Virtual Classrooms As Pedagogical Mediation In Teaching-Learning Processes
Abstract
The general aim of this research was the one to identify the incidence of the virtual classrooms like mediation pedagogical in the process of education-learning of the students of the Facultad de Educación Virtual y a Distancia of the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios, seat Bello, Colombia. To his time commissioned to describe how the educational of the Faculty implement strategies of virtual education for the acquisition of significant learnings by part of the students in the distinct courses that give. Methodologically, a Qualitative-phenomenological design was followed and Observation and Content Analysis were used as data collection techniques, and observation guides and analysis matrices as instruments. The study used four categories of analysis fundamentally: the planning, the use of multimedia resources the integration of the component of virtuality and the communication. The results showed that the educational do a basic utilisation of the diverse tools that has available in the platform Moodle to design strategies of virtual education that support his pedagogical process. At the end of the research the students recognised that to weigh that they exist new interactions and new channels of communication such as the forums, these do not give of constant way and are not the sufficiently effective so that they hit in new processes of learning.
Keywords: Educationlearningstrategiesvirtual classroomsvirtuality
Introduction
The new technologies of the information (TIC) have generated important changes in distinct social fields, inside these find the field of the education. The advent of the new forms in that it can establish the relation of education learning mediated by the TIC, it provides a new approach, a new look opposite to the occupation of the professor and of the pupil, of such luck that the hegemonic relations of the power of the word or of the master exhibition see for the time being compelled almost to his reinterpretation by the possibilities that methodologically provides the web. In this regard González (2003) ensures that the educational of today needs to confront to the groups of students, strengthened with a pedagogical training that endow it of sufficient elements to teach of suitable form. Besides, the educational has to consider the nature of the learning to be able to propose means of effective education that produce significant learnings.
Of this idea derives that the implementation of virtual strategies demand of the educator a different training where can transform his educational task in the generation of environments of learning that provide him to the student the necessary competitions to face the educational challenges. There they appear the virtual classrooms like new stage of training. Varón-Sierra (2012) emphasizes that virtual classrooms have an important differentiating element and it is the generation of autonomy in the student, are new forms of organisation of the school proposal that allow him to the educational and to the student surpass the barriers of time and space that in another moment limited the education.
On the other hand, Barberà, Badia, & Garganté (2005) emphasize that a virtual model initiates with a necessary mediation of the new technologies of the communication and that they themselves transform the ways of understanding the education when the physical spaces are not shared and when the mediation even can be asynchronous. Of such way the implementations of virtual strategies by part of the educational have to consider the mediation in this case of the virtual classrooms like possibility in the generation of learnings in the students.
Problem Statement
The problem that tackled the present research was the one to know the incidence of the virtual classrooms like mediation pedagogical in the process of education learning of the students of the Facultad de Educación Virtual y a Distancia of the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios, seat Bello.
In the four programs with which explains the Faculty have been developed several strategies in the virtual classrooms, by such reason was important for this research, recognise until where these have been effective allowing that the students reach important conceptual developments. The problem sought to answer of how the virtual classrooms like pedagogic mediation contribute or not to the significant learning of the contents of the courses of the programs for the students and if the professor knows these advances, to support his strategies or to modify them thanks to the results that this research throws.
Context
The research took place in Colombia, in the Department of Antioquia, Municipality of Bello. There it finds situated the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios whose slogan is “Educación de Calidad al alcance de todos” (Quality Education available to everyone), mission that was inspired by his founder the Catholic priest Rafael García Herreros, the one who founded the corporation to educate to of people of scarce economic resources. The university headquarters are located in urban zone of the Municipality, rely on facilities that have been modernizing and sheltering approximately five thousand students in schedules diurnally and nocturne from Monday until Friday, and in diurnal schedule on Saturdays and Sundays. In this last schedule we find the students of the Facultad de Educación Virtual y a Distancia who attend face-to-face tutoring once every two weeks.
The students’ object of the research do part of the Facultad de Educación Virtual y a Distancia. This faculty composes of a program for the training of educational, that is the degree in Childish Pedagogy, and other three that are not part of the same area of study, as they are it Financial Administration, Public Accountancy and Administration in Occupational Health, which share the modality of virtual education to distance and thus they are ascribed to said faculty.
Research Questions
The research answered to the question: Which is the incidence of the virtual classrooms like mediation pedagogical in the process of education learning of the students of the Facultad de Educación Virtual y a Distancia of the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios, seat Bello?
