Collaborative learning and co-author students in online higher education: a-REAeduca – collaborative learning and co-authors

The technologies themselves cannot be analyzed as instruments per se, nor can they be exhausted in their relation with science. There is a social and even an individual dimension that affects our own way of relating to society. It is in open education that we have been developing our educational practices. This chapter presents a collaborative learning activity, the curricular unit Materiais e Recursos para eLearning, part of an on-line Master in Pedagogy of eLearning, Universidade Aberta, Portugal. In the present work, the authors dedicate their attention to co-learning and co-research, as processes that help to exemplify some situations, the a-REAeduca. The data collection was supported essentially by the content analysis technique.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dialogical identities in students from cultural minorities or students categorised as presenting SEN: How do they shape learning, namely in mathematics?

Portuguese schools are multicultural. Diversity is their main characteristic. Portuguese policy documents assume inclusive principles (Ainscow & César, 2006). Students categorised as presenting Special Educational Needs (SEN) attend mainstream schools. Multiculturality and diversity are challenges to the educational system. We assume that teachers need to (re)construct the curricula, conceiving it as a mediating tool (César & Oliveira, 2005). Collaborative work facilitate students’ knowledge appropriation, the development of competencies (Elbers & de Haan, 2005), and the emergence of a learning community (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Students can be empowered and (re)construct their identities, including students whose voices are usually silenced. Identities are conceived as dialogical and conflictive (Hermans, 2001), particularly when the students’ cultures are far away from the school’s cultures, and transitions between them are difficult (César, 2003). These data are from the Interaction and Knowledge project whose main goal was to study and promote collaborative work in formal educational settings. It lasted 12 years, including classes all over the country (5th - 12th grades, 9/10 - 17/18 years old). It had two levels: (1) quasi experimental studies where different types of dyads were studied (César, 1994; Carvalho, 2001); (2) action-research studies based on interpretative/qualitative approaches, inspired in ethnographic methods; collaborative work was implemented during at least a school year (César & Santos, 2006). A ten years follow up was implemented. The cases in discussion were from two 9th grade classes, in two schools near Lisbon. Participant observation (different observers, including external evaluators; audio and/or videotaped), questionnaires, interviews, instruments inspired in projective tasks, students’ protocols and several documents were the data collecting instruments. The data analysis was a systematic and recurrent content analysis. The inductive categories and the interpretations that emerged were then discussed among the participants and by the project research group. The results illuminate that collaborative work and being part of a learning community can be powerful tools that allow students to (re)construct their identities, namely their identity as (mathematics) students. Collaborative work empowered students and had an impact in their life paths even many years after leaving the project. The participants’ accounts illuminate the role of teachers’ practices in their identities, as well as the conflicts these students had to face, namely the ones related to their cultures and to the experiences related to their categorisation as presenting SEN. Learning how to deal with these conflicts is an essential step to school achievement and to avoid exclusion

The University-Commune

In this new book we return to the challenge of deepening the task to the point of imagining the university formed by commoner university students. It is a turn, a new place from which to name and reconsider community management and action from a sense of co-responsibility for the commons that we must guarantee so that the common project prevails and achieves long-term self-sustainability.This is what the seven articles in this book are about, which calls into question what it means for the university to be and act according to economic principles and logics (giving, receiving, undertaking), social (distribution of roles and benefits) and policies (agreements, consensus, participation and assignment of responsibilities) of the commune. The institutional dimension is important but the vitality, the sense of belonging and the profound strength of the Salesian university project depend much more on the commons logic. Feeling of the commons is not a possibility among many others. We are convinced that, in order to take on this project, it is necessary to transcend institutional, business logic and state regulations. Therefore, the university-commune is the way and, perhaps, the only one possible. University and Common Goods Research Group Universidad Politécnica Salesian

Intervention Research in a Public Elementary School: A Critical-Collaborative Teacher Education Project on Reading and Writing

This Teacher Education Project is an intervention research aimed at creating new school roles for educating students as readers and writers as well as citizens. The methodological framework was based on Vygotsky’s discussions of method as praxis (Vygotsky, 1921-23/1997, 1930/1999, 1931/1997, 1926- 30/1996), as well as on both the Marxist practical–materialistic–revolutionary activity and Engeström’s (2008, 2009) extensions of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). The work at school was motivated by students’ limited awareness of reading and writing. The goal was to involve the school as a community in understanding and transforming the ways in which reading and writing were addressed in classrooms. The methodology used for organizing and carrying out the project was devised so as to allow for three activity systems that partially interact with their objects – that is, reading and writing as tools for teaching-learning in different areas in order to constitute students as citizens. However, for this paper, we will focus solely on the Teacher Education Activity System, which we termed Teacher Support Team. Three episodes are discussed in this paper: Two video sessions with the Teacher Support Team, the first of which took place in 2010, and the second in 2011; and a classroom reading class session that was videotaped in 2011 as part of the Teacher Support Team work. The theoretical and practical work developed was targeted at creating a mutual Zone of Proximal Development that supported teachers, coordinators, and the principal, through the appropriation of reading and writing as processes. The results show that the organization of the project as interrelated activity systems enhanced the entire school’s prospects of appropriating the reading and writing teaching-learning processes, by focusing on the same object, in the diverse systems that framed the project.

