Risky discussions
| Type of publication: | Misc |
| Citation: | 613 |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Month: | 2 |
| Note: | Cook, Jacobs 23-25 February 2005 - Risky discussions k, 27.05.2007 |
| URL: | http://www.malts.ed.ac.uk/ice2... |
| Abstract: | Julian Cook University of Bristol, UK Neil Jacobs University of Bristol, UK Risky discussions Participation is positively valued within a social constructivist approach to education that is concerned with learning as interactive knowledge building. However, participation is not risk-free. This paper uses a single case study to illustrate some of the ways in which a risk analysis approach can help to link theoretical approaches to interaction, such as critical discourse theory, with practical decisions made by prospective participants in an online forum. We have reported elsewhere (Cook and Jacobs, 2004) on a case in which online interaction did not occur according to the expressed hopes of prospective participants. The case was one of a number of taught modules analysed during the SOLE (Students' Online Learning Experiences) Project. The data collected included a record of the relevant VLE 'discussion board', together with interviews with both tutor and students. The module tutor expressly asked students to engage in 'discussion' in an asynchronous online discussion board, but very little interaction that might have been termed 'discussion' took place. Discourse analysis of postings to the discussion board, and of interviews with the tutor and students, gave rich insights into the reasons why discussion, as commonly understood, was unlikely to occur. For example, discourses were apparent in both interviews and online interaction, whose associated genres of interaction were often at odds with 'discussion'. Analysis of interviews with the tutor showed a deep tension between an avowed constructivist stance (which might support 'discussion') and imperatives from other sources, such as the nature of the subject matter and a focus on summative assessment as evaluating students, tutor and module. This tension was instantiated in the online interaction in increasingly strong calls for discussion, accompanied instead by a series of sequences that often bore a close resemblance to the 'initiation-response-evaluation' classroom recitation sequence. These insights draw theoretical inspiration from Bernstein's notion of 'recontextualising fields' (Robertson et al, forthcoming; Bernstein, 1996), and from the ideas of 'discourse' and 'genre' within critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2003). However, such theoretical explanations, while useful in the academy, are often questioned when findings are discussed with practitioners and students. Under such conditions, an alternative approach is to use a set of concepts, such as those associated with risk, whose use both is relatively common outside the academy, and is rich enough to offer analytic purchase on the findings without doing undue violence to them. The paper therefore presents a hypothetical decision by a prospective interactant (to post a message or not) in terms of a risk analysis. Risks run (or perceived) by a prospective interactant include breaking normative rules of interaction where these rules are either unclear or ambiguous, or where competing rulesets are available, between which the prospective interactant would have to choose. Breaking such rules may carry both social and educational sanctions. Factors influencing the decision whether to interact (identified using discourse and other analyses) are described from an individual's points of view, using a matrix comprising cost/benefit and extent/likelihood. References Bernstein, B. (1996) Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, research, critique. London; Taylor and Frances. Cook, J. and Jacobs, N. (2004) 'Knowing what we mean, meaning what we say: The Humpty Dumpty maxim of online interaction'. In S. Banks, P. Goodyear, V. Hodgson, C. Jones, V. Lally, D. McConnell and C. Steeples (eds) Networked Learning 2004. Lancaster: Lancaster University. Fairclough, N. (2003) Analysing discourse: textual analysis for social research. London: Routledge. Robertson, S., Shortis, T., Todman, N., John, P. and Dales, R. (forthcoming) 'ICT in the classroom: the pedagogical challenge of respatialisation and reregulation'. In: M. Olssen (ed) Culture and Learning: Access and opportunity in the curriculum. Wesport, Conneticut: The Greenwood Press. Students' Online Learning Experiences: http://sole.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/ |
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| Added by: | [ADM] |
| Total mark: | 0 |
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