A começar a delimitar o tema de investigação

Procurando começar a delimitar o tema de abordagem a leitura de três artigos de revistas científicas que manifestam ser das mais importantes na área do EaDeL foram centrais para me ajudar a alinhar ideias.

Talvez porque o tema que trabalhei durante o Mestrado se tenha manifestado como importante e como uma das tendências futuras da tecnologia e da potencialização da ubiquidade e da viragem paradigmática, cada vez mais a Internet das Coisas (de todas as coisas) se me afigure como o tema pelo qual ingressarei.

Deixo, por isso a indicação dos 3 artigos escolhidos e justificação das referidas escolhas. Deixo, também, AQUI, o link para um documento onde transcrevi citações importantes retiradas desses mesmos artigos.

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Elisondo, Romina. Donolo, Danilo. Interculturalidad, apertura a experiencias y creatividad. Aportes para una educación alternativa. RED - Revista de Educación a Distancia. Número 41. Documento AQUI

Resumen: La creatividad dependería de la apertura, búsqueda y generación de experiencias en contextos heterogéneos. En el artículo se argumenta acerca de esta hipótesis a partir de resultados hallados por los autores en tres investigaciones anteriores en las que se encontraron vinculaciones entre creatividad y apertura a experiencias. Se halló que los más creativos están ávidos de experiencias, buscan deliberadamente, más y nuevas experiencias, más y nuevos espacios donde desarrollar sus potencialidades creadoras, generalmente en actividades de ocio. En el escrito se argumenta acerca de la apertura a experiencias como forma consistente de actuar en diversos contextos orientada principalmente por motivaciones intrínsecas. Se revisan teorías e investigaciones para explicar las relaciones entre creatividad y apertura desde perspectivas diversas y se destaca el valor de las experiencias interculturales en la construcción de contextos educativos favorables para la creatividad. Generar espacios donde se pueda interactuar con diversidad de personas, lenguajes, costumbres y formas de pensamiento, es crear posibilidades de experiencias y por lo tanto de creatividad. Se caracterizan a los contextos educativos creativos como entornos abiertos a experiencias diversas y diálogos interculturales. 

Este artigo reflete sobre a criatividade e o que permite a sua manifestação. Apesar de não se centrar nas tecnologias como motor de desenvolvimento da criatividade aponta para elas como um dos contextos que oferece ótimas oportunidades quer para a criatividade quer para a interculturalidade, na medida em que “(...) extienden las posibilidades de interacciones con otras personas, conocimientos y lenguajes. Además, ofrecen infinitas posibilidades de aprender y recursos educativos diversos” (p.13). Considera, por isso, que para “(...) un nuevo paradigma educativo, una nueva mirada de la educación, es posible partir de la construcción de contextos de enseñanza y aprendizaje donde se relacionen creatividad, experiencias e interculturalidad” (p.13), paradigma este que “(...) tendrá que reconocer la importancia de hacer, de vivir experiencias significativas con otros y con los conocimientos y productos culturales en contextos mediados por tecnologías múltiples y flujos constantes y dinámicos de informaciones diversas” (p.14) que apenas será possível “(...) si se afrontan los riesgos que implica toda innovación y se asumen los desafíos que implica transformas los contextos educativos y las miradas sobre las personas que los habitan.” (p.15). Este é um artigo importante para o tema da mudança paradigmática que coloca em pauta várias vertentes de entre as quais também se manifesta a tecnologia (não por aquilo que é, mas por aquilo que pode potenciar).

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Piedra, Nelson. Chicaiza, Janneth. López, Jorge. Tovar, Edmundo. An Architecture based on Linked Data technologies for the Integration and reuse of OER in MOOCs Context. Open Praxis, vol. 6 issue 2, April–June 2014, pp. 171–187. Documento AQUI

Abstract: The Linked Data initiative is considered as one of the most effective alternatives for creating global shared information spaces, it has become an interesting approach for discovering and enriching open educational resources data, as well as achieving semantic interoperability and re-use between multiple OER repositories. The notion of Linked Data refers to a set of best practices for publishing, sharing and interconnecting data in RDF format. Educational repositories managers are, in fact, realizing the potential of using Linked Data for describing, discovering, linking and publishing educational data on the Web. This work shows a data architecture based on semantic web technologies that support the inclusion of open educational materials in massive online courses. The authors focus on a type of openness: open of contents as regards alteration i.e. freedom to reuse the material, to combine it with other materials, to adapt, and to share it further under an open license. 

