We have been practicing and researching Distance Education and Online Education for many years, but we could never imagine that, from one day to the next, people would either be learning-teaching through networked digital technologies, or would have their classes paralyzed because of a virus (PIMENTEL, ARAUJO, 2020a). Surprised, we followed the hustle and bustle of some fellow teachers who did not know for sure what to do: what pedagogical approach to use?, what technologies to use?, what content to work with?, how to talk to students?, what situations of learning to carry out?, how to carry out teacher mediation?, how to evaluate online?<\/p>\n
For each of these questions, which we believe to be the most important for thinking about education in times of a pandemic (and also in the post-pandemic), we want to present the reflections that we have been weaving throughout our years of practice and research in the distance modality using the approach to online education. We have organized the lessons learned so far into \u201cprinciples\u201d.<\/p>\n
Principles of Online Education<\/p>\n
Principles of Online Education<\/p>\n
This is an opportune moment to discuss our didactic-pedagogical practices, as we are experiencing an unprecedented situation. Even those who have experience with Distance Education know that the current situation is different, there are restrictions and potentialities that differ from what is usually practiced in the distance modality. We want to take advantage of this moment to open a dialogue to inform ourselves and form ourselves in the collective. It is in this dialogic perspective, to promote sharing and reflection with this community, that we present our propositions about online education.<\/p>\n
As a starting point, in order to understand each other, we need to differentiate Distance Education (EAD), which is an alternative educational modality to face-to-face education, from what we call Online Education (EOL), which is a didactic-pedagogical approach.<\/p>\n
In Distance Education, networked computers are often used to disseminate content and, in some cases, even to present the content, automatically correct students' answers, recommend the study of new content depending on performance or personality. or the emotional state of the student, among other actions already made possible by artificial intelligence (JACQUES; NUNES, 2020; VICARI, 2020). In this conception, we often think of a student studying the contents alone (self-learning, self-study), at \u201chis own pace\u201d, and the computer being used as a \u201cteaching machine\u201d, as advocated by Skinner (~1960), which made the belief that teachers will one day be replaced by computers emerge. In this conception, computers represent an evolution of the media and do not modify the model of mass communication, predominantly unidirectional, that typically characterizes the massive-instructionist approach that is still widely practiced in the distance modality \u2013 this is not the pedagogical concept we are dealing with. proposing for your online classes!<\/p>\n
Massive instructional pedagogical conception frequently used in distance education<\/p>\n
We warn that the \u201cbad\u201d in the face-to-face modality becomes the \u201cvery bad\u201d in the distance modality: the massive-instructional approach taken to the extreme by \u201cmassive online courses\u201d (MOOC) results in very high dropout rates, with a rate of up to 95% of abandonment (SILVA; BERNARDO JR; OLIVEIRA, 2014). We emphasize that the distance modality does not necessarily imply the adoption of massive-instructionist practices; we have practiced, in this modality, what Edm\u00e9a Santos (2009, 2019) calls \u201cOnline Education\u201d:<\/p>\n
We assume from the outset that online education is not just an evolution of EAD generations, but a cyberculture phenomenon. It is common to find in the literature specialized in education and technologies that online education is an evolution or a new generation of the distance learning modality. We disagree, even without ignoring or ruling out this possibility, with this simplistic statement. [\u2026] Online education is the set of teaching-learning actions or curriculum acts mediated by digital interfaces that enhance interactive and hypertextual communicational practices. (SANTOS, 2009, p. 5659,5663)<\/p>\n
The proposition of implementing an Online Education, as characterized here, starts from the understanding that we live, today, in a (cyber)space-time conducive to network learning: connect, talk, post, like, comment, share, collaborate , becoming an author, exposing yourself, negotiating meanings, co-creating\u2026 what other words come to your mind when we talk about values and practices that characterize our contemporary (cyber)culture?<\/p>\n
Eu, na cibercultura… a cibercultura em mim<\/p>\n
We are not alone in these propositions \u2013 there are several philosophers and researchers who have argued for decades that we are experiencing a revolutionary moment in our society, especially from the mid-1990s onwards with the opening of the internet for commercial use, which made it accessible to the population. in general, intensifying the transformations that networked computers were already causing in our society (NICOLACI-DA-COSTA; PIMENTEL, 2011). Some of our inspirations:<\/p>\n
We can\/should (re)think our didactic designs for the digital network, inspired by the values and practices of cyberculture. The contemporary socio-technical scenario, of our culture structured by networked digital technologies, has been challenging us to reconfigure formal education to be more in tune with the \u201cspirit of our time\u201d. The unidirectional mass media, which were characteristic of the last century, today seem dated to us, as well as the mass instructionist-pedagogical practices that are often mistakenly confused with the distance modality itself.<\/p>\n
