SOCIAL NETWORKS AND PROMOTION OF KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION THROUGH E-LEARNING TOOLS AN EUROPEAN PROJECT

The presentation concerns an e-learning project co-financed by the European Commission (within the “Minerva-Action”), starting from October 2006, up to the end of October 2008. The theoretical background emerges from social and educational psychology, and the aim of the project is to apply results drawn from experimental research to the design of effective e-learning experiences (“knowledge-transfer” purpose). Our aim is to identify and promote “good practice” in the design and delivery of e-learning courses, i.e., activities that teachers/tutors may use in order to foster the emergence of social dynamics that allow participants to engage in deep scrutiny of information, divergent thinking, and advancement in knowledge construction. In fact, experimental studies on social influence, argumentation, and reasoning suggest that these advanced cognitive outcomes are more likely to appear when participants are engaged in specific social dynamics (peer-to-peer interaction, minority influence, active cliques in virtual social networks, etc.), whereas other and more diffused social dynamics (teacher-centered networks, etc.) are more likely to promote superficial information scrutiny and passive reproduction of delivered knowledge. Accordingly to the principles of action-research, the project will be implemented in four subsequent phases: 1) an exploratory study on a sample of noteworthy e-learning experiences (on the European scale), for identifying the existing “good practices” intended to foster knowledge construction through social interaction; 2) design and delivery of e-learning experimental courses – in academic and vocational training domains – based on emerging “good practices;” 3) process and outcome evaluation of e-learning experimental courses; 4) dissemination activities (international meeting, web-diffusion). In the first phase of the project, an in-depth inquiry will analyse a sample of significant European e-learning experiences, with the aim of collecting information concerning: a) the specific artefacts (activities and tools) implemented in order to foster participants’ interactions, and b) the social dynamics emerged among participants and/or between participants and tutors/teachers. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses will be performed in order to detect which artefacts (“good practices”) foster the emergence of effective social dynamics in already existing experiences. The first results will be presented during the INTED conference.