Este artigo, na minha perspetiva, insere-se numa nova visão paradigmática na medida em que perspetiviza a utilização da tecnologia como propensa à personalização (através da interligação dos dados)dos ambientes versus conteúdos de aprendizagem - “The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).Tim Berners Lee, the creator of the Web, coined the term (Berners-Lee, Hendler & Lassila, 2001). The Semantic Web promotes common data formats for publishing content on the World Wide Web, by encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in Web pages. The objective is to convert the current Web, dominated by unstructured and semi-structured documents, into a “Web of Linked Data.”” (p.171) -. A Web Semântica, assente na dimensão tecnológica da tecnologia, neste artigo mostra as possibilidades por um lado da reutilização dos recursos educacionais abertos (OER) - na medida em que “The vision of Semantic Web is the idea of having data on the Web described and linked in a way that it can be used by machines not just for display purposes, but for automation, interoperability, integration and reuse of data through various applications and contexts. It provides a promising platform for Open Educational Initiatives. In this section, we describe our proposal for the integration and reuse of OER: an architecture based on Linked Data technologies.” (p.177)  e, ao mesmo tempo, a sua integração no contexto dos Massive Open Oline Courses (MOOC) - “In the architecture, the recommendation seeker is based on SPARQL. With Sparql it is possible to filter OER using multiple category or taxonomy terms at the same time, and combine text searches, category term filtering, and other search criteria (...). Then, it may ask for an OER recommendation based on MOOC data profile (...).” (p.183). Apesar de muito técnico, como todos os artigos que tenho lido destes autores, a visão para o qual aponta não deixa muitas margens para dúvida de que a tecnologia é, na verdade, um sério auxílio para que cada um de nós seja capaz de se encontra no mar disperso de informação que se encontra na web, como se vê por esta afirmação: “This study advocates the use of Linked Data technologies as an enabler for the development of the next generation of Open Educational Resources, allowing the separation of semantics from syntax, the improvement of discoverability and access, and the use of common vocabularies. In addition, the proposed architecture provides to data consumers an opportunity to merge data distributed across different libraries.”(p.183)

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Buchem, Ilona. Koskinen, Tapio. Personal learning environments  in Smart Cities:Current Approaches and Future Scenarios. eLearning Papers. n.º 35. November 2013. Documento AQUI

Abstrat: With the increasing number of the global population living in densely populated and technologically advanced urban spaces, the notion of smart cities is gaining importance, especially in view of citizen engagement, learning and participation. We propose to consider smart cities as learning spaces and call for innovative pedagogical approaches for using technologies embedded in physical environments to support connected and ubiquitous learning in smart cities. In this paper, we discuss smart cities as spaces for constructing Personal Learning Environments. Our special focus is on mobile and locative media, which open new possibilities of interaction with the surrounding environment. In technology-rich infrastructures such as smart cities, physical objects, including buildings, works of art or points of interest, can become part of the learning environment. When mediated through technologies, e.g. by means of mobile and locative media, the surrounding physical environment and the digital environment can be dynamically merged into augmented, ad-hoc Personal Learning Environments. In this paper we give a short introduction to smart cities, smart citizens and smart city learning, and go on to outline some innovative applications of mobile and locative media in urban spaces, including open badges, smart glasses and mobile tagging, and discuss their potential for learning. Followed by these examples, we discuss educaching as an approach to smart city learning and provide some practical examples based on the example of etiquetAR, a mobile, locative application that allows creating interactive tags to support augmented learning experiences. We then present the results of an international, explorative study on smart city learning, which we conducted with educators from Europe, North America, South America, Middle-East and Asia-Pacific.Based on the synopsis of current research and practice and the results of our study,we argue for an extended view of Personal Learning Environments which are not permanent, but created ad-hoc and adjusted dynamically by connecting virtual and physical spaces in smart cities.

Neste artigo o estudo feito sobre os PLE nas ‘smart cities’ aponta por um lado para o domínio tecnológico (os desafios que a tecnologia nos traz potencia a aprendizagem não só com conteúdos, mas também com as coisas) - “First, technologies for smart city learning have to support multi-channel learning, which is an active and participatory process engaging diverse agents and  supporting multi-directional conversations in multiple channels in the smart city ecosystem. Second, technologies for smart city learning have to support multiple-objective learning, which supports learners in following personal, idiosyncratic objectives and learning patterns. Third, technologies for smart city learning have to support multi-context learning, which enables not only  learning anywhere and anytime, but also combining physical and virtual spaces transforming urban elements into learning resources (Pérez-Sanagustín et al., 2013). Thus, we can think of constructing.” (p.3) - e por outro para a necessidade das smart cities só serem possíveis com ‘smart citizans’ - “We argue that smart cities cannot be smart without smart citizens.” (p.2); "(...) We define smart learners as active, networked, autonomous and in control of own resources."(p.2) -. A visão apresentada insere-se dentro de cenários futuros previstos no Horizon 2020, mas analisando e investigando cenários bem realistas e presentes (a utilização da tecnologia móvel, de sistemas de GPS, do QR code… google glass...) que potenciam a ubiquidade da aprendizagem a partir de ambientes personalizados de aprendizagem. O artigo conclui que “Current technologies allow the transformation of smart cities into augmented spaces for learning in which constructing Personal Learning Environments is happens ad-hoc and is adjusted dynamically to individual learner’s context. The challenge is to understand how Personal Learning Environments may be constructed as part of smart city learning.”(p.12). Este artigo apresenta, também ele uma viragem paradigmática capaz de fazer perspetivar a realidade da Internet das Coisas, de todas as coisas.

