Soeiro, D., Figueiredo, A. D., and Ferreira, J. A. (2011). The Learning Management System as a Social Mediator: a Story with a Happy Ending. Proc. European Conference on e-Learning, ECEL 2011
The Learning Management System as a Social Mediator: a Story with a Happy Ending Dina Soeiro, António Dias de Figueiredo, and Joaquim Armando Gomes Ferreira University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract: Learning is social and mediated, as argued by social constructivism. When learning groups gather very different people, this difference can be challenging. We had an Interpersonal Relationships course, a large class, around fifty students working collaboratively in groups where students from different degrees, academic years and ages, some of them deaf, tried, and to some extent were able, to communicate. We analyze this example of how diversity can be an asset and Moodle can act as a mediator. We were carrying out a participatory action research project within a blended learning environment supported by Moodle to develop collaborative and personal pedagogical strategies to improve the inclusion and engagement of higher education students in their own learning and evaluation. We have used content analysis of the online discussions held by the students, reflective descriptions of the classes, the students’ e-portfolios, and interviews with the students. The paper describes, from this project, the challenges and potential of using Moodle in a learning context where deaf students interact with hearing students and illustrates how Moodle can facilitate inclusion and the participation of the students.
Keywords: Blended-learning, diversity, higher education, inclusion, participation, social constructivism. 1. Introduction Inclusion and the participation of the students is a central issue in the present and future of higher education. Within a participatory action research project, we explore collaborative and personal pedagogical participatory strategies to improve inclusion and the engagement of higher education students in their own learning and evaluation in a blended learning environment supported by Moodle. Using the students’ discourse, we will present a real case that shows how different people can interact and learn while using a learning management system in a b-learning context. We intend to critically analyze this example of how diversity can be an asset and Moodle can act a mediator. To this end, we will resort to content analysis of online discussions, reflective descriptions of the classes, students’ eportfolios, and interviews with the students. About three hundred and eighty students have been involved in the study, which developed throughout the academic years 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11, covering a heterogeneous population from the first to the senior year, taking nine different subjects, in twelve degrees, at the Polytechnic College where we teach. This population ranged from young full-time students to mature students working full-time, some of them deaf, and covered a diversity that illustrates the richness of new adult publics in higher education and creates new challenges in the academic contexts. As Light and Cox (2001) explain, for students who have just joined the university, the academic situation is typically new and strange, and its languages and practices frequently unfamiliar. Their encounter with higher education and learning is not simply a cognitive or intellectual grappling with new ideas, concepts and frameworks, but also a personal and emotional engagement with the new situation. Applying complexity theory to this reflection, we share with Davis and Summara (2010) the perspective that we need to understand learning events in terms of co-participation, co-emergence, and co-implication, and see classrooms as knowledge spaces producing networks rather that contexts that are teacher or learner-centered.
Soeiro, D., Figueiredo, A. D., and Ferreira, J. A. (2011). The Learning Management System as a Social Mediator: a Story with a Happy Ending. Proc. European Conference on e-Learning, ECEL 2011
New media contribute to enhance these changes in the role of teachers and students. In the past, the students used to be mere consumers, but now they are increasingly becoming producers, in the sense that their participation is facilitated and encouraged in blended-learning environments. 2. Methodology We have followed a participatory action research approach, essentially qualitative, based on content analysis carried out on the online discussions, reflective descriptions and videos of the classes, students’ e-portfolios, and interviews with the students. The protocol for the semi-structured interviews was tested previously with a few students. For the deaf students, besides the pre-test, we have enlisted the support of a sign language interpreter, the same professional who worked with the classes. The interview protocol integrated and adapted the questions according to the development of the action research cycles. The topics and issues of the interview were the first category framework for content analysis, which was enriched with the emerging categories that resulted from a comparative analysis of the data (Bogdan and Biklen 1994, Strauss and Corbin 1998, Richards 2005, Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2007, Creswell 2008). In agreement with our qualitative intention, we have used “purposeful sampling” (Creswell 2008, p. 214). After a preliminary exploratory content analysis, we have intentionally selected for deep analysis the materials that we felt significant for the study. This decision was inevitable given the huge volume of data obtained. To facilitate and support the analysis we have resorted to NVivo. Figure 1 illustrates the major initial interpretative categories of the content analysis tree.
