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ICT as an information gathering tool in education research Caballero, A. *1; Blanco L. J.1; Guerrero, E.2; and Brígido M.1 1

Department of Didactics of Experimental Sciences and Mathematics, University of Extremadura, Avda Elvas s/n, 06071 Badajoz, Spain 2 Department of Psychology, University of Extremadura, Avda Elvas s/n, 06071 Badajoz, Spain

Keywords ICT; Moodle; methodology; research; pre-service primary teacher.

This document is aimed at showing the use of information and communication technology as a tool for reflection and information gathering in a research context, in particular in the Moodle platform and video. The research is based on the implementation of a program of intervention focused on emotional control in solving mathematics problems in the training of pre-service primary teachers in this area. This program is conducted in a workshop format over thirteen sessions with fifty six students for teacher in the Education Faculty at the University of Extremadura. One of the main objectives is that the future teachers become aware of their emotions and difficulties in solving mathematics problems. The aim of our work of investigation is that students reflect on the emotions and attitudes they experience when they are solving mathematics problems, that "they learn how to express what they have learnt" (Torres and Ortega, 2003) and hence provoke cognitive conflict between their prior learning and the new cognitive schemes. They will thus be regulating their own learning process by being aware of the progress that they are making session by session, and of what they need to improve to become good mathematics problem solvers. For that reason we showed preference for the use of the virtual platform, in particular Moodle, by the instrumental characteristics and potentialities that this one offers:  In teaching, as mediator and virtual teaching tool, facilitating the transmission of information and the communication both among students and between them and the teacher.  In research, as it allows information to be stored, and offers various possibilities for its qualitative analysis, such as action research.  In management, it presents clearly the overall structure of the workshop, working methods, and methodological aims, and allows participants to be kept informed of the different tasks to be done, specifying dates and specific instructions, as it can be observed in figure 1.

Fig. 1. Workshop´s structure. *

Corresponding author: e-mail: [email protected], Phone: +34 650103124 750

Caballero, A., Blanco, L. J., Guerrero, E., & Brígido, M. (2009). ICT as an information gathering tool in education research. In Méndez-Vilas, A., Solano, A., Mesa, J. A. & Mesa, J. (Eds.), Research, Reflections and Innovations in Integrating ICT in Education vol. 2 (pp. 750-753). Badajoz, Spain: FORMATEX ISBN of Collection: 978-84-692-1788-7 ISBN Vol. 2: 978-84-692-1790-0

Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is one of the popular open source software packages that facilitates the design and creation of online courses wich has been developed by Martin Dougiamas as part of his PhD in Education thesis (Moodle, 2005). Moodle proporciona environment for interactive, exploratory, individualized, and collaborative actions (Firdyiwek, 1999; Kok, 2008) and it can moderate or facilitate discussions and activities in ways that help students participate in online dialogues related to the course learning goals (Coppola & Neelley, 2004). In particular, at investigation level, we have made use of the module of Tasks that provides this platform. After each one of the sessions of the workshop and before the following one, the accomplishment of a text task is requested in line to the participant subjects (asynchronous), being the process the following one:  The monitor of the workshop requests to the subjects that after each session of the factory specify of reflective and critical way what the session at issue has suggested to them, having like last date for it until the day previous to the next session, as it can be seen in figure 2.

Figure 2. Instructions for the task.

 The students will be able to write what they consider opportune to fulfill the requirement, considering that each one of these tasks is closed just before the beginning of the following session to avoid possible interferences.  Later, the monitor of the workshop will respond to each task of each one of the students with a commentary, doing therefore an individualized pursuit of the process of learning of each of them throughout the workshop. At the time of writing up this commentary the monitor has to have present that the receiver, when reading it, feels listened, supported and oriented. Half an hour after the monitor has written up this commentary to the participant, Moodle automatically sends a message of electronic mail to himself with a notification. Of this form feed-back between professor-student is caused, which serves like motivation element for the student as Rodriguez indicates (2005). These tasks try to make think and reflect to the students on which they have learned (Marcelo, Puente, Ballesteros and Palazón, 2000) and the process that of them drift facilitates the attainment of knowledge through an active process of construction (Cabero and Gispert, 2005). All it is registered, being to disposition as much of the participant as of the monitor, at any moment, as it can be observed in figure 3. In the end, the monitor obtains a complete registry by each one of the sessions and its corresponding tasks, in which it is specified who have made it, indicating the date and hour, if it has been responded and how many subject altogether they have made each one of the tasks as it is observed in figure 4. It allows, in addition, to obtain a digitized registry of the information provided by the participant subjects in the investigation, which facilitates its later analysis. Through the tasks and the information that the participants are contributing, its possible evaluate, as Souto and Alonso indicate (2006), the previous knowledge and the motivation and implication of the participants in the development of the different activities from the workshop, the interaction between the monitor and the subjects and the results and profits that they are reaching throughout the development of the whorkshop. Baptist, Borges and Forés (2006) indicate the same when they show that the intervention of the subjects in the virtual classroom as well as the communications between the proposed monitor and subjects and forums, allows to the knowledge of the subjects and its progress.

