Sydney, October 1th

Limits and potentialities for interactive classes in a multimodal and multimedia web conferencing system

Sílvia Dotta, Juliana Braga, Edson Pimentel

FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF ABC

Centre of Computation, Mathematic and Congnition

INTERA – Inteligência em Tecnologia Educacional e Recursos Acessíveis (Intteligence in Educational

Technology and Acessible Resources)

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Goals

To analyze the limits and potencialities of an interactive class

conducted in a synchronous virtual classroom in a

multimodal and multimedia web conferencing

system.

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Multimodal and Multimedia Web conferencing

It is not a videoconference Multimodal: communication tools in the same

environment, allowing multidirectional voice, text (chat) and video interactions

Multimedia: enables sharing files, applications, computer screens, whiteboard, organizing groups

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Multimodal and Multimedia Webconferencing – Teacher´s role

Pedagogical: educational facilitator, learning mediator

Social: friendly atmosphere, interaction Managerial: scheduling, activities, deadlines Technical: technology transparent (user friendly)

“Collective Teacher”: many people working together to

conduct a virtual class

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Framework: Activity theory - 5 principles Unit of analysis is a collective

AS: Virtual Class

Multivocality

Historicity

Contraditions = changes

Expansive transformations

The production of the expansive cycle of Activities Systems ( AS) results from complex relationships established historically between the elements of a AS (Daniels, 2006), in our case the Activity System “Virtual Class”.

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Sydney, October 1th

Framework: Activity theory - 5 principles

The production of the expansive cycle of Activities Systems ( AS) results from complex relationships established historically between the elements of a AS, in our case the Activity System of a Interactive Virtual Class (Daniels, 2006).

1. Primary unit of analysis is a collective AS, artifact-mediated and object-oriented, seen in its network relations to other systems.

2. Multivocality: an AS assumes the presence of multiple voices, converging and diverging, whose contradictions and meanings negotiations lead to (re)signification of activity.

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Framework: Activity theory 5 principles

3. Historicity: one can observe expansive cycles of the activity, i.e., cycles which result in the formation of a new social structure from the previous cycle.

4. Central role of contradictions as sources of change and development.

5. Possibility of expansive transformations in activity systems.

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Activity System –Virtual Class - Context 24 synchronous virtual

classes taught on a

Mathematics Teaching

course in UFABC during the

years 2012 and 2013.

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Sydney, October 1th

Activity System –Virtual Class - Context

Web Conferencing SystemAdobe Connect Pro®

Training teacher and tutors

Webinar x interactive class

Course of Strategies to deal with a interactive class via web conferencing

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Activity System –Virtual Class - Context

A virtual lesson in which

teacher applied strategies to

deal with interactive and

dialogic learning

Mathematics Teaching Course

Discipline: Distance Education

and Education Technology

This paper

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Activity System –Virtual Class - ContextStudents learnt concepts

of Dialogical Learning and Collaborative Learning

Students engaged in a collaborative activity

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Sydney, October 1th

Activity System –Virtual Class – Collaborative lesson Organization of the

classroom in groups Each group should purpose a

collaborative activity for the other classmates

Each group engaged in a collaborative activity

Each group was mediated by a tutor (pedagogical mediator)

Usually a virtual class is managed by 4 or 5 people: teacher + tutors

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INSTRUMENTS OF MEDIATION

RULES DIVISION OF LABOR

Virtual Learning Environment,

Web conferencing,Learning objects.

SUBJECT

Teacher, Students, Tutors.

LDB Higher Education, MEC,

University, Instructional

Design.

COMMUNITY

Mathematics Teaching Course

Course Coordination, Teachers, Tutors,

Students

Technical management,Pedagogical activities,

Train tutors – mediation.

“Collective teacher”

OBJECT

RESULT

Synchronous Virtual Class via web conferencing –

collaborative learning

Students engaged at the collaborative

activities and are able to create collaborative

activities.

OTHER SYSTEMS ACTIVITY

AS – VIRTUAL CLASS

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Limits and potencialities

Lack of research

Synchronicity required among participants – no flexibility

Technical problems – internet access

Complexity of web conferencing systems (many applications)

New challenges to deal with the classroom

“Collective teacher” – technical and pedagogical mediators

Virtual presence >> belonging sense

Increasing interactions among students and mediators

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Conclusions

The AS enabled students to engage in collaborative activities and empowered the tutors to mediate interactions between students and the teacher.

The conception of dialogical learning puts the educational staff (teachers, tutors and students) in symmetrical positions, reducing the teacher-student hierarchy, and increasing interactions between students.

Teachers and tutors assist, guide and foster dialogue leading students to seek and collectively build knowledge.

The dialectical relations of a work team, coordinated under a dialogical and collaborative educational perspective, produce and amplify activity systems.

Sydney, October 1th

Thank You!!

silvia.dotta@ufabc.edu.br

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