Participation of the student(s)
Use of Moodle
control dinamics
Learning and evaluation strategies
Critiques and suggestions
democratic participation dinamics
Learning
Empowerment
Figure 1: Major initial interpretative categories of the content analysis tree To strengthen validity, we have relied on the diversity of the participants and contexts, the duration of the study, and an attitude of critical reflection, as well as on the triangulation of multiple methods, multiple data, multiple sources, and multiple theories. With the same aim, we have carried out a review and verification of the written information and shared interpretations with the participants. Besides this, we have resorted to a research critical friend (Messner and Rauch 1995), who will conduct an external audit (Creswell 2008) after we complete the whole process of data collection, at the end of this academic year. 3. Inclusion and participation of the students through Moodle Learning is social and mediated, as argued by social constructivism (Vygotsky 1978, 1997). Participation, engagement, and collaboration are, on the other hand, processes that characterize learning communities (Wenger 1998). With this in mind, we have invited the students to participate democratically in the management of the courses. Departing from the skills, goals, and contents originally established for the course syllabus, the students have been invited to build and develop shared and negotiated learning projects. This included defining collaboratively the learning and evaluation activities, strategies, processes, and products, while negotiating the corresponding deadlines.
Soeiro, D., Figueiredo, A. D., and Ferreira, J. A. (2011). The Learning Management System as a Social Mediator: a Story with a Happy Ending. Proc. European Conference on e-Learning, ECEL 2011
Each student clarified in his learning contract his intended participation in the development of the projects, and his portfolio described and reflected about his learning process, the collective learning process, and the quality of the course. When learning groups are heterogeneous, gathering very different people, this difference can be very challenging, as the following true story, spoken in the words of their protagonists, tells us. We had an Interpersonal Relationships course, a large class, around fifty students working collaboratively in groups where students from different degrees, academic years, and ages, some of them deaf, tried, and to some extent were able, to communicate. We give the word to the students. Interview, 2008/9, 1, CDM, RI, Francisco, 25 years – “The dynamics was good, we were always helping each other (…) this seemed to be deliberate, hearing students had to communicate with deaf students without knowing sign language. In my group there were two hearers and four deaf.” It was deliberate, but it wasn’t easy, as we can illustrate with the following case of two very different students who tried, struggled and succeeded. He was older, old enough to be her grandpa. “Sir”, as she called him! He was the leader of an association for the deaf. In fact, “he is deaf, but he doesn’t listen!” she said. “Everything has to be as he wants!” They had to work together, but they didn’t listen to each other. “It was not because he is deaf, but because he doesn’t listen with his heart!” she cried frustrated. And he became worried about her. Away from the crowd, from the noise of the class, the learning management system, Moodle, was the neutral space where it was easier to communicate, more thoughtfully. Interview, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Ana, 19 years – “The course was interesting, but I didn’t know we were going to have deaf colleagues in the class. The thing that struck me most was the argument with Belchior. We think we are doing good things, but the other person thinks we are doing everything wrong. I was really upset. (…) Crying in the train. (…) Then I went home, thinking about the situation. How I’m going to explain my point of view? Then I realized I could use Moodle, send him a message. I wrote him, and I was lucky. (…) We solved the problem in Moodle. (…) In the heat of the moment we are dealing with emotions. We are anxious, we have the boundary between deaf and hearer. In Moodle, it’s different. We sit, think, and think again before we write a message, and the other does the same thing. Things were clarified, everything turned ok. We created a bond. I call him grandpa, he is the class grandpa. Now we communicate well. I’m the only one with this relationship with him. This happened to me. It was terrible at the time, but now it is very positive, because we have a bond. Now it is funny, we laugh about it. I grew up.” Interview, 2008/9, 1.º, LGP, RI, Belchior, 58 years – “I loved to work with her, really. In the beginning she had inflexible ideas. I punched the table. I was wrong to be that impulsive. She left crying.” Ana explains in her portfolio: Porftolio, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Ana, 19 years – “There was a conflict in my learning group. It was a consequence of two different ways of communication, it was very intense. For me, a hearer, the world of the deaf was different and I wasn’t used to it. That reflected on the frustrated attempted to try to enter it. It is a friendship that started badly, but now it gives me great joy to think of all we have overcome. We ended up knowing each other, gradually understanding our worlds. It was very difficult but it was worth it. I take from this very important memories and lessons for life, for my growth as a person.” Belchior also learned with the situation. In his portfolio he reflected about his leadership of the group, based on his conviction that because he was more experienced and old, things needed to be done as he though they should be. And at first he didn’t feel right the decision of the group to work with shared leadership.
