A systemic and cognitive view on collaborative knowledge building with wikis

As we agree with Scardamalia and Bereiter (2003) who emphasize the importance of knowledge-creating competencies “in a knowledge society” (Scardamalia 2002, p. 67), we wish to point out the necessity of systematically analyzing the potential of wikis as tools for 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 and Cunningham 2001; Raitman et al. 2005). Wikis are not only available in the WWW but can also be implemented in intranets or on local computers. Wikis do not require software, are easily accessible, and are simple to use for everybody (Désilets et al. 2005). These qualities make wikis valuable tools for a multitude of purposes (Joyce 2005). Wikis are used for knowledge-management (Fuchs-Kittowski and Köhler 2005; Wagner 2006; Wagner and Bolloju 2005) as well as for educational purposes (Bruns and Humphreys 2005; Chong and Yamamoto 2006; Notari 2006; Wang and Turner 2005); in economical (Wagner and Majchrzak 2007) or in political contexts (Makice 2006). Wikis are mostly used to develop written text. Their special feature is that people can do all kinds of revision of the text: they can create hyperlinks and fill them with content, they can revise a text by adding, deleting, or changing any parts they want to (Raitman et al. 2005). In 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 jointly create one hypertext, an activity which allows the collaborative generation of knowledge (Fuchs-Kittowski and Köhler 2005; Köhler and Fuchs-Kittowski 2005). Wikis’ potential for collaborative learning lies in their ability to allow for debate-based learning experiences (Chong and Yamamoto 2006) or to facilitate shaping of knowledge (Reinhold 2006). Wikis can be regarded as media which support learning due to their ability to facilitate collaboration (Kim et al. 2006; Notari 2006), to allow for design-based learning (Rick and Guzdial 2006), to enhance inventiveness (Guzdial et al. 2001), and to support inquiry learning and the co-construction of knowledge (Yukawa 2006). Overall, wikis can be considered to support social constructivist learning in general (Bruns and Humphreys 2005).

Collaborative activities in wikis give rise to, for example, the production of encyclopedias or dictionaries (Joyce 2005). An example which illustrates the potential of wikis is the online encyclopedia Wikipedia (Korfiatis et al. 2006; Lih 2004; Pentzold and Seidenglanz 2006; Wagner 2006). Here, users collaboratively develop the world’s largest encyclopedia. Every internet user is allowed to participate in this undertaking. The Wikipedia example will be applied in this article in order to make our theoretical analysis more concrete. In a wiki people work jointly 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 and at anytime. In this article we will ask what makes wikis supportive of learning and knowledge building¹ (for the particular importance of knowledge building for CSCL cf. Hewitt and Scardamalia 1998; or Scardamalia and Bereiter 1996). To examine this question, our considerations will be based on fundamental perspectives on learning and knowledge building (for diverse implementations of knowledge-building principles in CSCL cf. Kali 2006; Lee et al. 2006; Oshima et al. 2006). We presuppose that a person’s individual knowledge can serve as a resource for other peoples’ learning (Kafai 2006; Scardamalia and Bereiter 1994). We base our arguments on findings as to how people make use of each others’ knowledge through collaborative knowledge building with artifacts (Bruckman 2006; Norman 1991). In this regard we refer to Papert’s approach of constructionism (e.g. Papert 1980, 1987, 1993, 1997; cf. also Kafai 2006) pointing out that our perspective is grounded in a tradition that emphasizes the learner’s active participation in the learning process (cf. Greeno 2006; for a contribution considering this activity approach in wiki research cf. Notari 2006; for an approach analyzing constructivist learning on the WWW cf. Wilson and Lowry 2001).

Luhmann describes systems as dynamic, that is, they develop over time and consist of operations. A system ceases where its mode of operation ceases. Such operations are defined as the production of elements with the help of the elements of the same system. This definition implies that systems are autopoietic and self-referential. They produce their own elements (for a detailed elaboration on the phenomenon of autopoiesis cf. Maturana and Varela 1980; Varela et al. 1974; or Luhmann 1986, 1990). Luhmann presumes that systems continuously develop and recreate themselves. This way, autopoiesis guarantees the system’s permanent continuance. In other words, systems exist due to operations which are followed by further operations of the same kind and so on. That means subsequent operations always build on the results of preceding operations.

Luhmann distinguishes three different kinds of systems: Biological systems operate by means of biological processes. They are autopoietic in the sense that cells create other cells. Psychological or cognitive systems operate via processes of consciousness and cognitive processes, such as retrieval of knowledge from long-term memory (Baddeley 1986, 1992), elaboration of knowledge (Craik and Lockhart 1972), or processes of externalization and internalization of knowledge. They are also autopoietic as cognitions develop further cognitions. Finally, social systems operate by means of communication. In this context, communication is not intended to be a result of people’s activities but a product of social systems.

Each system selects its own elements by establishing a criterion for difference. For this purpose the system applies a specific “binary code”: the social system “arts”, for example, applies a binary code which decides if something is aesthetic or not, the system “science” applies a binary code which decides if something is valid or not, or the systems “politics” applies a code which decides if something has to do with power or not. Applying such a binary code is the way systems operate and develop.

