Philosophy of Technology-Enhanced Learning Workshop
18-19 November 2005, Balatonvilágos, Hungary
Kaleidoscope partner the Institute for Philosophical Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences held this workshop, the aim of which was to consider the role and importance of chat and its impact on social and cognitive settings
The aim of the workshop was to consider the role and importance of chat and its impact on social and cognitive settings. The two main topics were ‘Media Convergence and Voice over Internet Protocol' and ‘Chat in Educational Settings'. The theoretical background of the discussion was built upon the new results of cognitive scientific and cognitive psychological research, considerations of philosophy of communication and that of science.
Media Convergence and VoIP
In the last decade, some new tendencies in connection with tools we use to communicate have appeared, which suggest certain revival of literacy and the convergence of different representational forms.
Chat revives literacy in the sense of involving an intensive use of written verbal expression. However, chat in a multimedial framework makes visible the differences among live voice, written text, image and animation. The easy use of this variety of representational forms help to make conscious these differences and leads to a certain merged literacy.
Different forums give different opportunities to build social networks and these networks are most likely constructed for different purposes. Though multimedia is ready at hand in most of the forums, the design of the interface has an impact on how it is used and for what purpose. As these forums provide the opportunity to personalize it, the networks are easily sustainable even over huge distances.
Chat in Educational Settings
The popularity of different chat forums calls attention to some changes. As our cognitive settings are considerably determined by our social makeup, this new way of communication can modify our close circle of friends. Robin Dunbar states in his article Social Brain Hypothesis that there is a certain limit to the number of individuals that we can have in an intensive relationship of a certain sense. The intensity is highly dependant on the intensity of connectedness. So it is not possible to extend the circle of relationships which are close to some extent, but the visible awareness of the other's presence could restructure the membership of closer circles.
Communications technology has special importance regarding cognitive skills, social institutions, norms and ideals. Accordingly the environment of learning is also changing and more over some institutional changes are imminent. The idea of "Life Long Learning" e.g. stems from the increasing mobility and speed of technological change As the different spheres of individual life (public and private), the scheduling which was traditionally static and organization of everyday activities were differentiated according to the workplace and home) are being altered radically, the traditional role of the school must be changing as well.
Considering computer program-design, technologically determined social conditions are definitive. Taking into consideration cognitive abilities and the notion of scaffolding in the sense of Andy Clark's use of the concept of augmentation, it becomes clear that extant forms of communication have crucial importance. Accordingly, everyday use, (i.e. the way pupils/students communicate) is a good basis to create new and helpful tools for learning.
There is the concern for the "ritual view of education" which is related to the Kuhnian philosophy of science. It is important to consider an implicit dimension of traditional education, rarely realized, if at all - that its cohesive power is based on some ritual moments of educational practice. In this sense the learning process is not simply a cumulating process of knowledge-acquisition rather, it is an overwriting process. The process of overwriting requires the authority of the teacher and a certain institutionalized framing of its content. Textbooks are the most important vehicles of this context of teaching-learning, the context of pedagogy. It is significant to consider how this pedagogical context changes in a multimedially networked learning environment.
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