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Home > Learning > Conceptual knowledge bases
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Conceptual knowledge bases
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There
is a constantly growing pressure
from students (from elementary school to master
degrees), technicians, specialists, so many people with different
educational goals,
formal or informal, knowledge workers, for tools and methods that enable them to overcome
their educational shortcomings or simply to expand their knowledge,
to extend their cognitive capacities and abilities, in conventional learning or
distance
learning, lifelong learning and organizational learning as well.
Improving
the quality of personal and organizational learning is a world wide generalized necessity, not only for less
developed countries.
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The most fertile challenge for developed countries
consists not only in making learning constantly more efficient,
reducing times and creating better structured and better composed curricula, (valorizing
the -non indifferent- investment
that represents an educational system, public or private) but also to have, at the end, people
able to autonomously organize their own learning, with minimum external
effort, capable of successful interaction with knowledge and information.
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A
determinant factor in this trend is the accelerated constant growth of the
quantity of matter to learn in conventional educational cycles and business
activities and procedures.
The book, in modern learning, because of its conception (still near in its sequential and illustrative structure to medieval manuscripts, not to say papyrus) doesn't seem to be adequate enough for being the main vector for the information to be presented to students, due to its ineluctable sequentiality.
Besides, after some years of closed multimedia the situation
hasn't changed too much, notwithstanding the success of hypermedia /
multimedia in changing teachers approach and the students attitude toward new
information technologies.
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The concept of Conceptual knowledge bases (C.K.B.)
A
lot has been said for many years about knowledge bases; since the very
appearance of the concept (or term) many definitions have been given.
The known production of knowledge bases goes from simple data bases, organized
in processors of any kind, relational or more evolved models and
declarative languages.
The
corresponding definitions range from the more elementary to the more specialized
or complex, but always applied to an experimental reduced area, or for specific
problem solving, what pushes away from the idea itself of
daily use or from elementary generic solutions, those that solve
problems in social scale.
All
known solutions share a common feature: the information / knowledge there
contained "constitutes a truth" in
a given moment, a
point of certain reference, a source of valid and profitable knowledge and
information,
sometimes defined, sometimes demonstrated.
Another essential
feature,
as in many
computer systems, that doesn't suit its goals, is functional completeness
and a simple cognitive interface, that can be used as an "interactive window" between a large social group and knowledge.
The
students, it doesn't matter at what level, to reach a deeper insight in learning,
to learn, need instruments that render them
active and enable them to augment their reflection abilities, to develop
critical thinking abilities, to integrate new knowledge, to become themselves
responsible agents of their own learning.
A
solution that seems very promising is the one that comprises the main features of
concept maps, multimedia, and deep interaction:
conceptual
knowledge bases.
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To
describe the method with some precision, we must at first
detrivialize
concept maps, or better use semantic networks:
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keeping
their knowledge representation power, the property of incidence in the observer's optical
perception (almost photographical). |
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creating
precise and univocal description of concepts. |
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enhancing
the conceptual structure with relevant documents: texts, images, animations
and multimedia, and Internet linking, as necessary. |
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observing
rules that hinder ambiguity in their construction. |
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extending
their interaction power, to augment students activity, rendering them not just
observers,
but active subjects that build their own knowledge, searching and
analyzing, in the form and in the structure and also in contents. |
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considering
maps not as mere arbitrary designs, in which even irregular logic is
allowed, but as categorized concept groups, in a way of raising perception
acuteness, keenness of mind, and to accelerate interaction and visual
recognition. |
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Associating data tables to map nodes
(concepts/ideas) to perform calculations and for searching on numeric data,
logical type data and dates. |
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Connecting external data bases
to the map. |
When accessing a C.K.B.
