A Virtual Collaborative Didactic: Experimental Design ...

A Virtual Collaborative Didactic: Experimental Design in a Local Context Rocio A. Chongtay Inst. for Business Communication and Information Science University of Southern Denmark [email protected] Thomas Hansson Inst. for Educational Research and Development University of Southern Denmark [email protected] Loba van Heugten Dept. of Marketing University of Southern Denmark [email protected] Christopher Kjær Inst. for Business Communication and Information Science University of Southern Denmark [email protected]

Abstract: Based on a pilot study at a school where pupils work together exploring a virtual world (Fifth Dimension 5D), the objective of this article is to investigate the potential of software, interaction and integration related to instruction. Foci are set on a conceptual development of a virtual collaborative didactic. More concretely, we explore mediated interaction in collaborative weblogs between pupils managing classroom and computer room congenial problems, tasks and assignments. The objectives and foci are set on development of an integrated didactic on English and computer competence. From a starting point where the design of a virtual learning environment is investigated and developed, the idea of weblogs, agency, instruction and integration is portrayed as a situated approach for operating 5D as a game, a mystery and a challenge. The design of the study has motivated the whole class of pupils, as well as inspired and increased narrative text production.

Introduction Computers seem to have a direct and spontaneous attraction on pupils, especially so computer games. However, schools need to adapt the technology to educational goals and objectives. So, there is a need to adapt a didactic design to a virtual learning environment like 5D. Therefore we investigate the effect of software applications that challenge the pupils’ ability to be creative rather than to react to the teachers’ intentions to memorize and administer explicit information on mock-believe ‘educational’ platforms. In doing so, the main focus of our work is set at three levels of mediating artefacts: software, interaction and integration. We also develop the concept didactic design of virtual learning (Dirckincik-Holmfeld & Fibiger, 2002), where computer and text composing competences is the objective. The pilot study builds on experiences in a Nordplus (890/2003-04) Nordic network with some 400 users. In addition, central aspects such as socio-cultural theory, collaborative learning, weblogs and virtual wizards are discussed. The overall framework is a comprehensive design, based on ICT as a means to realize didactic goals.

Theory The word Didactic is deduced from the Old Greek didaskein, signifying ‘teacher’, ‘teaching‘ and ‘school’ (Broström & Hansen, 2002), but in modern discourse the concept is often defined as “the art of teaching”. Our understanding is concerned with the purpose of teaching, the goal, the content together with form and method. As to the conceptualization of ‘design’, we understand it as argued by Christopher Alexander (1964), saying that every design

problem must start in an effort for adaptation and obtain fit between two categories: the form you have in mind and the related context. The form is the solution to a problem and the context defines the problem. In this study, ‘didactic design’ is constituted by the potential of our experimental study to clarify relations between visible work in 5D and hidden learning displayed as production of narrative texts. Dirckinck-Holmfeld and Fibiger (2002) warn against a contemporary tendency to give the technology priority over people, general pedagogy and specific didactics in applications of ICT -based learning systems. In relating a didactic virtual design to the development of a comprehensive virtual learning environment for a class at a school, technology and organization together with the chosen interface need to be deployed as a means to obtain specific goals, in this case development of computer and narrative text composing competence. In short, the technology must be evaluated and integrated according to its potential for supporting learning. A virtual didactic method for primary/middle schools and a learning environment defined as the context of the study are rooted in conceptions of socio-cultural activity theory. It is (Vygotsky, 1978) a tradition of experimentation about conditioning, learning and awareness. The theoretical framework suggests that mastery of oral and written language, reading and thinking, appears in a complex process first on the outside between interlocutors at a social plane and later on inside the speaker’s head. Dillenbourg (1999) verifies to this conception of virtual collaboration by indicating that the very set-up of instructions facilitate learning processes where: “interaction among subjects generates extra activities (explanation, disagreement, mutual regulation, etc.) that trigger extra cognitive mechanisms (knowledge elicitation, internalisation, reduced cognitive load, etc).” This is exactly what we discovered at Eltang, a local Danish school that hosted the pilot study. Central to a socio-cultural theory of individual learning and organisational development is the notion of ‘artefacts’ operating as mediating tools between an individual subject and an object(ive) world. Engeström (1987) develops the concept in a first lineage from Vygotsky to Leontev for understanding human use, learning and development through instrumentation of cultural artefacts. We interpret Vygotsky’s (1978) definition of tools and signs like this: The artefact may act as both tool and sign in a given action. Therefore it is difficult to make a clear distinction. But it is still important to focus on the duality, because virtual collaborative didactic contains both aspects. Furthermore, Wartofsky (1979) identifies yet another analytical level, saying: “Primary artefacts (the software, authors’ comment) are those directly used in production; secondary artefacts are representations (text speech interaction, authors’ comment) of such modes of action.” According to Cole (1999) tertiary artefacts can be interpreted as tertiary worlds – like for example Fifth Dimension. The argument is that they “provide candidates for conceivable change in existing practices. […] they can come to color the way we see the existing world, acting as tools for changing current praxis.” (in class- and in computer rooms, authors’ comment) So there is a theoretical basis to instrumental mediation of interaction, meaning and motivation. The methodological context of justification rests on artifactual application of software design, interaction between people and integration of school activities.

