Educational texts are everywhere

Susanne V. Knudsen & Mattias ØhraSyddansk Universitet, Dream, September 2006

• Vestfold University College: • Senter for textsbooks and

learning resources• Master in educational texts:

learning communication design.

• IARTEM, The International association for research on textbooks and educational media

Disposal

• 1. Educational texts

• 2. Educational texts and situatedness: textbooks, digital

portfolios, netbank/ing

• 3. Situatedness as transparency

1. Educational texts – examples• Textbooks as basic books, subject divided,

grades oriented• Photocopies• Textbook-package:basic book, book of

exercises, teacher’s book • Wall picture, map• Cd-rom, webpages• The museum• Manual• Netbank• Digital portfolios

Situatedness

• Context• In use• About processes• Socio-cultural learning:

a. learning as a communicative praxis connected to co-operation

b. situated learning connected to context

Situatedness related to educational texts (1)

Situatedness related to learning theories (2)

Situatedness related to technology (3)

Textbooks

• related to educational texts (1): The absence of situatedness in ”the texts”. The teachers have no perspectives on contexts Lack of reflections on educational texts as genre, medium Lack of reflections on learning (2) The teachers do often use the textbooks from the

beginning to the end, do not select materials from textbooks for different students in different situations

(Dagrun Skjelbred et als.: Kartleggning av læremidler og læremiddelpraksis 2005)(Mapping learning resources and learning resources in practices)

Netbank/ing and situatedness:

• Related to educational texts (1):

- A digital genre (fx e-letter, chat, self-representation)

- A new genre? (from bankbook, bankcard to netbank)

- Types: instruction and explanation (paperbased, telephone call, links)

- Transparent: seamless argumentation efficiency for the customer and the bank, save time and money.

- Transformation of genre and medium: the genre netbank through the computer and the Internet

Danskebank og Fokusbank

Related to educational texts (1)

- Establishing authenticity (”the truth”, ”the reality”)

- Establishing authority (vertical: hierarchy, horisontal: democrazy)

- Reliability - Exactness

Related to educational texts (1): Users – model-user (Eco)

- Seriousness- Transparency- Inclusion and

exclusion

Netbanking and situatedness

• Related to learning theories (2)- Creating identity- Selv-formation- Behaviorism: press a button and get

the answer; stimulus; message about right/wrong track.

- Cognitivism: gradual development of learning, meta-reflection, oriented towards the individual

Netbank/ing and situatedness• Related to

technology (3).- Different programme

articles,- But also standardized

designs of the web and the communication: customer friendly composition

Related to technology (3)

- Using links- Using interactivity; between the

human being and the machine- Using multimodality: layout- The relation between the Internet and other

media (telephone, e-mail) and genres (e-letter, sms, computergame)

• Increased focus on how ICT can help to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

• Better access to learning materials and the development of new and varied learning methods to stimulate activity, autonomy and cooperation

Digital portfolios

N O R W A Y

Portfolio as educational media• ”Portfolio is a systematic collection of student work

which shows effort, progress and performance in one or more areas. The collection must include student involvement regarding content, selection criteria and evaluation criteria and it must show student self- reflection.

Paulsson, F. L. , Paulsson, P. R. & Meyer, C (1991)

N O R W A Y

A model of analyses for portfolio processes in the project ”Alternative assessments in Teacher education in Norway”. (Dysthe & Engelsen 2004).

N O R W A Y

Digital portfolios• Frontpage presents the

students as both individuals and part of a community.

A first step towards a definition of situatedness

The front page gives a curiosity and a possibility to share knowledge.

The students works are transparent, meaning that you can ‘just’ move into different strategies to solve tasks and make documents of curriculum goals (målområder og mål).

Open digital portfolios, open through world wide web for in principle every human being.

Digital portfolios• Lene Bore: a genuine self-

construction of web design and communication design. The frontpage shows herself,

worked with the photography's, Dalai Lama in between her vitality.

We can see Situadness in the presentations portfolios as one gathered document. ‘

http://lenebb.stud.hive.no/

Digital portfolios

• Her portfolios like the students portfolios show how she/they have chosen the presentation portfolios from their working portfolios

The films she has been involved in producing,

“dreiebok”, synopsis, her analyses of the film. Learning goals are

intergrated in the text,

Digital portfolioshttp://stud.hive.no/~kolenge/index.htm

• Kolbjørn Enge: his self-construction of a web design/the visual logo where he jumps around in the university college (jf link to his earlier teacher studies); and communication design/his hypertextuality (to the left with the main subjects from the media studium).

• In for example “Mediekultur” (media culture), he has seven perspectives, presented in a chronlogy from the first work to the last work in the studium.

• In the work of media culture he also have different links to relevant public informations about the subjects (for example links to news in different media organisations (newspapers, news bulletins), links to “retssag”). Also examples of how he have multimodality (PJM4): storyboard for a film with drawings, synopsis in words, the film, self-reflections and analysis of the film.

3. Situatedness as transparency

• Beyond formal and informal learning (Dreyfus’ phases)

• Beyond the dichotomy into fluidity (Patti Lather)

• Combining phenomenology and post-structuralism when working with digital media as educational texts

Formal and informal learning A• Working with youth cultures in the 1990’s: the distinction

between formal and informal was simply: formal was related to school, informal to leisure activity: the parallel school (Birgitte Tufte, 1995)

• Textbooks and situatedness: - formal learning as no-differentiation and no-situatedness: the

same textbook for all students- informal learning as differentiated use of textbooks

connected to different contexts (social background, ethnicity, gender, age) and different practices or different pedagogies:

- informal learning can take place in school (e.g. chat as an experience of developing further knowledge of genres in use)

Formal and informal learning B• In the 1970’s power perspective: formal as visible, informal

as hidden curriculum

• The first netbank in Norway: 19962006 2,3 mil users in Norway

• Netbank/ing and situatedness:- formal learning connected to conventions, e.g. ways of

making links.- formal learning to make social and cultural equality- informal learning: the hidden curriculum, excluding customer

without computer knowledge- negative definition of informal learning: power as oppression

Formal and informal learning C• In the 1970’s power perspective: formal as visible, informal

as hidden curriculum

• 2006’s digital portfolios and situatedness:

- formal learning as learning goals: the relation between the criteria of working portfolio and presentation portfolio

- informal learning as the students genuine choices of web-design and communication; and the choices of minimum two learning goals out of six.

- informal learning as ways of linking to relevant Internet places as resources

- informal learning as sharing knowledge- informal learning as meta-reflections

Conclusion

• Educational texts are everywhere,• BUT they have - different forms of situatedness- different connections to formal

and informal learnig- different grades of transparency

Educational texts and situatedness

From the point of view of phenomenology:

”The contributions of phenomenology are best summed up in the word situatedness. Phenomenology is the study of human life and human cognition as fundamentally situated. We are always already in a context, and this context works as the background for our understanding. We never come to the world as pure, cognitive machinens, but always as interested actors. The context in which we find ourselves is not only theoretical but also practical” (Beate Elvebakk: Virtual Chemistry: A Phenomenological Analysis. University of Olso, Dissertation 2003).

Educational texts and tranparency

To embody one’s praxis through technologies is ultimately an existential relation with the world. It is something humans always- since they left the naked perceptions of the Garden- done …. The closer to invisibility, transparency, and the extension of ones own bodily sense this technology allows, the better. Note that the design perfection is not one related to the machine alone but to the combination of machine and human. The machine is perfected along a bodily vector, molded to the perceptions and actions of humans (Don Ihde 1990:72,74).