From a system’s perspective the environment is contingent. This means the system cannot anticipate what will happen in the environment, and thus, the environment can irritate the system. So, for each system its environment is more complex than the system itself. But after being irritated, a system may be able to select a limited amount of information available outside its borders. By operating on this information it reduces external complexity, establishes new elements and relations, and thus increases its internal complexity.

Since social and cognitive processes have to be considered separately in the first instance, it is all the more interesting to examine what results from their interplay. Consequently, clearly delineating the “border” between the social system (here: the wiki) and the cognitive systems (of the users) is crucial for understanding how collaborative knowledge building works. What processes are going on when people share their knowledge by creating wikis? What is happening when people work mutually on one common artifact, thereby introducing their knowledge to the community and building new knowledge collaboratively?

In the approach presented here, we propose two processes as the basis for the “crossing of the border” between the social and the cognitive system: we refer to these processes as “externalization” and “internalization” respectively.

For contributing to the development of a wiki, people first have to externalize their knowledge (Klein 1999). They do this by introducing information which reflects their own knowledge. For that purpose, a person’s own knowledge has to be conveyed into a wiki article in a form that maps the person’s knowledge.

The wiki article, then, exists independently from the people who created it, and it develops in a way that is determined by people’s knowledge. The information in the wiki relates to the contributor’s individual knowledge: therefore, the person’s cognitive processes are represented by and reflected in the wiki. A user is only able to contribute something to a wiki if she or he has corresponding knowledge about that topic. Of course, the information in the wiki and the knowledge in a person’s mind are not identical, but they are equivalent to a certain degree. After the process of externalization, the wiki exists independently from the person’s knowledge.

Contributing to an article does not only allow the creation of an artifact, it can also lead to individual learning processes in the contributors. The mental effort necessary for the externalization of knowledge can extend people’s individual knowledge, because externalization requires deeper processing and clarification. This aspect is addressed by the work of Flower and Hayes (1980) as well as Webb (1982). So normally, people who contribute to a wiki article cannot externalize their own knowledge without some changes in their individual knowledge. Through the externalization process people often deepen their knowledge and clarify their understanding. So externalization can lead to individual learning processes, and people who contribute to a wiki article can expand their own individual knowledge.

These processes are tentatively presented in Fig. 1. This illustration is unavoidably a makeshift one, since the matter’s procedural character cannot be expressed adequately in a static figure. In Fig. 1 this learning process is displayed by the grey symbols which expand the cognitive systems CS to CS’. In this figure each symbol represents another aspect of knowledge. Each of the three people externalizes knowledge by contributing to the wiki, and person 1 and 3 develop new knowledge through this activity.

Once a person has contributed to a wiki, then each individual group member can have access to the wiki’s information. This is indicated by the symbols within the wiki in Fig. 1. For the time being, this process of externalization does not require the interaction with other people in a narrow sense. People can externalize their knowledge (and thereby extend their own knowledge) without necessarily addressing other people in the first place. However, with respect to the process of internalization, which will be described in the next section, participation of other people is indispensable.

Inter-individual knowledge transfer and collaborative knowledge building take place when people have the opportunity to work with a wiki and to internalize the information available in the wiki. So people have to process the information and integrate it into their individual knowledge. Through this internalization people develop new knowledge, i.e. people use the wiki’s information to expand their own knowledge. In Fig. 2 the results of such an internalization process is indicated by the striped symbols. Through internalization a cognitive system is expanded to CS”.

Besides this individual creation of knowledge resulting from the internalization of information in a wiki, an additional kind of knowledge-creating process can occur: If people internalize information from the wiki, knowledge can develop which was formerly neither part of their personal knowledge nor part of the wiki. Such additional knowledge development can happen if new knowledge that people have internalized from a wiki interacts with their prior individual knowledge in a way that enables people to create new knowledge, i.e. if people are able to infer new knowledge out of the knowledge they internalized through the work with the wiki and the knowledge they had before. This knowledge can be described as emergent knowledge. A person would not have been able to create this knowledge if she or he had not been internalizing information from work with the wiki. This emergent knowledge is a result of the collaboration and as such represents collaborative knowledge building which is more than mere knowledge sharing. In collaborative knowledge building something qualitatively new has developed. Emergent knowledge has not been part of the individual’s knowledge before (for more elaborate detail on the phenomenon of emergence cf. Holland 1998 or Johnson 2001). In Fig. 2 the cognitive system 3 has developed such emergent knowledge.

In the following text we provide concrete examples for the processes of assimilation and accommodation in the wiki.

The Wikipedia article on CSCL was established by one user who knew that there is a field called CSCL and decided to write an article on this topic. On the 28th of March 2006 this user created an article and contributed some information on the general goals and purposes of CSCL. On the 29th of August 2006 another user read the provided information, decided to act in response to this information, and contributed some external links she or he considered useful in the context of CSCL and so on. This way, communicative processes take place, and the CSCL article continues to develop out of provided information and becomes more and more complete. The wiki develops autopoietically by operations building on preceding operations.