Appropriation in the development of information systems for voluntary organisations

This paper describes two action research projects in co-located voluntary organizations, where both projects could be characterized as process failures. Our main focus is on the mechanisms of appropriation. The analytic framework as well as the basis for the action research projects, have been informed by activity theory. In particular we describe how ICT-based systems enforce structural discipline, how designers may misconceive the design task when designing for voluntary organisations, how the tension between use value and exchange value influences the use and thus appropriation of ICT in voluntary organisations, and finally what the possible impact of a lacking common conceptual basis may be. It is concluded that voluntary organisations exhibit unique features that should be taken into account in the design of ICT based support

ICT collective appropriation on childhood and its impact on the community: the 5D educational model potentials and limits

Uruguay became the first – and so far the only – country in the world to provide a laptop to each public school student and teacher since 2007. Six years after the beginning of the plan, several studies and assessment reports have highlighted the breakdown of the pattern of inequality of access to computers and the Internet thanks to the Plan. Despite this, other studies find that the community impact of the plan is almost zero in social and neighborhood organizations. This article presents the theoretical and methodological framework for research that aims to analyze how the impact of the Ceibal Plan can be improved by fostering the emergence of communities of practice through the introduction of the Fifth Dimension Educational Model (5D)2 in a context of social vulnerability in Uruguay. The methodological approach adopted to implement the research is Participatory Action Research, which focuses on a recursive process of reflection and action and is carried out with local people rather than on them. In addition, the time factor becomes a key element for understanding the processes of negotiation and rearrangement that are required in constructing Participatory Action Research

Information Design: Textualization, Documentarization, Auctorialization

In this article on information design, we will begin by recalling our definition of information anchored in an anthropological vision of communication, and we will then present Buckland’s ternary approach to information, which is in tune with our typology. Secondly, we will return to the notion of device (dispositif) to introduce information and communication devices, of which we will give a few examples. This will allow us, in the third section, to present the design of recorded information in all its richness and complexity, combining the issues of textualization, authorialization, and documentarization

Memes, Args And Viral Videos: Spreadable Media, Participatory Culture, And Composition Pedagogy

This project argues that spreadable media texts motivate people to engage in compositional activities advocated in First Year Composition (FYC). Drawing on Henry Jenkins’ assertion that participatory culture offers potential for learning, I use his list of eleven participatory culture skills that he believed necessary for all students. After showing how well the Participatory Culture Abilities (PCAs) align with the WPA Outcomes Statement (WPA OS), I put forth the WPA OS and the PCAs combined as a lens through which to view three spreadable media case studies: Spreadable Media Events, Fan Labor, and Alternate Reality Games. Based on my findings, I conclude that we should incorporate Spreadable Media and Participatory Design pedagogy into the composition classroom, which will lead to innovative pedagogical practices that foster agency and engagement in students towards their writing. It will inform and facilitate the achievement of the Writing Program Administrators’ outcomes; and it will support the learning of a set of participatory culture abilities that will help students to become conscious, responsible and empowered users of their rhetorical power in digital environments

A literature review of the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education

This review focuses on the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education. It provides a synthesis of the research literature in the field and a series of illustrative examples of how these tools are being used in learning and teaching. It draws out the perceived benefits that these new technologies appear to offer, and highlights some of the challenges and issues surrounding their use. The review forms the basis for a HE Academy funded project, ‘Peals in the Cloud’, which is exploring how Web 2.0 tools can be used to support evidence-based practices in learning and teaching. The project has also produced two in-depth case studies, which are reported elsewhere (Galley et al., 2010, Alevizou et al., 2010). The case studies focus on evaluation of a recently developed site for learning and teaching, Cloudworks, which harnesses Web 2.0 functionality to facilitate the sharing and discussion of educational practice. The case studies aim to explore to what extent the Web 2.0 affordances of the site are successfully promoting the sharing of ideas, as well as scholarly reflections, on learning and teaching