towards a constructivist approach to learning from hypertext
How to help learners construct knowledge from hypertext and plan a navigation process on the Web are important issues in Web based learning. To provide solutions to these issues, this paper presents Knowledge Puzzle, a tool for knowledge construction from the Web. Its main contribution to Web-based learning is the personalization of information structure on the Web to cope with the knowledge structure in the learner's mind. Self-directed learners will be able to adapt the path of instruction on the Web to their way of thinking, regardless of how the Web content is delivered. The way to achieve that is to provide learners with a meta-cognitive tool that enables them to bring knowledge gained from the Web to the surface and visualize what they have in mind. Once we get the learner's viewpoint externalized, it will be converted to a hypermedia layer that will be laid over the Web pages visited by the learner. The attached layer adapts the views of Web pages to the learner's information needs by associating information pieces that are not already linked in hyperspace and attaching the learner's notes to the page content. Finally, a hypertext version of the whole constructed knowledge is produced to enable fast and easy reviewing.
knowledge construction meta-cognitive tool navigation planning constructivism hypertext layering adaptable hypertext