Can We Talk? Course Management Software and the Construction of Knowledge

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Can We Talk?Course Management Software and the
Construction of Knowledge

• Carla R. Payne, PhD
• crpayne_at_fairpoint.net
• Cornel J. Reinhart, PhD
• corkyreinhart_at_gmail.com

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is the emphasis on the social construction of
knowledge.
An important element of constructivist
education
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Constructivism emphasizes active and personal
construction of knowledge by the learner
through his/her experiences and social
interaction within a learning environment
(Bostock 1998 Heinecke et al. 2001).
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Student posting

• Tracy - I think your understanding of our
  readings is great. You grasped the points. I
  found these readings a little confusing but I
  believe that I got the main points. It was good
  to read what you thought because it allowed me to
  organize my thoughts on the readings as well.

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the interpretation our emphasis given to it
through social activities and thinking confers
upon it its wealth of meaning. John Dewey
The bare physical stimulus of light is not the
entire reality
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Student posting

• I have really enjoyed everyone's comments on a
  difficult subject. Tracy gleaned insightful
  quotes.Christopher really hit the mark when he
  questioned the treatment of Native Americans by
  white, European settlers (and the new United
  States government) as it relates to genocide,
  accountability, and history.
• A few statements by Sturmer, Nolte, and Meier
  stood out for me. I will quote them and then
  offer a few thoughts

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talking, purposeful conversation, is an
essential social means for creating knowledge.
For John Dewey, like other educational
constructivists,
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Student posting

• Can someone help me?

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Factors opposing constructivist goals in ITC

• marketability of technological applications over
  sound pedagogy
• philosophical and epistemological individualism
• emphasis on vocational preparation rather than
  liberal arts education, diminishing inquiry
• curricular standardization and outcomes
  assessment pushing course-based education to the
  fore (again)

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How well do course management systems (CMS)
support

• Constructivist Pedagogy?

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is an important indicator of whether
student-centered, collaborative learning is
supported.
The way that conversation is treated within a
commercial CMS
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Generically speaking. . . .

• CMS software claims to be neutral, accommodating
  all pedagogical approaches.

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BlackBoard's Chair, Matthew Pittinsky

• there is certainly an instructional agenda
  behind Blackboard. . . . By definition, this is
  not an issue of Blackboard designing a
  pedagogical approach into the courseware quite
  the opposite, it means unbolting the chairs so
  that instructors can organize the classroom
  anyway they like." (Pittinsky 2003)

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because it determines the quality, form and
content of learner participation in class
discussions.
Locus of control is crucial
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Control resides in the nature of the situations
developing (Dewey 1937, p. 47).

• That is, in the sense of control residing in
  the situations themselves -- in the betweens and
  amongs, in the dynamic inter/transactions. It is
  here that Dewey gives us a hint of
  self-organization.
• (Doll, 2000) www.lsu.edu/faculty/wdoll/Papers/RTF
  /methods_of_control.rtf.

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Faculty control BB 7.0

• BB 7.0 is driven by the assumption that faculty
  need or demand "control" of the classroom
  environment grading is the primary objective
• "faculty want to be able to track and analyze
  students work across system functions. For
  example, they would like to track participation
  and contribution in e-mails, discussions, chats,
  and collaborative areas, as well as to aggregate
  and analyze an individuals contributions."
  (Jafari, McGee, Carmean 2006) 

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What did Sally say? And, how often?

• BB has created just about all the possible
  manipulations of student discussion data/postings
  possible. If an instructor wants to know what
  Johnny or Sally said in any or all postings,
  right down to the last word, or how long they
  were online, that can be found. 

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Learners interaction

• Missing is the management tool allowing
  instructors to see, count, record interactions
  among participants.
• Given the enormous attention to counting all
  other aspects of participants postings, it is
  pedagogically noteworthy that interactions are
  not measured. 

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Forums

• The greatest challenge to facilitating weekly
  forums (BlackBoard v. 7.0 and 7.2), is the view
  
• participants only see an integrated discussion
  in profile.

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Forum profile
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Synthetic course integration

• Instead of an integrated synthetic experience,
• observers encounter discrete conversations
  called
• Forums
• sub-divided by threads
• and sub-threads.

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Comprehensive integration

• Discussions (forums) also have to be well
  integrated with a course's readings and other
  assignments,

otherwise, they become an . . . add-on
(Payne 2004).
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Vygotsky and Dewey

• As John Dewey and Lev Vygotsky posited in a
  face-to-face world, we argue in the digital age
• learning architecture must encourage student
  interaction and conversations
• greater control must be ceded to learners for
  integrated participation and constructed learning

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Conclusion

• Despite protestations to the contrary, we have
  found here that the imperatives to manage
  discussions and count participation supersede
  pedagogy.

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Curiously,

• despite the reemergence and acclaim of the ideas
  of Dewey and Vygotsky, the CMS is more
  instructivist than constructivist.

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Rather than pessimism . . . . hope

• ITCs flexibility, accommodating diverse
  learning needs and styles
• ITCs access to vast learning resources
• ITCs potential to foster genuine talking,
  purposeful conversation, the heart of
  collaboration and social learning . . . but only
  if. . . we permit it