By announcing the "Principles of Online Education", we want to show the possibility of other didactic-pedagogical practices for the distance modality. Below, we present a summary of each of the principles (and in the next posts we will publish an article about each of them \u2013 follow our series!). Although presented one by one, the principles are correlated, they are interdependent, they are part of a coherent set of concepts and actions necessary to make Online Education effective: it is not possible to promote collaborative learning (4th principle), if there is no conversation between all (5th principle); to effect collaboration (4th principle) promoting conversation (5th principle) and co-authorship (6th principle), there must be active teacher mediation (7th principle); authorial activities (6th principle) only make sense when knowledge is understood as an open work (1st principle); among other relationships. The numbering of the principles is for ease of reference only, as there is no order between them.<\/p>\n
Principle 1 \u2013 Knowledge as \u201copen work\u201d (instead of \u201cclosed message\u201d)
\nKnowledge as an open work<\/p>\n
Scientific knowledge is the result of a social construction. Bruno Latour (2000) described the social process of construction of scientific knowledge as a dynamic in which different actors dispute narratives capable of explaining a phenomenon under investigation, initially full of uncertainties, until the controversies are closed and knowledge closes in \u201c scientific fact\u201d, indisputable (a \u201cblack box\u201d), ready to be disseminated in society as a truth\u2026 until a dissenter reopens the controversies. Scientific knowledge, therefore, although it can be disclosed as closed, is always subject to reopening, to new weavings. In Online Education, we start from this epistemological conception of knowledge as an \u201copen work\u201d (ECO, 1962), possible to be re-signified and co-created, in an endless movement. When knowledge is understood as a finished, closed product, all that remains for students is to assimilate without questioning the contents that a teacher or the computer presents, in a banking perspective of education that we have fought for decades (ARAUJO; PIMENTEL, 2020):<\/p>\n
Instead of communicating, the educator makes \u201ccommunications\u201d and deposits that the students, mere incidents, patiently receive, memorize and repeat. This is the \u201cbanking\u201d concept of education, in which the only scope for action offered to students is to receive deposits, keep them and file them. [\u2026] In this distorted vision of education, there is no creativity, there is no transformation, there is no knowledge. Knowledge only exists in invention, reinvention, in the restless, impatient, permanent search that men do in the world, with the world and with others. (FREIRE, 1970, p 80-81)<\/p>\n
Principle 2 \u2013 Content curation + syntheses and study guides (instead of producing specific content for distance learning)
\nContent curation<\/p>\n
Nowadays, when we want to learn something, we usually consult the web: we do a Google search, browse the interconnected pages of Wikipedia, watch a video lesson on YouTube, consult a presentation shared on SlideShare, read an article on a blog, download a scientific article , we consult pages on Facebook, we write asking a friend or a group on WhatsApp, among other tactics (PIMENTEL, 2019). The web has become our main source of knowledge, with online content in multiple languages and formats available just a click away. Considering the abundance of content available online related to our classes, we teachers can play the role of \u201ccurators\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cContent Curation is a term that describes the act of finding, grouping, organizing or sharing the best and most relevant content on a specific subject\u201d (BHARGAVA, 2011). The teacher, when performing the curatorship, is mapping, organizing and giving visibility to certain contents. In conjunction with curation, it may be appropriate to carry out syntheses, either in the form of a presentation or a small text linking the mapped contents, which results in study guides. In addition, as we consider knowledge as an open and collaboratively woven work, we must also consider the content produced by the students in the class.<\/p>\n
The curation of online content contrasts with the practices of producing specific content for distance learning, whether printed books (BARRETO et al., 2007), web books (PIMENTEL; SANTOS; SAMPAIO, 2017), videos (SOUZA, 2017) etc. The production of new content is a valid and costly strategy, but it is not the only alternative.<\/p>\n
Principle 3 \u2013 Diverse computing environments (instead of being restricted to Learning Environment services)
\ncomputing environments<\/p>\n
In the distance modality, it is essential to adopt a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), such as Moodle, Google Classroom, Canvas, Facebook Social Learning Group, among others (GOMES; PIMENTEL, 2020). However, the great emphasis that is given to the use of VLE in the distance modality ended up disseminating a culture of confinement and exclusivity, to the point that EAD teachers come to suppose that it is forbidden to use other computer systems, believing that everything must be done. within the AVA. We want to fight this misconception.<\/p>\n
