A theoretical framework of collaborative knowledge building with wikis: a systemic and cognitive perspective

Wikis provide new possibilities for collaborative knowledge building with artifacts. This paper presents a theoretical framework for describing and understanding the processes which lead to collaborative knowledge building. The model borrows from the systemic approach of Luhmann as well as from Piaget’s theory of equilibration. It describes people’s learning activities as processes of externalization and internalization. Individual learning happens through internal processes of assimilation and accommodation, whereas changes in a wiki’s information space are due to activities of external assimilation and external accommodation. All these equilibration activities are caused by subjectively perceived differences between an individuals’ knowledge space and the wiki’s information space. Differences of medium level are considered to cause cognitive conflicts which activate the described processes of equilibration. Computer-Supported Knowledge Building with Wikis Recently, a variety of new tools fostering computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) and computer-supported cooperative working (CSCW) appeared and established themselves on the WWW. On the one hand, the term Web 2.0 describes a set of new interactive technologies and services on the internet. On the other hand, Web 2.0 refers to a modified utilization of the internet. What is of particular importance in the web 2.0 context for CSCL researchers is the integration of so-called social software (Kolbitsch & Maurer, 2006). Social software refers to systems which facilitate human communication, interaction, and collaboration. These systems support the constitution and maintenance of self-organizing social networks and communities. Weblogs (blogs), file-sharing communities, and especially wikis loom large in this social-software context. Blogs are websites which are used as online diaries. They contain new entries periodically. Usually, blogs are produced by a single author or by a small group of users. But they are open to the public for reading (Blood, 2002; Maurer & Tochtermann, 2002). File-sharing web pages provide private spaces where users can store their documents and a public space where files can be shared with other users. Popular examples of file-sharing communities are services like flickr (a photo sharing website), or youtube (a video sharing website) (Rodriguez, Tan, & Gkantsidis, 2005). Whereas blogs and file-sharing systems are mainly used for pooling information, wikis have special potential for computer-supported collaborative knowledge building. Wikis are web sites which allow users not only to have access to its content but also to change the content online (Leuf & Cunningham, 2001). Wikis are mostly used to write texts. Their special feature is that people can do all kinds of revision of the text: they can create hyperlinks and fill them with text, they can revise texts by adding, deleting or changing any text parts they want to. This way, large groups of like-minded people are able to work collaboratively on one and the same text about a certain topic. In wikis all users collaboratively create one hypertext. An example which illustrates the potency of wikis is the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Here, users mutually develop the world’s largest encyclopedia. Every internet user is allowed to take part in this undertaking. The Wikipedia example will be applied throughout the whole article in order to make our theoretical analysis more concrete. In a wiki people work mutually on one common artifact (cf. Stahl, 2002 for the relevance of artifacts in CSCL). And a multitude of people around the world are able to participate in this process anywhere, anytime. In this article we will ask what makes wikis especially attractive for learning purposes and knowledge building. To examine this question, we will consider several fundamental perspectives on learning and knowledge building. We presuppose that a person’s individual knowledge is a resource for other peoples’ learning (Kafai, 2006; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994). We base our arguments on findings as to how people make use of each others’ knowledge through collaborative knowledge building with artifacts (cf. Bruckman, 2006). We rely on Papert’s approach of