Knowledge construction in social networks: does it really matter?

Abstract

Knowledge construction in social networks is a critical issue for educators who research the opportunities and challenges those new environments offer for online education. In order to contribute to the debate we present in this article an empirical study whose objective was to analyze online interactions in a discussion forum of a social network that gathers a community of Portuguese speaking teachers who discuss online topics related to professional development in ICT. The theoretical framework is the Online Collaborative Learning Theory – OCL developed by [1] as well as the concept of cognitive presence as presented by [2] who developed a grid to detect and evaluate the process of knowledge construction in online asynchronous interactions. As advocated by OCL although modest, results show that in the analyzed social network forum of discussion it is possible to attain higher levels thinking and collaboration. The study also shows that Garrison´s grid to detect cognitive presence is useful to pursue and anatomize the process of knowledge construction in a social network. However results also show that there is a long path to go in order to enhance the processes of collaboration and the development of the so desired autonomy of social network member to manage their own processes of knowledge construction becoming more and more independent of the e-moderator of the environment.