My own doctoral research relates to issues of identity, learning and
online environments. This involved a small scale qualitative study of a
tutor's embedding of online discussions in his teaching of a group of
first year professional doctorate students, and combined discourse
analysis of students' postings with observation of classroom teaching
(there were also ftf workshops) and interviews with the students about
the module. I theorised this through activity theory, altho with a
poststructuralist view of the subject position (i.e. where identity is
not a 'core' fixed thing, but produced in different discursive practices
in ways that mean subject positions we take up are multiple and often
conflictual).
Although at the time for some students the discussion forum environment
meant very little, for others it was very important in changing
relations amongst the cohort and between the students and their tutors
(professional doctorate students are senior professionals, so power
relations between them were significant). A particular feature was that
the tutor invoked issues of identity in his teaching, for example asking
students to engage in a forum by considering their identities as
researchers and professionals, making a distinction between the two, and
in a sense using the notion of a researcher identity as a lens with
which to interrogate their professional worlds (and identities).
Participating in the forum emerged as particularly significant for some
students (not all), with one student speaking of realising that she had
a 'valued opinion and could make that opinion', where this changed the
way she could engage in the ftf workshops. Others spoke of a different
engagement with others in the cohort as a result of their participation,
which they also reported as affecting the ftf setting, where students
were contributing more (and more critically) to each others' work, so
remediated that for the cohort.
But i think the framing of the forum was important, and here power
certainly wasn't absent, but used in a different way. The tutor
observed, and didn't actively participate in the forum itself, although
he drew on issues arising in the forum in his later formative assessment
ftf and by email. Power relations between the participants certainly
also didn't disappear. some students put a lot of effort into framing
their postings with 'hedges' to allow them to be accepted productively.
Participation in the forum wasn't compulsory btw, that wouldn't have
been possible in this setting, given the different pressures and
obligations these students work with.
So I wouldn't write off online environments and the idea of taking up a
different identity position, and agree more research would be good, even
with some of the technologies that are now relatively familiar.
Barbara Crossouard
Quoting Linda Polin <linda.polin@pepperdine.edu>:
> My experience with listservs, web boards, forums, real-time chat, and
>
> even VOIP, in online and hybrid courses over the past twelve years is
>
> that the quiet, lurker students remain quiet lurker students, even
> when I try to leverage them by raising the cost of their failure to
>
> participate actively. Personally (no hard research), I think the
> notion that online, asynchronous text tools make timid people bolder
>
> is a myth.
>
> The re-mediation I have seen is most obvious and impactful for
> instructors who are new to the environment and are coming from
> traditional classroom settings. They suddenly discover the tools and
>
> structures that have granted them power and authority in the face-to-
>
> face classroom architecture are absent online. For some, behavior
> changes; others dismiss or abandon these formats for engagement, or
>
> struggle against it. However, often, in participation structures
> that are available and given a less well defined control and
> authority structure, a subset of students is able and willing to step
>
> up and open up the dialogue by participating and even leading
> conversation. There is also a "mid range" group of students that does
>
> increase participation over time to some extent, given a sufficient
>
> flogging...er I mean encouragement.
>
> I am pursuing this topic, but find it barely possible to keep up with
>
> the XMCA listserv, let alone craft a reasonable response to it. LOL.
>
> I shall focus up more on this header.
>
> Linda
>
> p.s.
> My "lurker remains lurker" assertion is also largely true, in my own
>
> experience, with MMO game chat, both text-based and VOIP, e.g., World
>
> of Warcraft, even within guilds, which should be, by definition,
> safe, low stakes, social spaces.
>
> Linda Polin, PhD
> Davidson Professor of Education and Technology
> Director, EdD in Educational Technology
> http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/lpolin/personalhome.html
>
>
>
> On Jan 2, 2007, at 10:33 AM, Mike Cole wrote:
>
> > Odd that no one responded to your note, Donna--
> >
> > For a long time we have known that the time shifting using list
> > serves in
> > connection with courses also
> > re-mediates the forms of participation of students with the usually
>
> > more
> > silent students becoming relatively
> > more active and visible. But the affordances of real time, virtual
> > environments now available in some quarters
> > offers, as you note, a lot of new and interesting potentials for
> > creating
> > environments were students can be more
> > active learners.
> >
> > Can you be the only one on XMCA pursuing these issues? how odd!!
> > mike
> >
> > On 12/20/06, Russell, Donna L <russelldl@umkc.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >> Paul and All
> >>
> >> I would like to add another issue to this discussion of zopeds and
>
> >> the
> >> impact of context on learning and development.
> >>
> >> I am designing collaborative learning environments using
> immersive
> >> technologies such as 3-D
> >> massive multiplayer onling games (mmpogs) . My questions/comments
> are
> >> concerned with how to use CHAT to study immersive technologies
> >> such as these
> >> 3-D virtual learning environments. I call this design and
> research
> >> process v-CHAT.
> >>
> >> Collaborative virtual learning environments have, I believe, an
> >> incredible
> >> potential to offset the issues of standard educational programs
> >> that Paul
> >> and Mike discussed. They can be designed to incorporate the joy
> of
> >> learning.