Blogs and Collaborative Learning In this study, we define 5D as a software tool ‘directly used in production’ for motivating pupils to collaborate on a local basis. We have complemented the standard facilities of the software with a weblog. Web logging (blogging) is an online feature that has become a popular form of Internet communication. Generally speaking, web logs (blogs) can be understood as a partial tool for supporting collaborative learning in any web-based context. But they can also be understood as an inspiration for developing an adapted virtual collaborative didactic. The function of a school subject (task) specific blog, adapted for this study, is that pupils publish their ideas, which reach online audiences, and spread rapidly. In this way exchanges of text are augmented as the blogs turn into instantly updated discussion forums of common interests. Blogs are online communication tools that engage people in interaction and socialisation and most important in collaboration, knowledge sharing and debate purposes (Bryan, 2003). A subordinate objective of the Eltang pilot study is to explore the effects of using blogs for collaboration during the pupils’ learning process in 5D, where blogs are used as a tool for co-ordinating feed forward and feedback of information between pupils. The application of a software tool in a local school culture builds on a contextual procedure to obtain the desired effects of improving learning processes. For this to happen it is important to include a Vygotskian concept related to the understanding of individual and collaborative capabilities of blogs. ”Zone of proximal development” (zpd) which defines the objectives for using blogs during pupils’ collaboration for actually building and interacting in 5D-worlds. Zpd occurs during the interaction between pupils while communicating in the blogs and depends on the quality of that interaction as much as on the upper limits of the pupils capabilities.

In this study we consider collaborative learning as a dynamic process within a pre-designed activity, where the pupils build and act in a virtual 5D-world and modes of interaction developed such as planning, inventing, problem solving and sharing. These modes of interaction formed a creative basis for shaping text entries shaped as emergent results from the shared achievements in the course of the main activity. This approach enables the pupils to obtain results that would be difficult to reach individually. The assignments allow the pupils to extend their potential for further development, i.e. to move from the current developmental zone to the zone of proximal development. Blogs also function as a reflective conversational tool for supporting personal modelling and adaptation of behavioural and experiential aspects in the learning process. In that capacity, they can be applied to systematically record, monitor, analyse, reflect and review aspects of thinking, feeling and acting. Since evidence for learning can be derived directly from experience or from observations of actions and behaviour, it is useful for the 5D-user to blog such experiences and observations. Find an example of a conversation in one of the pupils’ blogs where they reflect on shared experiences and integrate some of their peers in further work. Friday, November 07, 2003 Hello P and J!!!!! We have made a kitchen, bathroom and a Tv room. In the Tv room there is a link to our web log at the cd player and the televison holds a link to handball, because he likes to play handball. We have made a good contact with lady flower. We gave her flowers and she were very happy for them. We have found the Tv, kitchen, toilet and the cd player in the building world. He is to good design and because of that we HAVE made good design. Good luck T&M Hello T and M we can get your a tip were you are using a word document and you are copying the codes from the items from the market to the [..] good luck J and P According to Dron (2003), communication design technologies - like for example blogs combined with 5D influence the nature of interactions between the learners that use them, thus they enhance and transform the learning process. For us, blogs have proven to be a useful tool for knowledge enabling, building and sharing experiences through the joint use of language annotations visible to the users. In addition, the conversational nature of blogs has improved the pupils’ intrinsic motivation.

Interaction between the Pupils and the Wizard With 5D as a learning environment it is important to define what kind of interactions the software supports. Are the technical, the social or the scholastic competences facilitated? Instructors and pupils have said they learnt a lot by the way the case was designed. But any new form of learning has to be manageable for the class teachers and the pupils equally. In our case we used resources that are hard to come by in everyday school praxis. For example, eight people from the university were involved when our specific virtual world - D-Tale - was going live. If we want 5D to be something that a teacher can use in the everyday praxis it has to be more easily manageable at an introductory stage, and therefore the motivational aspect of the wizard is interesting as an alternative to the heavy apparatus. The focus for learning in 5D should be on what happens between pupils and inside pupils’ heads. So how could 5D be designed to support such an analytical perspective? From a Vygotskian point of view the computer forms a special medium for teaching and learning because it is an instrumental tool and a vehicle for symbolic language usage. 5D is a medium where it can be difficult to absorb both perspectives without putting the other in the shadow (Fjuk & Smørdal, 2001). Our study indicates that the wizard was motivating as a tool for interaction between pupils and as a language game for the individual learner. Virtual agents (avatars) exercise a strong influence on the development of a virtual collaborative didactic. In 5D it is interesting to define ‘representations’ of the tool like e.g. the wizard-facility. The virtual agent (wizard) clearly plays a significant role during exchanges. But how is the role defined and how is interacting with the wizard motivating for the pupils? At Eltang the university teacher acted out the wizard who was physically separated from the pupils, and thus unknown to them. An adult stranger (instructor) simply impersonated the role from the outside.