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Not only we can evaluate the knowledge, motivations, experiences, etc. of the participants, in addition, it allows us to estimate the possible weak points of the whorkshop, what it is necessary to be modifying throughout himself or with views to next interventions, based on the information contributed by the participants.

Fig. 3. Tarea completada.

Figura 4. Registro de las tareas.

In addition to this tool also we use the forums (asynchronous communication) to make possible the discussion of certain contents and the common putting in of its doubts and difficulties. This facilitates the reflection on the own process of learning, taking conscience from the own difficulties and those of the others. It is, as Cuesta indicates (2007) of a multidirectional interaction in which ideas and arguments with respect to a proposed subject are interchanged. 752


The participants, when seeing in others their same difficulties reflected, do not feel only in the learning process, which causes that it feels more motivated and they are interested in their progress. The groups of discussion through the forums facilitate the debate (Watts and Ebbut, 1987), since the people who share a common problem more will be arranged to speak among others with the same problem (Lederman, 1990). The students for teacher need a group context and an investigator so that this information arises, expresses themselves and it is deciphered by means of words (Lederman, 1990). The discussion groups produce a data type that hardly could be obtained by other means, since they form natural situations in which the espontaneidad is possible and in that, thanks to the climate, come to the light personal opinions, feelings, desires that in rigidly structured experimental situations would not be showed (Gil, 1992 - 1993). Other used technological means in the development of this investigation are the recording in video and audio. The use of recordings of video as method of collection of data has not let grow in the last years as Erickson indicates (2006). Each one of the sessions of the workshop was recorded in video for its later analysis by means of control lists. Thus, we as much obtain nonverbal verbal data as of the attitudes of the subjects throughout the workshop about the Resolution of Mathematical Problems and emotional control. In addition it was come to record in a digital recorder each one of the sessions in audio like support in case the recording in video were not the sufficiently clear thing. These recordings have a double intention: to be source of data to analyze the evolution of the didactic strategies of the participant professors and to be material for the reflection with the students and teachers in formation. For the analysis of all these data, we will follow the recommendations and suggestions established in several works like those of Thousands and Huberman (1984), Goezt and Lecompte (1984) and Wittrock (1989). De esta forma no sólo se aprovecha el valor de las TIC para favorecer la transmisión de información tal como señalan Alonso y Gallego (1996) y como medio de formación sino que, podemos investigar con estos medios pues nos sirven para valuar los diferentes contenidos de un programa de intervención, la implicación del alumnado en cada una de las sesiones, tomar nota de los puntos fuertes y débiles de las mismas, etc. Whit this work not only the value of the TIC takes advantage of to favor the information transmission (Alonso and Gallego, 1996) and like formation means, in adition, we can investigate with these averages, because they serve us to estimate the different contents from an intervention program, the implication of the pupils in each one of the sessions, to take note from the strongpoints and weak from the same ones, etc References [1] S. Torres y J. A. Ortega. Indicadores de calidad en las plataformas de formación virtual: un aproximación sistemática. (2003) http://www.ugr.es/~sevimeco/revistaeticanet/Cultura%20eval/Calidad%20en%20el%20eLearning.doc. [2] Moodle. Moodle website. (2005) http://moodle.org [3] Y. Firdyiwek. Web-based courseware tools: Where is the pedagogy? In Everett, Richard (2002). Briefing paper number 1: MLE’s and VLE’s explained. (1999) [4] A. Kok.. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education--TOJDE v9 n7 p87-98 (2008) [5] C.Coppola & E. Neelley.. Open source – opens learning. http://www.rsmart.com/assets/OpenSourceOpensLearningJuly2004.pdf

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