Session Information
16 SES 08A, ICT in Teacher Training and Teacher Collaboration
Paper Session
Time:
2008-09-12
08:30-10:00
Room:
B4 415
Chair:
Ed Smeets
Contribution
A prominent feature of university culture is the development of knowledge in collaboration with others. The most significant context for this is, has been and will continue to be, the academic seminar, which in its institutional form dates back to Antiquity. In the seminar, the participants present and scrutinize ideas, arguments and claims regarding the state of knowledge in some field. Through critical discussions, the validity and legitimacy of what is being argued is subjected to public and critical scrutiny. In its traditional institutional form, the seminar is an oral event where participants contribute and react in situ to the contributions of others. Often the seminar discussion is based on a written document or essay, where the argumentation is presented. In a profound sense, this mode of presenting and testing claims to knowledge may be seen as the core of the concept of knowledge in a democratic and open society.
Traditionally the participants in a seminar have met in a seminar room under the leadership of a professor or another senior person acting as moderator for the discussion. In cases where the seminar also includes a formal examination of the text/essay presented, the moderator might require at least some contribution from each participant; active participation in seminars is often a formal requirement for passing a course. Even though seminars constitute a core of what learning in a university should be like, it is important not be naïve about the state of seminar culture in many contexts in modern society. For instance, in times of mass-education limited resources make it difficult, sometimes impossible, to develop and maintain the quality of seminar culture. There are not enough qualified teachers or enough time for such activities. On many occasions the participants, students and scholars, either have not read what was required, or they have come just to listen to an interesting introduction without necessarily intending to contribute in an active manner.
Online academic seminars may be seen as a new institutional, communicative and technical context for continuing this long tradition of formulating and critically analysing knowledge. The new format introduces new premises for communicating, and it will present some positive features as well as some potential hazards to learning. In our Masters courses at the IT-university in Göteborg, we have attempted to develop attitudes and skills to learning that build on the traditions of the academic seminar, but which still are relevant for the new context which does not always allow for face-to-face (f2f) communication in real time.
The purpose of this chapter is to outline the characteristics of the online seminar in order to give an account of the genesis and development of online discussions under the specific conditions of mandatory participation, and where the outcome of the activities is a grade for the participant. We will then discuss the overall findings in relation to the traditional f2f seminar.
Specifically, we will discuss the following issues: how rapport is built, what instructions are given to the participants, how instructions are interpreted and put to practice, and how discussions may be sustained. These aspects concern the structural features of the online discussion. Likewise, there are also cognitive features of online discussions to pay attention to. The crucial issues here are how the participants understand the issues under discussion and how their insights develop during the time scheduled for discussion.
By mapping the specific features, structural and cognitive, of the online seminar, we will discuss what are the advantages, what might be problematic, and what might be common to the two kinds of contexts for seminar work.
Method
Asynchronous written discussions retrieved from the learning management system in a Masters program
Expected Outcomes
The medium must be appropriated by the participants; the online seminar is not inferior to f2f seminars; reflective writing is beneficial for the development of cognitive issues
References
Main intellectual context is represented by: Vygotsky (1978), Wenger (1998), Lave & Wenger (1991), McConnell (2006), Wegerif (1998) etc.
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