge which allowed them to collect,
provide this type of feedback they must have an understanding
create, publish and compare themselves with others because
of the requirements of the task and what their peer has done as
this enabled them to connect, converse and share this informa-
well as how their feedback will help their peer achieve success.
tion with their peers online. This was one of a number of occa-
This type of assessment was kept simple and students were ex-
sions when students achieved a series of very complicated proc-
pected to give a high (H), medium (M) or low (L) assessment to
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6. From the field
• Peer-to-peer feedback was set up so that
each student had 3 peers to provide feed-
back for improvement and assessment.
• Work was presented via a range of media
and published, for all to share and to see,
in ways which could be used as models for
other students.
• Students produced help tutorials to sup-
port the learning of others and connected
learning occurred; hence, the class frame of
thought moved past the concept of ‘cheat-
ing’ and into a shared framework of learn-
Figure 6: Students giving peers feedback and assessment.
ing.
To monitor and participate in the Ning required an increase in
three of their peers. Students generally found it easy to under-
the teacher’s work time. As a partial counter-balance, it was
stand the concept of; a low, not complete and little effort; high,
found that the teacher/researcher successfully reduced her
complete and enjoyable to view; medium, not high or low. This
time spent on correction by implementing peer and self-assess-
type of assessment moved the teacher/researcher away from
ment with students and by making more effective use of her
detailed rubrics and wordy descriptions of assessment expecta-
classroom observations. This led to a valuable triangulation of
tions. The Ning social network enabled student feedback and
assessment data. Reviewing many of the screen clips collected
assessment to be open but supportive and students were able
in this study, one can see the diversity of roles and activities
to learn from each other using the open publishing nature of the
in which the students engaged. Initial analysis of the research
online social networking system. Training students to critique
data suggests that by combining Web 2.0, face-to-face teaching
and assess continued to be a challenging and evolving process.
and social media, where students made online friends and used
pseudonyms, has changed the way they work, communicate
4. Conclusion and learn but as Hattie (2008, p. 240) reminds us, the beliefs
Building a shared framework for learning was made possible and conceptions held by teachers need to be questioned – not
by using the action research cycle to develop different ways for because they are wrong (or right) but because the essence of
students to construct and share their skills and knowledge. This good teaching is that teacher expectations and conceptions
included using their phones to scan, take pictures and upload must be subjected to debate, refutation and investigation. It is
content. During one semester, there were more than 150 stu- of note that this research is of an extended process where ‘en-
dents sharing the one Ning and these students made more than gagement’ would not be sufficient. It was not a trial of a ‘good
forty online student directed groups where, within the normal idea’ over a week or two, but lasting almost six months with
school rules of behaviour, they were able to express themselves each student group. This meant that one or two interest-grab-
freely. Students needed support and scaffolding, not only to as- bing ideas would not be sufficient to sustain the process and ac-
sist them in helping their peers in the learning process, but also tually changing the way student learning occurred in the class-
to understand and embed the wide range of Web 2.0 tools. The room, using resources both physical and online, was essential. It
teacher was also new to many of these practices and needed was also essential that the teacher gave ground to the students,
to work with the students as partners in the learning process. learnt with the students and learnt from the students.
• Students came with knowledge and skills and were encour- There has been much research done on teaching and learning
aged to use and further develop these as well as to share in the traditional classroom. In the normal context of the class-
them. room even the most experienced, sensitive teacher is unable to
• Social networking was used to enable students to become measure how students internalise and make sense of classroom
the resources for their peers. activities (Collins & O’Toole 2006, p. 609). Graham Nuthall’s re-
search, as discussed by Collins and O’Toole, shows that, what
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7. From the field
matters to teachers is that they provided their students with
Fletcher, GH 2007, ‘Bloggers welcome here: social networking
positive experiences, that there was a good atmosphere in their
tools appear poised to enter the school system. It’s a breakthrough
classes, that students felt safe and successful in their learning
long overdue.(commentary)’, T H E Journal (Technological Hori-
activities, that personal difficulties could be worked out and that
zons In Education), vol. 34, no. 11, p. 8(1).
life was happy and good for them and their students. Nuthall’s
research challenges educators to value these but to also move Glover, I & Oliver, A 2008, ‘Hybridisation of Social Networking
to accepting responsibility for greater student understanding. and Learning Environments’, in World Conference on Educational
This is fundamental to effective teaching and learning and the Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2008,Vienna,
challenge is to have students demonstrate their understanding Austria, pp. 4951-8.
in practice (Collins & O’Toole 2006, p. 609). Social and participa-
tory media allows more than just the teacher to be the judge of Hahn, J 2008, ‘Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation
this understanding of practice. of Digital Natives’, Library Journal, vol. 133, no. 13, p. 105.
Hattie, J 2008,Visible learning : a synthesis of meta-analyses relat-
Acknowledgement ing to achievement, Routledge, London : New York.
The author would like to thank her Deakin PhD Supervisor, Pro-
Jacobsen, M 2010, ‘A Special Issue of the Canadian Journal of
fessor Terry Evans, for his ongoing assistance throughout the
Learning and Technolgy on Knowledge Building’, Canadian Jour-
study and acknowledge the quality of his advice.
nal of Learning & Technology, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 1-4.
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