Without warning there was suddenly a strange figure on the scene. And the pupils were told to please the wizard because they were supposed to re-build a castle. The wizard’s role was to act nice and mysterious. The whole idea was meant to motivate the pupils to practice their English in writing. As a result of succeeding phases of interaction, the pupils defined their relation with the wizard through communicating the tasks they had agreed on in the classroom. Charlie is an example of a pupil who found interaction with the wizard motivating. He had a flirt going on with the wizard. Afterwards he wrote an English narrative of a quality his teacher has never received from him before. The tool and the language aspect developed when Charlie interacted with the wizard. He used 5D as a distancing mask, behind which he could become anonymous and experiment freely with his ability to charm someone of the opposite sex. Nardi & O’Day (1999) show that virtual worlds give the users the ability to wear a mask, behind which they can experiment with their identity. The question is if the wizard has to be situated-live to be motivating?. Interaction pre-supposes commitment, intentionality and purpose on behalf of both parties to qualify as an impetus for individual (pupil) learning and collective (5D) development. The physical wizard-person as opposed to the virtual wizard-character of course reacted to the style and contents of the communication. Interaction between Charlie and the wizard (Lady Di) shows that at one point exchanges took a dramatic turn when private and personal relations got confused. In spite of the fact that the quote (below) seems innocent enough, it had a heavy affective-emotional impact on the adult wizard. Find an example of a dialogue on 7 November, 2003. Lady Di: ok where are we going? Charlie: Im dancing for you.... Lady Di: sorry but why are you dancing? Charlie: Itrs a bithsday dance,... Lady Di: thats nice Charlie: Okaty.....

Charlie: Do you miss your freinds.... Lady Di: hallo Queen you look pale? Lady Di: Yes Charlie I do miss my freinds but you are my friends Charlie: Yes.... you are my freind to..... forever....

Charlie is an example of an individual pupil’s style of communicating with the wizard. Other pupils were motivated by the system and by each other, busy building and decorating their rooms. Sometimes they were actually put off by Lady Di and her actions – a paradoxical ‘situated situation’, difficult for Lady Di to foresee or accommodate. Queen: happy birthday sweet lady di Lady Di: thank you TonyBlaer: is it you Lady Di: yes TonyBlaer: have you made our kitchen to flowers TonyBlaer: na TonyBlaer: delete them!!!!!!!!1 […] Lady Di: i like flowers TonyBlaer: make them another place!!!!!!!!!!!:( TonyBlaer: we love you!!!!!!!

TonyBlaer: :D TonyBlaer: hmm.............................. TonyBlaer: delete these flowers mow please!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TonyBlaer: delete them now!!!!!! Lady Di: I will not acept this rude way of talking! TonyBlaer: plz TonyBlaer: you are so beatifull

The displayed dialogues would be difficult to create if the wizard was not controlled by a person. What is important, if we wish to create a computer system as an integrated part of the learning environment, is the presence of a generous learning culture that can integrate the computer systems as a natural part of the school culture (Mwanza, 2001).

Integration between Classroom and Computer Room Activities Integration between classroom and computer room activities is crucial for motivating pupils and for developing a virtual collaborative didactic by integrating old and new school procedures and by employing ‘tools for changing current praxis’. Student-instructors and the class teachers deliver a 5D-packet to the pupils as part of the intervention-action-diagnosis process for supporting teaching, studying and learning among Eltang-pupils. During the planning phase they build on learning-by-doing principles and apply them to change the pupils’ knowledge of

