Dr. Slotta's talk will present ten years' progress in developing and researching the Knowledge Community and Inquiry (KCI) model at the University of Toronto. KCI fits within a broader theoretical area of learning communities, in which students work collectively to advance their ideas and share resources. Dr. Slotta’s work has explored the most effective designs for collective inquiry, with an emphasis on the learning sciences construct of scripting and orchestration. Scripts are a form of learning design that specify the various activities, roles, goals and materials, as well as transition logic, learning analytics and any other elements that are essential to the specification (e.g. the role of the physical learning environment). Orchestration is concerned with the enactment of the design, in which unbound elements become fixed to local values, and the script is bought to life, much as when a written play is actually performed. In KCI, the teacher is responsible for orchestration, but shares the load with the technology environment and the physical learning space. This talk will review the theory, as well a Dr. Slotta’s efforts to formally articulate scripts, and scaffold the orchestration of collaborative and collective inquiry activities.