the student or analyst approaches in first instance a
conceptual interface, that:
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evidences the more
important concepts and maybe those of secondary importance, with a clear and
direct representation of what is "important" and what is secondary
or complementary. |
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evidences relations
among concepts, that are never unidirectional. |
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stimulates him to
analyze the analytical network that constitutes the conceptual nucleus of a
topic, in order to infer even non explicit, sometimes transitive, but always
important relations... he reasons, besides "snapping" the scheme,
without which building our knowledge is impossible. |
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enables him to
connect to precedent experience. |
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enables him,
moreover, to "see" new relations and to create new relations
considered relevant to personal learning, to transform the original
platform in his own personal learning/development
platform, easing memorization (a must, anyway) of
relations among more important concepts. |
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encourages to reach
a deeper insight in concepts beyond relations, strengthening understanding
with texts, images, video, audio, that directly influence the creation of meaningful knowledge, an audiovisual
explanation of facts, procedures, evolutions, reference to huge or important
information and knowledge references, directly linked to concepts. |
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the text becomes a
complementary discursive illustration, collateral, (important, but not
fundamental). |
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enables semantic
searching (through relations among concepts), expressing conceptual
structure through questions and answers. |
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enables
searching on numeric, logical and data type fields and do calculations
in projects, activities and procedures, satisfying cognitive needs in
business activities. |
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enables text
searching in the descriptive texts of concepts, deepening and recognizing secondary
concepts, acquiring, together with conceptual knowledge, holistic knowledge. |
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encourages to adapt
the "map aspect" to his own conception, to his personal cognitive
needs. |
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Advantages of using Conceptual Knowledge Bases.
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The
main access interface is presented in the human memory format: the access
vector to human cognitive structure is precisely a cognitive structure. Knowledge
is integrated in a way very close to that of the human mind.
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C.K.B.
are very easy to use, with a simple and direct visual interface.
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The
student contributes actively in the
creation of his own knowledge base, favoring a deeper understanding of the
topic and reinforcing
background knowledge. |
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The
interface directly presents a set of options useful in reasoning and for the
extraction of meaning.
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Its use
displaces the equilibrium and learning responsibility toward the student
himself,
improving the quality of learning and releasing teacher's efforts, time,
energy and abilities to more useful and necessary tasks of the educational
activity. |
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C.K.B.
are easy to develop, their cost is very low; can be built in groups and
successively derivate other versions. |
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C.K.B.
can be easily e-mailed, distributed in CD-ROM, published in the Internet, etc.,
which enables a very dynamic communication among study groups, faculties and
schools/colleges and students.
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Constitutes
a reliable resource for preparation to examinations, to attain student "test
readiness". |
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Stimulates
information searching, an indispensable ability in the knowledge
and
information Era. |
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Their use
stimulates critical thinking abilities.
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Enables
interaction with different kinds of knowledge:
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declarative (factual
knowledge about items)
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procedural (about how to
perform a task)
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static (knowledge which
does not change)
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dynamic (which changes
or grows rapidly)
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superficial (abstracted
knowledge as one would typically "take for granted")
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deep (built
vertically upon basic first principles of understanding)
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about facts, events, procedures, projects
and many other organizational topics.
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Every
C.K.B. is a proven truth, an objective reference point about the knowledge it
contains. |
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It is a basis for
autonomous study, an indispensable ability for
distance learning and
lifelong learning. |
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C.K.B.
contain data of experience, propositions and validated models,
besides metainformation and metaknowledge.
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Collaborative
learning with
C.K.B.
expands and puts
individual understanding to the test. |
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Recognizes
knowledge identity also as perceptions, conceptions and individual
models. |
And everything with absolute simplicity and
without the need of specific computer experience.
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| The
subject knowledge bases and data bases is treated
with more depth in the online course
knowledge management in organizations |
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Preparing a conceptual knowledge base is an excellent
technical and pedagogical exercise for teachers. If we agree to accept the
preeminence of C.K.B.
over the book and
closed multimedia in a learning environment, the creation of a C.K.B.
deserves a record in the teacher's curriculum. |
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