Promotion of knowledge construction trough e-learning tools; an european project on "goog practices"

The presentation concerns the results of an e-learning “Minerva” project co-financed by E.U. aiming at identifying and promoting “good practice” in the design and delivery of e-learning courses (i.e., activities that teachers/tutors may use to foster social dynamics allowing participants to advance in knowledge construction). The main aspire of the project is to promote the development of educational practices, and particularly of Open and Distance Learning, on the basis of innovative experiments and of the principal results of the socio-educational psychology. In particular, we want to promote understanding among teachers and decision-makers and the public at large of the weight of social interaction in e-learning activities, and to suggest improved methods and educational courses on the basis of best practices found at the European level. In the first phase of the project, an in-depth inquiry on 70 noteworthy European e-learning experiences has been designed to identify examples of actions and strategies used within a population of e-learning courses, in order to facilitate collaboration and support it in respect to the learning outcomes. The focus of the study is on the “practices” used by practitioners of e-learning thus, accordingly to the theoretical framework, we will recognize some “good practices” intended to foster knowledge construction through social interaction. After the exploratory research, in the next step of the project we designed and delivered e-learning courses based on emerging “good practices”. Afterwards, the project foresee to evaluate the effectiveness, feasibility, and sustainability of “good practices”, as well as the processes and the outcomes achieved in the experimental e-learning courses. More detailed findings concerning recognized “good practices” will be presented during the conference. Following the principles of action-research, the fourth step will be dedicated to the dissemination of the emerging results (international meetings, web-diffusion, etc.), as well as to knowledge transfer activities among conceivers and developers of e-learning environments.