The entire Internet presents itself as a vast territory with countless (cyber)spaces that can be configured to create environments aimed at carrying out learning situations. If VLEs were the characteristic computational systems of the 1st phase of Online Education (SANTOS; RIBEIRO; CARVALHO, 2020), today we must also appropriate other computational systems, as there are no impediments to also use interactive online services, applications, social networks , collaborative editors, among so many possibilities at our disposal.<\/p>\n
Principle 4 \u2013 Networked, collaborative learning (instead of isolated learning)<\/p>\n
When the educational process takes place mediated by networked computers, our practices and reflections lead us to recommend collaborative, networked learning (TORRES; IRALA, 2014; PIMENTEL; FUKS, 2011; FUKS et al., 2011). It is not a matter of having students discuss the contents of a subject only among themselves, without a teacher. It is about building knowledge collaboratively, in a group, valuing the multiple knowledge of each student in the class with the mediation of a good teacher. In this conception, networked computers are used as means of social interaction, not as machines for teaching, but rather as connecting people.<\/p>\n
Principle 5 \u2013 Conversation among all, in interactivity (instead of content presentation)
\nconversation among all<\/p>\n
The exposition of contents by the \u201cdictator of the master\u201d, in which students can only speak occasionally to clear up a doubt about what was exposed, does not characterize a genuine conversation. The conversation needs to be open to the unpredictable and take place in interactivity with and among students (SILVA, 2000). It is up to the teacher to plan the conversational situation and its realization through a computational environment, using various internet conversation services (PIMENTEL, ARAUJO, 2020b). For example, we can use a videoconferencing system to hold synchronous meetings at the time that would be occupied by the face-to-face class; create a WhatsApp group for informal conversation and class coordination; discuss the subjects of the discipline through groups and discussion forums throughout the week; using online chat (chat) to raise different points of view on an issue; provide individualized service by instant message and email; among other possibilities to be designed to promote conversation in the class.<\/p>\n
Principle 6 \u2013 Author activities inspired by cyberculture practices (instead of \u201cdirected study\u201d)
\nOnline Activities<\/p>\n
In general, students like practical activities, as they feel that \u201cyou only learn by doing\u201d. Practical and authorial activities (AMARAL; VELOSO; ROSSINI, 2020) provide the student with the opportunity to apply and transform the knowledge of the discipline, giving new meaning to them. As alternatives to content exposure-assimilation banking education, in addition to Online Education itself that proposes authorial practices inspired by cyberculture practices, we also recognize other initiatives, such as Learning by Doing\/Experiential Learning (DEWEY, 1916), Education of Work (FREINET , 1949), Project-Based Pedagogy (BENDER, 2015), Active Methodologies (BACICH; MORAN, 2018), Interactive Classroom (SILVA, 2000), Inverted Classroom (BERGMANN; SAMS, 2018), among other pedagogical propositions .<\/p>\n
We want to make a difference between activities inspired by cyberculture practices and those activities that are characterized as a list of exercises or a questionnaire, whose objective is to \u201cfix\u201d the contents of the discipline, as is often practiced in mass instructional education. We emphasize the importance of creative activities that enable creative authorship (BACKES, 2012) and that promote multiliteracies (FERNANDES; MACIEL; SANTOS, 2020; BUZATO, 2006). In times of cyberculture, with the \u201cliberation of the emission pole\u201d (LEMOS, 2007), we all become potential authors. In this current socio-technical scenario, we, teachers, are challenged to form students capable of critically reading the world and also of acting as transforming authors of contemporary society (LEMOS, 2010).<\/p>\n
Principle 7 \u2013 Online teacher mediation for collaboration (instead of \u201creactive tutoring\u201d)
\nOnline teaching mediation for collaboration<\/p>\n
In order to carry out online education, it is necessary to carry out an active mediation aimed at promoting collaboration (SANTOS; CARVALHO; PIMENTEL, 2016), in which the teacher plays the role of dynamic group. Where there is collaboration and conversation in a network, doubts and conflicts emerge that will need to be mediated by the teacher and colleagues. We recommend carrying out a shared mediation and using an \u201cemotional language\u201d (LIMA; CARVALHO; COUTO JR, 2018; BRUNO, 2008), recognizing that the emotions expressed in conversations enhance transformations in social life that also unfold in the training process.<\/p>\n
We suggest avoiding the practice of \u201creactive tutoring\u201d (CASTRO; SANTOS, 2010), widely used in massive instructional distance learning, in which a tutor-teacher is available for 1 or 2 hours a week to answer questions from hundreds of students. This type of practice leads to an emptying of student participation, resulting in waste and devaluation of teaching work.<\/p>\n
Principle 8 \u2013 Formative and collaborative, competency-based assessment (instead of face-to-face exams only)
\nonline assessment<\/p>\n