Soeiro, D., Figueiredo, A. D., and Ferreira, J. A. (2011). The Learning Management System as a Social Mediator: a Story with a Happy Ending. Proc. European Conference on e-Learning, ECEL 2011
Portfolio, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Belchior, 58 years – “The stubbornness and inexperience of youth will lead to failure. Because I’m more experienced and old, I could impose a rigorous way of doing things. But the group chose shared leadership, so the youngest have to learn, as I learned, with their own mistakes. It’s the best way to learn”. In the Moodle forum, talking about interpersonal communication, Belchior wrote: “here I confess my guilt, I admit to have lost my self control. To communicate is not just to talk. The attitude and understanding allied to a affirmative dialog, and above all, to be able to “listen”, are vital conditions to communicate.” He realized the “girl” had an important contribution to share and that perhaps her ideas were not to be rejected. She acknowledged that his life experience was useful, but he also heard that his dominating and paternalistic attitude would not work. After a constructive dialogue, they used shared leadership as a way to overcome the conflict and difficulties. With this group decision, they made a pact to make an effort to communicate assertively and to respect each other ideas. Their commitment was visible and fruitful. Report work group, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Ana, Belchior… - “The group has been led by Belchior, because he is the oldest and more experienced of the group. We discussed and worked using Moodle. That was an innovation for us. We have decided that for the future the leadership will be shared, to include everyone and to be coherent with the course goals. (…) Good communication is possible. If we want, we can.” Interview, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Belchior, 58 years – “I am 58 years old, but all the ideas she shared with me, I accepted. There was communication. I learned a lot from a girl aged 19. Among young people, I feel young like them. They treat me like one of them. In certain things, I must be the youngest of them all. They may have 20 years, they can be my grandchildren. Last year they called me grandpa.” The interaction between young and older students was important for mutual learning and to share energy. But in this case, the age was not the issue. The emotions, the previous experiences and the expectations the students had played an important role. Interview, 2010, 2, 3, ASE ARP and EST, Carla, 46 years – “I was afraid of failure. It is a bit difficult, it involves lots of feelings. (…) In the first year, people are gaining confidence again, after those years without being a student. (…) I was afraid, at the beginning of the course, to work with young students. I felt I wouldn’t be accepted. (…) They could think I had outdated ideas. I was completely wrong! I felt they always liked to work with me. I never felt rejected, on the contrary, there were situations where they invited me to work with them. So they believed I had skills and knowledge. Once, one of the colleagues asked me my age, I told her. She said: “It’s the age of my mother. I can’t imagine my mother doing this work with me”. (…) My life context is different, but I could understand them. I felt I was a mother figure (…) I was wanted in the class. I was not a strange element, which was my fear: I was loved. They wanted me to meet their mothers. They admired me because I was, at this age, studying in higher education, it was even an encouragement to their parents.” Moodle forum, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Ana, 19 years – Our class is very heterogeneous, not to mention the age differences that bring different mindsets and perspectives of life. The differences were opportunities to explore and work with the students, starting from their acknowledgment of their own goals. Moodle forum, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Ana, 19 years – I’m afraid I’m not a person who is very much at ease to expose what I feel and want. I prefer someone to take the first step, because I fear the reactions of others to my opinions (sometimes, even, stutter). (…) What I need to accomplish in this
Soeiro, D., Figueiredo, A. D., and Ferreira, J. A. (2011). The Learning Management System as a Social Mediator: a Story with a Happy Ending. Proc. European Conference on e-Learning, ECEL 2011
course is to be able to communicate mine, fight for them, but also respect the others’ opinions, because I’m stubborn.” She accomplished her goal, because she was the one who took the first step to solve the conflict, and Belchior acknowledged that and praises her. Moodle forum, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Belchior, 58 years – “Dear Ana. I’m thinking about your words here in the forum. Congratulations, you are gradually coming to understand how a deaf person feels in daily life. One of the things I learned at the university of life, about interpersonal relationships, is that constructive dialog and good will can solve everything.” Moodle forum, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Belchior, 58 years –“ I have followed your evolution since the first class. You have developed an autonomy that you didn’t have in the first days. I’m pleased to see that you can defend your opinion, fight for it when you think it is fair and consistent. It’s been a pleasure in my life experience to see you grow. Keep it up, I will help you.” Ana replies: “Dear Belchior, you don’t know how happy I am with your message! The beginning was hard, different mentality, life experiences! It is important to communicate here. I hope to learn more with you and in the future laugh about our beginning. Respectful kisses.” Moodle forum, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Belchior, 58 years – “I already laugh a lot thinking of the early days. I’m used to these confrontations in daily life. I talk, listen to the others’ opinions, but in the end I do what I had in mind since the beginning! Ehehehe! But your enthusiasm, joy, participation in the group is changing my mind, and I now can leave to you most of the responsibility and leadership: so you can learn more, because you are the future and I’m a relic. And to see the results, I think it’s worth: congratulations. I leave richer in terms of maturity, with a different vision about interpersonal relationships, specially about the interaction between two distant and different worlds, but simultaneously, so close and similar.” The participation of the students creates problems because conflict is inherent to democracy. But open dialog and conflict took students to their “zone