Some Problems of Knowledge Representation in an Authoring Environment: Exteriorization, Anomalous State Meta‐Cognition and Self‐Confrontation

Abstract

Conventional authoring languages are no more than delivery systems for instruction. Authors need a way of representing their underlying knowledge structures so that: (a) they know the relationship between concepts and therefore they do not make unwarranted leaps or linkages between them; and (b) end‐users can see at a global level the interrelationship between concepts, etc. If end‐users can see the overall map of knowledge then they can make informed choices about the order and sequence of learning (i.e. individualizing) and at the same time check that their sequence is coherent with more general understandings. In order to achieve this state of affairs we need to tackle the problems of making explicit concept maps (schemata, etc.) [i.e. exteriorization]; the state of affairs where authors and end‐users come to know what they do or do not know [i.e. anomalous state meta‐cognition]; and what happens when the authors or end‐users have an external realization of their cognitive maps [i.e. self‐confrontation] to examine. (This can be a graphical representation of the interrelationships between topics, etc.)