Knowing together, learning apart: A proposed framework for supporting individual learning through collaborative knowledge building tools

Learning theories and their supporting learning technologies fall into two broad categories: those that support individual learning and those that support communal knowledge building. This research in progress describes a hybrid framework that integrates these two categories and proposes the development of a comprehensive learning technology that encompasses both models. The system would support the cognitive processes necessary for collaborative knowledge building while simultaneously scaffolding the activities of individual exploration, understanding and internalization of knowledge. This paper describes the preliminary foundations for this hybrid framework, providing descriptions of existing learning theories and technologies and describing cognitive processes supported during various tasks in the proposed system.