Ainda sobre as grandes tendências em EaDEL...

Ainda sobre as grandes tendências da Educaçâo a Distância e eLearning deixo AQUI o link de um post do Professor António Teixeira que refere o contributo de Terry Anderson nesta tarefa.

Transcrevo o visão de Anderson:

First generation distance education pedagogy is based upon cognitive-behavioural pedagogies with a focus on quality content and individual learning (see Anderson & Dron, 2012 for an overview of the generations of distance education pedagogy). The affordances of the Net to greatly reduce costs for the production, the distribution and access to content, has resulted in a proliferation of content that educators can easily use or convert to learning objects for use in their courses. These range from general purpose content such as Wikipedia, journal articles, museum websites and current affairs magazines to dedicated learning content such as MOOOCs, Learni.st and Khan Academy videos. Many important research opportunities arise from the digital traces that students leave as they progress through these learning resources. Web blogs, quiz results, user ratings and recommendations and more can now be harvested using a variety of learning analytics tools to finally make visible, the formally invisible activities of distance learners. However, researchers must as always remain cognizant of the validity of such traces- often we mistake the easily measured for the educationally meaningful!

Second generation, social constructivist pedagogy focuses on collaboration and group support of learning. New awareness and project management tools increase the efficiency of group process, while social network analysis tools allow the research to measure the participation, centrality, teacher dominance and many other indicators of effect social interaction.  Much research on social constructivist learning is based upon interpretative paradigms and focuses on interviews and observations that generate massive amounts of text, which in turn consume massive amounts of research time in analysis. Thus I am always interested in tools to enhance the efficiency of this type of research. Recently I have been impressed with an Australian research tool Leximancer that instantaneously generates a variety of concept maps from even massive amounts of text materials (see for example our use of this tool in Social Interaction in Self-paced Distance Education.) We are also beginning to see qualitative analysis tools move to the cloud (enhancing research team effectiveness) and see them augmented with quantitative tools (answering questions such as which codes are identified significantly more often than other codes?) by tools like Dedoose.

Third generation connectivist pedagogies focus on artifact and network construction. Researchers are challenged when trying to observe or measure connectivist activities as they normally not confined to an LMS but take place across the wider net in the personal learning environments constructed by students. Nonetheless, site based monitoring tools and tools that monitor individual learners application and time use promise to again help researchers, teachers and students to benefit from analysis of the digital traces we leave. These of course present privacy and ethical issues to researchers, but the proliferation of activity and sleep monitoring smart phone apps and wristbands makes user acceptance more likely.

In sum, a host of new research tools, most of which were not designed specifically for educational research use, can and will improve both the quality and the ease of research of teaching and learning at a distance.

Finally, I want to promote what I believe is  a most welcomed new methodology for distance education researchers- that being Design Based Research (DBR). DBR is based upon a pragmatic paradigm that rejects the ontological idea of either a single measurable reality (positivism) and multiple realties based upon individual interpretation (constructivist) and that reality is politically constructed (critical paradigm). By contrast, for pragmatists like John Dewey or William James reality is constructed from knowing  "what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's actual life?” To answer these pressing pragmatic demands, DBR is focused on research in real world contexts of functioning distance education systems. Secondly, DBR researchers are not content with merely measuring, interpreting or surveying students, teachers or  their activities, but always focus on the development of an intervention that “makes a difference”.

In the first phase of a DBR project researchers study both the local context and the current literature to design an intervention that is most likely to make a significant and positive effect of learning or teaching effectiveness. The second phase calls for detailed and mindful construction of the interaction with an eye on documenting and measuring costs, so that it can subsequently (if successful) be recreated and improved upon. The third phase consists of implementation and evaluation usually using mixed methods approaches that gathers both qualitative and quantitative data. In the fourth and final phase the researcher distils design principles that can be applied and tested in additional iterations within the same context – or more importantly applied to new learning contexts.

Globally, online and distance education is growing rapidly. As ethical educators and researchers we have both a responsibility and great opportunity to contribute research based improvements and cost efficiencies to this popularity.

Teixeira, António. The Way Ahead for Open, Distance and Digital Education - Guest post by Terry Anderson. EDEN. 11 de Maio de 2015. Disponível em: http://www.eden-online.org/nap_elgg/pg/blog/read/10218/the-way-ahead-for-open-distance-and-digital-education-guest-post-by-terry-anderson#.VVYH1S67rT0.facebook