Head of Research Unit

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress
Tel.: +49 7071 979-209
u.cress(aτ)iwm-kmrc.de

Secretary: Margot Stoll
Tel.: +49 7071 979-223
m.stoll(aτ)iwm-kmrc.de

 

 

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• Projects
• Cooperative knowledge building with wikis
• e-teaching.org
• Knowledge Building in user-generated virtual online realities
• Knowledge Exchange with a Shared Database
• Media-support for arithmetic learning
• Patterns and Tools for Non-Governmental Organizations (PATONGO)
• Social Interaction in Online Communities: How to Belong and Be Different at the Same Time
• Sustaining Technology Enhanced Learning Large-scale multidisciplinary Research (STELLAR)
• Use of Collective Knowledge through Social Tagging
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Knowledge Construction Lab

This lab primarily deals with situations in which new knowledge is generated through web-based cooperation between different people. Our emphasis here is on knowledge processes in communities and joint construction of knowledge artefacts by using social software.

Informal learning and knowledge exchange through the Internet

Our main area of research deals with the interplay between collective and individual processes of learning in a social software environment. The question here is how users acquire knowledge through Internet-based activities, and in which way their individual knowledge becomes part of a shared knowledge pool that can be accessed by all. Our research is based on the co-evolution model by Cress & Kimmerle (2008) which defines the individual user as a cognitive system and the community and the artefact which it produces as a social system, both systems being linked by structural coupling. Processes which occur between the two systems and lead to their co-evolution are examined from three different points of view: The social-motivational perspective deals with the individual users’ motives for participating in an exchange of knowledge, and the influence of the group’s perception in this context. We examine online communities, both in laboratory situations and field research. The cognitive perspective deals with the individual user's benefit from knowledge which is available through the Internet, and the extent to which knowledge is acquired “in passing” by participating in a collective knowledge process. The collaborative perspective deals with the “how” and “when” of jointly generating new knowledge, with laboratory and field research data cross-fertilizing each other. This area of research integrates projects of the Leibniz Graduate School for Knowledge Media Research. In the Patongo project, our theoretical findings are applied to a knowledge exchange platform run by the Protestant Church in Germany.

Innovative learning settings in formal educational contexts

Our main area of research here is concerned with the development of and research on media-supported learning arrangements in schools and higher education. The web portal e-teaching.org addresses academic teachers and deals with current issues in the field of media-based learning, in a form which is appropriate for that readership. At the same time, the concept includes linking the portal with local university web sites, using content syndication, and building a community of experts, users and advisers. The project Using media for numerical learning is carried out in close cooperation with a study group headed by Professor Hans Christoph Nürk of the Psychological Institute of the University of Tübingen. It deals with the potential of using dance mats and smartboards for training basic arithmetic skills.