of proximal development” (Vygotsky 1978), with the students managing their conflicts, with no direct action from the teacher. The teacher only opened space for dialog, online or in person. Interestingly, the conflicts at the collective level were usually discussed and solved in classroom, while the conflicts with one or two students were overcome with messages in Moodle, to avoid confrontation face-to-face. Most of the deaf students were not comfortable participating in Moodle, because of their poor writing skills. They did not want to expose themselves to teachers and colleagues (whether deaf or listeners). They would rather communicate only by sign language. To answer this need, teachers should improve the use of video, but not indulging in doing without the essential exercise of writing. We cannot avoid the exercise of writing because it is essential in our life and in our personal relationships. We could not drop it. We had to include it in the evaluation, even more because they had difficulties in that respect. Even inside the deaf community, as they call themselves, there are the born deaf, the deaf who became deaf, the deaf who use a device to hear. A differentiation exists between them. Those who write correctly are those who could hear at a time in their lives, particularly if they learned to read and write before they became deaf. The others who cannot write well don’t want to expose their writing. Despite this difficulties, students recognize the utility that Moodle has to communication and learning in a heterogeneous group. Porftolio, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Ana, 19 years – With easy access, Moodle greatly facilitated communication between colleagues and access to information on interesting topics promoting
Soeiro, D., Figueiredo, A. D., and Ferreira, J. A. (2011). The Learning Management System as a Social Mediator: a Story with a Happy Ending. Proc. European Conference on e-Learning, ECEL 2011
discussion. For me and for many colleagues this was a revolutionary suggestion. It was a new experience, where I obtained useful information that enabled a cultural enrichment and promoted greater acceptance of the others’ opinions, allowing good communication between everyone. In fact, our space has eliminated communication barriers between students, because in Moodle we could communicate in various ways. It was not just a course, it was a dynamics, using new technologies for personal development.” Porftolio, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Ana, 19 years – “For those who felt uneasy about the world of silence, I learned a lot from the development of the activities and dialogues that have been achieved through Moodle.” Moodle forum, 2008/9, 1, LGP, RI, Belchior, 58 years – “Through Moodle, deaf and hearers maintained a positive dialogue that they didn’t have in the face-to-face classes.” Flexibility, autonomy and sense of community have been promoted by blended-learning strategies. In Moodle they had their own space, without the need to rush, so they had the time to reflect, communicate, discuss: time that was insufficient in face-to-face classes. There were too many students in a two-hour class, per week, to work this subject. Diana, another working student, confessed in the Moodle forum: “I wish it was Thursday. I long for our class.” While they were waiting for the class, they could be at Moodle, and they liked it. There is a sense of belonging to the learning community, especially in the working students, that is fostered by participation through the Moodle. The role of technology is important to promote democratic participation and, as the working student Carla says: “we are connected to the class and the teacher”. 4. Conclusions Rather than to prove anything, this particular narrative is intended for the reader to learn and get inspired. As Friesen (2008) argues, the knowledge that can be derived from a particular narrative for research and learning in e-learning is situated, practical, and in some ways, personal. Research into the affective and experiential aspects of e-learning is growing (Pachler and Daly 2011) and the qualitative approach can be useful to research this highly complex issues. The paper describes the challenges and potential of the use of Moodle as a learning management system in a learning context where deaf students interact with hearing students and young and older students try to learn together. This study illustrates how Moodle, as a learning management system, can facilitate inclusion and the participation of the students in a democratic context. It is also important and effective for working students. On the other hand, deaf students who did not want to expose themselves could benefit much more from adequate pedagogical strategies and tools. The students worked together, managed to find ways to communicate and, through that effort, they learned and developed themselves. Despite the difficulty of the process, the story has a happy ending. Everyone lives learning through life and understands the potential of learning together. References Bogdan, R. and Biklen, S. (1994) Investigação Qualitativa em Educação: Uma Introdução à Teoria e aos Métodos, Porto Editora, Porto. Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2007) Research Methods in Education. New York: Routledge. Creswell, J. (2008) Educational research. Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research, Pearson International Edition, New Jersey. Davis, B. and Sumara, D. (2010) ‘If things were simple…’: complexity in education. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, [online], http://brentdaviscalgary.appspot.com/articles.htm. Friesen, N. (2008) “Chronicles of change: The narrative turn and e-learning research”, E-learning and Digital Media, Vol 5, no. 3, pp 297-309.
Soeiro, D., Figueiredo, A. D., and Ferreira, J. A. (2011). The Learning Management System as a Social Mediator: a Story with a Happy Ending. Proc. European Conference on e-Learning, ECEL 2011
Light, G. and Cox, R. (2001) Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: the reflective professional, Sage, London. Messner, E. and Rauch, F. (1995) “Dilemmas of facilitating action research”, Educational Action Research, Vol 3, no. 1, pp 41-53. Pachler, N. and Daly, C. (2011) Key Issues in e-Learning: Research and Practice, Continuum, London. Richards, L. (2005) Handling qualitative data: a practical guide, Sage, London. Vygostky, L. (1978) Mind in Society: Development of higher psychological processes, Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Vygotky, L. (1997) Educational Psychology, St. Lucie Press, Boca Raton. Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, Cambridge University Press, New York.
