| Socio-technological innovations pervade every aspect of human existence, mediating learning processes, embodying knowledge, enhancing productivity, and shaping constructs for socio-cultural organization. In the third millennium, these designs have evolved into sophisticated information communication technologies and knowledge media---drivers of the emergent knowledge age---capable of codifying and proliferating information and knowledge instantaneously worldwide. The implication for education is an increased urgency to accommodate this societal shift by acquiring expertise in learning and knowledge management systems and becoming knowledge organizations that adequately prepare individuals and communities---our future social capital---as lifelong learners and active citizens in a globalized knowledge society.;The outcomes show that the design supported sustained interaction across several different environments and facilitated social opportunities for accessing, sharing, using, creating, and transferring knowledge across time, distance, and space. Establishing a leading-edge knowledge base in early child development furthermore germinated the seed for ongoing knowledge media development and the emergence of a learning community for early childhood education. Insights were gained into the challenges, inherent and unforeseen, in intentional socio-technological design as well as in translating knowledge for different audiences. Conclusions drawn were that further formalized study of the role of both content and medium is needed to better understand the complex and iterative nature of knowledge development and to facilitate the conceptual shift that will be required to prepare stakeholders for meaningful engagement in a digital knowledge-based society.;This dissertation provides a post-hoc exploration of a socio-technological approach to engaging people in a learning society for understanding and supporting optimal human development. The Millennium Dialogue on Early Child Development (MDECD)---a hybrid face-to face and online initiative that involved a year-long series of learning and knowledge---building activities-afforded an opportunity to implement an intentional socio-technological design for knowledge development , an ecological approach to bringing together technology, knowledge, and stakeholders within the context of a learning community. Participants were self-selected representing a cross sectoral geographically distributed group. A mixed method approach was used to gather both qualitative and quantitative information to evaluate the impact and role of the design. Sources included registration lists, system logs, participants' online postings, and evaluations. |
