Ninth graders' use of a shared database in an internet research project: issues of collaboration and knowledge-building

In a student Internet research project, 82 ninth-grade students created and used a shared bibliographic database of resources which they found on the World Wide Web. This paper analyzes the students' use of the database in terms of two dimensions: 1) how much students were involved in collaboration as opposed to individually-oriented activities, and 2) how much they were oriented toward knowledge-building as opposed to focusing on completing discrete tasks. Although students used the database in various ways during the project, we saw little evidence of knowledge-oriented activities. We discuss challenges and issues related to supporting greater knowledge orientation in collaborative student Internet projects.