> >> They are fun, engaging and purposeful. They also are
> >> collaborative so the
> >> designer can consider- as in a real-world classroom- the benefits
> and
> >> costs
> >> of varied collaborations including mentoring, (guides in gaming)
>
> >> tutoring,
> >> and
> >> group processes to facilitate movement through the Zone.
> >>
> >> I am currently designing both programs and research including the
>
> >> design
> >> of a high school urban geoscience program, a professional
> development
> >> simulation program for urban preservice teachers and a study of a
> >> university
> >> creative writing course taught in 3-D virtual online spaces. The
>
> >> aspects
> >> that I am studying in the nature of the simulated dialogs and
> >> associations,
> >> the collaborative spaces, and the design of the learning context.
> >>
> >> Virtual Associations and Zoped
> >> These simulated learning environments occur in highly interactive
>
> >> virtual
> >> scenarios with avatars (characters) that can dialog in real-time
>
> >> including
> >> the digital characteristics of laughter, hand gestures, and head
> >> movements.
> >> One researcher at the ICLS told me her students would 'talk' more
>
> >> in these
> >> spaces of their avatars could 'laugh' at jokes. Another
> >> researcher told
> >> me
> >> that one of her participants in a study of a 3-D virtual learning
> >> environment asked if her avatar (virtual character) could also
> >> sign- the
> >> implication was that her avatar was separate. These levels of
> >> associations
> >> are a very interesting aspect of these environments. McCluhan
> >> wrote in
> >> 1964
> >> in Understanding of Media: The Extensions of Man that "Having
> >> extended or
> >> tanslated our central nervous system into the electormagnetic
> >> technology,
> >> it
> >> is but a further stage to transfer our consciousness to the
> >> computer world
> >> as well." (pg. 60) This forum has previously discussed some of
> these
> >> aspects
> >> of extended consiousness in response to the book Natural Born
> >> Cyborgs by
> >> Andy Clark where he discussed the plasticity of the human brain in
>
> >> its
> >> ability to extend its awareness into virtual spaces.
> >>
> >> Collaborations
> >> Additionally, these learning environments allow the instructional
>
> >> designer
> >> to consider scaffolding aspects very similar to the design of a
> 'real
> >> world'
> >> collaboriative learning environment including the types and
> >> qualities of
> >> these virtual collaborations and the development of the learner's
> >> responses
> >> through mentors, tutors, virtual guides or other supportive
> >> avators to
> >> facilitate scaffolding.
> >>
> >> Virtual and Real-World Problem-Solving
> >> These virtual worlds are designed to be simulations of authentic
>
> >> learning
> >> processes such as problem-solving and case-based reasoning. For
> >> instance,
> >> we
> >> are designing a fossil wall for the geoscience program that will
>
> >> allow
> >> students to 'touch' a fossil on the wall and time travel to a
> >> paleo world
> >> with the fossil recreated as the organism. They use information
> >> learned
> >> about extinction etc. from the simulations to address real-world
> >> environmental issues such as global warming that are correlated to
>
> >> these
> >> virtual environments by their real-world classroom facilitator.
>
> >> We will
> >> convene a group of experienced inner city teachers in Kansas City
> to
> >> discuss
> >> their transformative classroom experiences and will use their
> >> combined
> >> expertise to design classroom scenarios that have that potential
>
> >> for the
> >> preservice teacher into our virtual spaces. The urban preservice
>
> >> teachers
> >> can 'walk into' a diverse urban classroom and be a virtual student
> or
> >> teacher and respond to the decision-making processes in a
> real-time
> >> simulation of these fluid environments as part of their
> professional
> >> development.
> >>
> >> So, finally, my questions are
> >>
> >> 1. How can the characteristics of the avatars impact the immersion
>
> >> of the
> >> students in these 3-d environments be defined and assessed for
> their
> >> impact
> >> on the potential for collaboration and learning using v-CHAT? How
> >> important
> >> are the development of these virtual personas to the potential
> for
> >> meaningful learning?
> >>
> >> 2. How can the collaborations designed into the scenarios
> >> consider the
> >> salient aspects of these virtual collaborations and dialogs and
> >> develop
> >> productive interactions that result in meaningful learning
> processes
> >> including productive scaffolding processes?
> >>
> >> 3. What are the characteristics of the problem space, the
> virtual
> >> simulation itself, that will impact the capabilities of the
> >> students to
> >> develop advanced problem-solving abilities? How much 'gaming' is
>
> >> enough
> >> to
> >> engage but does not detract from the learning?
> >>
> >> I would appreciate any advice on how to conceptualize these
> >> parameters of
> >> human development and learning from a CHAT perspective.
> >>
> >> thanks
> >>
> >> Donna
> >>
> >> Donna L. Russell, Ph.D.
> >> Assistant Professor
> >> Learning Technologies
> >> Educational Psychology
> >> Teacher Education
> >> Curriculum and Instructional Leadership
> >> School of Education
> >> University of Missouri-Kansas City
> >> (email) russelldl@umkc.edu <mailto:russelldl@umkc.edu>
> >> (website) http://r.web.umkc.edu/russelldl/
> >> (member of the Virtual Instructors Pilot Research Group)
> >> www.viprg.org
> >> 816.235.2232
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> xmca mailing list
> >> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
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