The articles are traceable on the internet where they are accessible for all members of the community. Each member can contribute to an article. On the one hand, she or he can extend or diminish an article by adding or deleting information. On the other hand, a participant can change the artifact’s structure by revising an article. In this sample article both processes of assimilation as well as processes of accommodation can be found.

If we compare, for example, the first version on the 20th of February 2007 with the preceding version we find that there was only an external link (the CSILE/Knowledge Forum link) added. With regard to our presented model we describe this process as an external assimilation. A user simply added a link without any further changes of the previous text. It could be that the user knows more about CSILE and would be able to describe in deeper detail how CSILE fits to CSCL and what significance CSILE has for the development of CSCL, but she or he did not describe this explicitly. In the article’s history we only see that this person first simply added the link and named it “CSILE (Computer-supported intentional learning environment)/ Knowledge Forum”, then – a few minutes later—she or he made a small extension and added “CSILE, the first CSCL environment, and its second generation: Knowledge Forum”. Another reader of the article can interpret this link on the basis of the existing article about CSCL. She or he learns that CSILE was the first environment for CSCL. But this information does not change the information of the article in a deeper way, it is only an amendment. So this represents an example for an external assimilation.

However, information was not only simply attached to the existing information in the CSCL article, but there is also evidence that information in the wiki was also organized in a new way and major concepts were changed in their meaning. For example, this happened in the first version on the 8th of June 2007. On the left hand side of the following schema the previous version can be seen, the right hand side presents the later version⁴. The sentences have been numbered for reference purposes.

The article was revised, the information was rearranged and reconfigured. A1 was moved back to B5, B6 was inserted, and A10 was not accepted. The user emphasized novel aspects, and novel relations became clear. For example A2 was changed in a way that in B2 CSCL is described as aiming to support learners for distance learning and courses offered via internet. In A2 this was much broader and CSCL was referred to “learners working at the same workstation or across networked machines, working synchronously or asynchronously”. The author revising the article introduced the aspect of distance learning also in B6. Whereas in A7 it was said that “CSCL is much more ambitious than previous approaches of ICT-support in education”, in B7 this is revised into “Like many educational activities…”. So in the revised text CSCL is linked very explicitly to distance education, and brings the text to another focus compared to the old text. So we can interpret this revision as an external accommodation, where the orientation of the whole text has changed.

In the following text we provide further examples for the processes of equilibration in Wikipedia. The Wikipedia article about AIDS origin deals with a very controversial topic which led to many revisions, both in terms of assimilation as well as accommodation.

An example for assimilation is the addition of the Russian abbreviation on the 10th of February 2007 (09:27; see footnote 4): “In Russian it got the name SPID (Sindrom Priobretyonnoy Immunitetnoy Defitsitnosti).” On the 6th of May 2007 the Irish abbreviation is added: “… and in Irish SEIF (Siondróm Easpa Imdhíonachta Faighte)”.

As an example for accommodation processes we describe how a contentious theory is integrated into the article. It concerns the theory that blames the research into a polio vaccine for the transition of the AIDS virus to human beings. First of all, the sentence that describes this transition (“[The viruses] most likely got into humans via the hunting and eating of the original primate species. A bite would be another possible route”) is changed on the 3rd of March 2006: “Possible ways for this virus to have originally infected humans include the hunting and eating of the original primate species; a bite would be another possible route”. This relativized the possible explanation. Later an additional sentence is amended (“From this point, the virus ultimately spread to the rest of the world”) which is replaced on the 28th of November 2006 (16:07) by referring to the contentious polio vaccine theory:

“A more controversial theory known as the OPV AIDS hypothesis suggests that the AIDS epidemic was inadvertently started in the late 1950s in the Belgian Congo by Hilary Koprowski’s research into a polio vaccine… After the initial transfer of AIDS from primate to human, the virus ultimately spread to the rest of the world.”

What we can observe here is the reconsideration of this theory which had been introduced before in the version from the 20th of February 2006:

“One currently controversial possibility for the origin of HIV/AIDS was discussed in a 1992 Rolling Stone magazine article by freelance journalist Tom Curtis. He put forward the theory that AIDS was inadvertantly caused in the late 1950’s in the Belgian Congo by Hilary Koprowski’s research into a polio vaccine. Although subsequently retracted due to libe issues surrounding its claims, the Rolling Stone article encouraged another freelance journalist, Edward Hooper, to travel to Africa for 7 years of research into this subject. Hooper’s research resulted in his publishing a 1999 book, The River, in which he alleged that an experimental oral polio vaccine prepared using chimpanzee kidney tissue was the route through which SIV mutated into HIV and started the human AIDS epidemic, some time between 1957 to 1959.”

So this example represents a very elaborate form of accommodation where first a new idea was brought in, then it was weakened and finally it was integrated into the text and the theory received its position besides the other theories.

In Wikipedia such processes of accommodation and assimilation often occur. The application of a history flow diagram could be a method which makes such activities visible (Viégas et al. 2004). Such visualizations of Wikipedia articles show that sometimes only new information is merely added to an existing article, and sometimes an article is completely restructured.