The distance modality enhances new forms of evaluation. The traces that students leave in digital environments when participating in learning situations designed by the teacher make it possible to carry out an assessment based on competences, valuing not only knowledge (knowing what things are, concepts, formulas), but also also skills (know-how, knowledge in action) and attitudes: presence, participation and collaboration. We idealized the online assessment as a collective action, carried out not only by the teacher (heteroassessment), but also by the learner himself (self-assessment) and by everyone in the class (collaborative assessment, 360\u00ba assessment), avoiding the right-wrong answer and returning to if for the valorization of the different perspectives, understanding and criticism of all those involved in the training process. That the assessment is carried out in a formative perspective, on an ongoing basis, aimed not only at passing or failing at the end of the course, but also at supporting awareness of the ongoing learning process itself, in such a way that students perceive the who have already learned well, what they need to learn more and what training actions they should carry out.<\/p>\n
online assessment<\/p>\n
Assessment, from the perspective of Online Education, is a challenge, since the most widespread practice of assessment is the face-to-face test, generally aimed at examining the knowledge assimilated by the student, with a correction made only by the teacher with the intention of classifying the student. in pass\/fail. This evaluation conception starts from the epistemological perspective of knowledge as a \u201cclosed message\u201d (instead of an \u201copen work\u201d \u2013 1st principle), and may even discourage the student to participate and collaborate (4th principle), to carry out authorship and co-authorship in a network ( 6th principle). An evaluation should be planned based on the activities carried out in the various computer systems used in the discipline (3rd principle), aiming at promoting an attitude towards interactivity (5th principle) and considering, in conversations and authorship, the expressions of the learning of the students about the content and beyond (2nd principle), which supports pedagogical mediation (7th principle) (SILVA; SANTOS, 2006; SANTOS; LIMA, 2016; ARA\u00daJO, 2018; ARA\u00daJO, 2013).<\/p>\n
Is it possible to practice the principles of online education in distance mode?
\nWe recognize that the distance modality \u201ccan be better understood from the principles that govern industrial production, especially those of productivity, division of labor and mass production\u201d (BELLONI, 2012), and that, in this modality, it is often induced the adoption of the instructionist-massive pedagogical approach and \u201cdoes not accept proposals with other conceptions, thus eliminating the possibility of recognizing the professional work of the teacher in the distance modality\u201d (LAPA; PRETTO, 2010). But, we insist, the distance modality does not necessarily imply the massive-instructionist approach.<\/p>\n
We also recognize the urgency of public policies that guarantee the digital (and cybercultural) inclusion of all students, as the UN has already declared that access to the internet is a universal right and, in Brazil, the \u201cright of access to the internet to ALL\u201d has been part of our Civil Rights Framework for the Internet since 2014 (Law 12.965\/14). Without this access, which is fundamental for the exercise of citizenship in our current society structured by digital network technologies, we have seen educational institutions interrupt classes, managers turn to the values and practices characteristic of mass communication typical of the last century (such as use television for the dissemination of contents), and teachers inadvertently adopt mass instructionist practices taking into account the hegemonic approach of EAD.<\/p>\n
Finally, we recognize the need to promote teacher training for the responsible exercise of online teaching. We hope that this text is a contribution in this sense, so that online classes, in the distance modality, are neither massive nor boring. We know, however, that it is necessary to build a lot of other knowledge for the exercise of online teaching.<\/p>\n
If you've had the breath to read this far, it's because you found the discussions started in this post useful. If you liked it, then share it on your social networks; let's make the principles of online education viral, make this text reach other teachers who are far beyond the authors' own social networks \u2013 after all, this is also a cyberculture practice, which inspired and motivated us to produce the reflections presented here.
\nSource: Horizons<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
H\u00e1 muitos anos temos praticado e pesquisado Educa\u00e7\u00e3o a Dist\u00e2ncia e Educa\u00e7\u00e3o Online, mas nunca poder\u00edamos imaginar que, de um dia para o outro, ou as pessoas estariam aprendendo-ensinando pelas tecnologias digitais em rede, ou estariam com as aulas paralisadas por conta de um v\u00edrus (PIMENTEL, ARAUJO, 2020a). Acompanhamos, surpresos, o corre-corre de alguns colegas […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogituseducacional.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogituseducacional.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogituseducacional.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogituseducacional.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogituseducacional.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cogituseducacional.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogituseducacional.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogituseducacional.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogituseducacional.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogituseducacional.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}