English, their attitudes to blending competencies and their multi-level skills related to interaction. The agreed principles centre on reflective text composing in the classroom and active exploration, building and problem solving in the computer room. The didactic design is applied without intention of developing a full-scale e-learning system. Based on previous experience, the class teacher and the student-instructors divide labour, diagnose the class, plan classroom and computer room assignments, design (didactic, pragmatic, curricular) instruments, take action with the pupils and evaluate the results. Stringer (1999) describes the steps and phases of such a situated action learning and research process. The local didactic design was suggested by university instructors, accepted by the class teacher and finally proposed to some twenty 7-grade pupils. The ‘subject frame’ is to apply a didactic design for text composing of narrative texts. The ‘time frame’ is week 45-46 in 2003 with 12 parallel classroom- and computer-room lessons of 45 minutes each. The ‘human capital frame’ includes pupils in five groups with two pairs in each. The dyads are complementary and consist of a ‘technician’, a ‘linguist’ plus mixed-gender combinations where possible. The ‘space frame’ covers typical educational settings: the classroom and the computer room. The purpose of the study is in line with a major Nordic project to (a) help develop the pupils’ ability to compose narrative texts in English; (b) improve their skills and understanding by practising the structures of narrative text; (c) develop their virtual-digital competence; and (d) provide interaction and collaboration by mediating technology materialising as chat, blog, instruction, letters, tasks etc. Fist week activities cover two lessons on Monday and four lessons on Friday. An initial introduction is given in the classroom. The university instructors present the rules of behaviour, software resources, use of video and division of labour in groups/pairs. After the introduction the pupils proceed to the computer room to get acquainted with the software. They receive a descriptive summary of the fantasy genre they are supposed to develop in writing. Friday activities also begin in the classroom where the pupils are divided in halves and change rooms after half the time. The class teacher read out a letter of instruction to the pupils who start to compose a story in pairs. Division of labour is usually such that one pupil takes care of the writing (formulating) and the other is creative with innovations (idea production) looking up new words in the dictionary. In the computer room the pupils receive passwords and login information in a pre-prepared D-Tale world; they learn about the ‘storyline’; are reminded of the rules of 5D, e.g. to build in their own rooms only; to solve tasks by interacting wisely; to use the blog and finally to practice English in writing and Danish in oral communication. The pupils solve their first assignment and furnish their room with a fireplace, a sofa, a mirror etc. During the process, the virtual character appears and the pupils make notes in the blog about their experiences for the other halves of the groups to study as they enter the computer room. Second week activities also begin in the classroom. The pupils are supposed to construct a problemsolving task for their friends and write it down on slips of paper. The pairs solve three problems each by following a system for exchanging assignments between individuals, pairs and groups. Then they compose an ending to the evolving and shared narrative story. On Friday everyone meets in the classroom and the pupils change places half way through. Only this time everyone meets for closing the project, evaluating D-Tale and reading out their narratives. In the computer room, the pupils receive advice from the virtual wizard as they manage to successfully solve the first assignment. Their last assignment is a task for the others solve a problem and inform the other pairs via individual blogs. The virtual wizard provides a code for entering the library where they record their log-entries. Analysis of the pupils’ behaviour reveals interesting phenomena in the management of integrative classroom and computer room processes, for example dramatic changes in the pupils’ general activity levels as they move between the classroom and computer room. Results of integrated classroom practices and ICT-innovation suggest that the vital environment at Eltang enables active learning, teamwork and learner autonomy. All stakeholders provided an ideal approach to management of change through integrative application of Fifth Dimension among the pupils. The overall design, comprising of software, the wizard and a good school culture formed a motivational basis for instruction, work and learning.

Conclusion Any developmental school activity combined with ICT has a trans-disciplinary character. But it is difficult to define exactly the boundaries between language proficiency in writing and computer skills. We acknowledge Fifth Dimension as a valuable primary, secondary and tertiary artefact - an ideal environment for developing action-based, real world oriented and learning-by-doing school development. The collaborative perspective frames the article by turning functional analysis the pivotal point for development of a virtual collaborative didactic - a concept covering aspects of an emerging trans-disciplinary field of study, i.e. Pedagogy, Educational Psychology, Curriculum Studies

and Learning. From the point of view of a virtual didactic design, 5D plus blogs, a virtual wizard and co-ordinated school practices frame the means for realizing didactic goals and curricular development of subject knowledge. Our conclusion is that implementation of virtual learning environments must reflect the specific qualities in the context of learning. Participants of the Eltang study create new experiences, are inter-dependent, share phases of enquiry, hold mutual responsibility for learning and understand collaboration as a long-term process. The study supports socio-cultural theory about collaboration between peers and more knowledgeable others (instructors/wizards). The study also supports blogs as a tool for reflection, interaction and challenging assignments for learning in the zone of proximal development. Results indicate the potential of virtual wizards to act as catalyst in narrative text production. Finally the overall didactic design enables integration between classroom and computer room activities. The study has helped clarify the theoretical means for explaining the emergence of a virtual collaborative didactic. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge contributions by students from Humanistic Information Science, University of Southern Denmark: Yvonne Eriksen and Pernille Hansen for the didactic design and project management and Lau Korsgaard for the creation of the functional graphics. We also recognize the significance of input by Eltang pupils, head teacher Per Nielsen, class teacher Karin Eriksen and finally Kenneth Jensen from the 5D University of Copenhagen, for advice and training of the university students.

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