Educational Applications of a Networked Communal Database

Abstract

In this article we present results from classroom uses of Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) which has functioned as a central, cross-curricular knowledge medium in four elementary classes, spanning Grades 1 through 6. Discussions of the theory and design principles guiding CSILE development have been provided elsewhere (Scardamalia & Bereiter, in press-a; Scardamalia, Bereiter, McLean, Swallow, & Woodruff, 1989). Here we want to focus on one major characteristic of CSILE, its student-generated communal database, and to discuss findings that relate to its uses and effects. The communal database is central to CSILE's design, but we believe it can play an important role in any educational software system intended to foster inquiry, intellectual discourse, and social construction of knowledge. There are a number of experiments in which classroom computers play an important role in students' knowledge-related interactions. Educational experiments reported in the 1980s were based on computer conferencing (Black, Levin, Mehan, & Quinn, 1983), electronic mail (Hiltz, 1988; Levin, Riel, Rowe, & Boruta, 1985; Riel, 1983; Sayers, 1989), interactive writing programs making use of dialog journals (Staton, Shuy, Peyton, & Reed, 1988), and letters (Heath & Branscombe, 1985). The use of networks for realtime written interaction