The Artifact Project - History, Science, and Design Inquiry in Technology Enhanced Learning at Elementary Level

The general objective of the present study was to investigate how elementary school students engage in their knowledge construction processes in computer-supported collaborative learning. We will report a longitudinal case study of a teacher’s and researchers’ effort to create classroom activities and social practices that support genuine participation in knowledge-creating inquiry. In this curriculum unit, 'The Artifact Project – the Past, the Present, and the Future', the students were asked to analyze artifacts within their cultural historical context, study physical phenomena related to artifacts, examine designs of prevailing artifacts, and finally to design artifacts for the future. We were interested in the nature of questions and explanations generated by the students in the course of their inquiry mediated by Knowledge Forum. While the present investigation was inspired by Marlene Scardamalia’s and Carl Bereiter’s knowledge building approach, it was focused on examining how pursuit of conceptual artifacts (ideas, concepts, designs, drawings) can productively be integrated with various, materially embodied “hands on” activities, such as taking photos of, drawing, exploring, analyzing, and designing material artifacts. We were, further, interested in the constructive use of students’ references to offline activities and expert resources during their inquiry processes. The nature of knowledge generated diverged substantially from one phase of the study to another; a relatively larger percentage of questions and content-related notes produced during the past (history) part of the project was factual in nature in comparison with the present (science experiments) and future (design activities) parts. The results of the present study indicated that conceptual and material aspects of the participants’ activities supported one another; the participants were clearly both “minds” and “hands” on throughout the project. It appears that teachers would do well to put students ideas into the centre of educational activity, and also to pursue various materially embodied activities (organizing exhibitions, analyzing and describing, and design). Generally, educators would do well to promote students’ undertaking boundary-breaking processes during which connections are forged with expert communities.