Personalised knowledge representations: the missing half of online discussions

In this paper, we highlight a concern with using online discussion for learning. We argue that there is a lack of technological support for the development of personalised knowledge representation for most online discussion forums. Analyses of existing discussion forums suggest that there is a range of collective knowledge representation mechanisms which support a group or a community of learners. However, such mechanisms may not necessarily lead to learners’ internalisation of collective knowledge into personalised knowledge. We discuss how internalisation can be facilitated through the notion of knowledge objects, while externalisation can be mediated by idea artefacts. These notions are translated into technological supports and suggestions of how online discussions can be designed differently from the common threaded discussion. Introduction In this paper we suggest the need for the dyadic nature of knowledge representation in online discussions, which consists of both the collective and the personalised dimensions. We recognise that most current online discussion forums lack the facility to support personalised knowledge representation. As a result, participants are either overwhelmed by the vast volume of contributions (if they are motivated to participate) or do not have ownership of most of the discussed issues (and thus are de-motivated to continue participating). Such phenomena connote a lopsided focus on the collective nature of knowledge representations. We identify the missing personalised half of the dyad by discussing the distinction between “objective knowledge” and “subjective knowledge” (Popper, 1979). Objective knowledge is collective in nature whereas subjective knowledge is parallel to personalised understanding. We further analyse the dyadic relationship between the collective and personalised knowledge representations 04_DerThan 31/5/2002 5:31 pm Page 279