Questions subordinated
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How they schedule the educational the strategies of education in the different courses of the academic programs of the Facultad de Educación Virtual y a Distancia, during the years 2017 and 2018?
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How they perceive the educational of the Facultad de Educación Virtual y a Distancia, during the year 2017, the implementation of the platforms Moodle for the education of the different courses given to his students?
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How they contrast the educational of the Facultad de Educación Virtual y a Distancia the attainments reached by the students, with the strategies of virtual education implemented in the different courses given during the years 2017 and 2018?
Purpose of the Study
The present research had like fundamental pretence ask after which the incidence of the virtual classrooms like mediation is pedagogical in the process of education learning of the students of the Facultad de Educación Virtual y a Distancia of the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios, seat Bello.
Research Methods
The research carried out in the 2017 and 2018. The population of study were roughly two hundred students of the four programs and 24 educational that accompany these programs, with those who evaluated the virtual strategies developed in the courses and his impact in the learnings of the students.
Type of study and design of research
The approach of this study was qualitative since it oriented in comprising the phenomena exploring them from the perspective of the participants in a natural environment and in relation with his context (Hernández, Fernández, & Baptista, 2006). The study was realized from a phenomenological perspective in that the aim was to analyze the values, experiences and meanings of the specific group of the chosen students. In this sense raised information of each one of the students in front of the utilisation of the virtual platform and in her the recognition in front of the strategies of education used by the educational to know the experiences that each one of them had when developing the courses and how perceived the learning in the students.
Population
The population of study were roughly two hundred students of the four programs and 24 educational that accompany these programs.
Information gathering techniques
The collection techniques of the present study consisted of an observation guide used with the students and the professors, the content analysis from the virtual classrooms and the collection of information from a semi-structured interview which had its respective guide.
The observation was carried out in the face-to-face tutorial meetings, trying to focus on the professor's performance in terms of the use of virtual strategies in the development of the meeting, as well as four categories for observation, the first of which makes reference to the planning of the meeting, the second is the use of multimedia resources that are made in it, the third condition is the integration of the component of virtuality in the teaching process and finally the condition of the communication component.
Findings
The present analysis is based on the information collection instruments that were used for research, observation, semi-structured interview and content analysis of the virtual classrooms visited. Each analysis is done with a table of results, then a description of the contents of the table is made and finally an interpretation of the same.
descriptive Analyses of the results of the Observation:
To continuation, present the results of the observation realised in the face-to-face meetings in which they determined four main categories that answered to the questions realised, these categories were: Planning, use of multimedia resources, integration of the component of virtuality, and Communication.
Descriptive Analyses of the Table 1: Observation of professors.
In the Table
Interpretation of results of the Observation of professors.
Of the observation realised on the educational can interpret that, knowing the virtual methodology distance, implements the work from the virtual classroom and his resources use to accompany the process with the students, however, fits to stand out that no always are used and that do not leave to see with clarity which is the result that expects of the scope through the same.
To continuation, presents the table synthesis of the results obtained in the observation of the students in four face-to-face meetings, this observation also did in the virtual classrooms.
Descriptive Analyses of the Table 2: Observation of students
The analysis of the table does following the same four categories, planning, use of multimedia resources, integration of the component of virtuality and communication. The first category can describe like a strong point, so much educational like students have clear the aims and work around the same, using the materials posed for the face-to-face meeting. As for the second category is observed that some inconsistencies appear provided that there is demonstrated that resources exist multimedia but the same ones are not used in any occasions and in others it is not clear of what way they rest or they should support the learning process of the students. In the third category, which it has to see with the integration of the component of virtuality there is coherence with the second one, and is that the paper is diffuse of this one in the process of the students, who value initially the resource, but demonstrate that his use is neither very frequent nor the most suitable. What is revealed also in the category of communication provided that, even having means for the interaction between professor and students and between companions, is not a strategy that mobilizes the learning, is used little and does not come out.
Interpretation of results of the Observation of students
Of the previous table in the observation of the students can interpret that the planning so much of the course as of the meetings observed is good and that works with base in the same, what orients so much the process of education like the one of learning of the students and at the same time that answers to the expectation using virtual resources that expect are significant in the training of the students. Can say that the following categories of analysis so much of the multimedia resources, as of the integration of the component of virtuality and the communication expected between all the actors of the course, does not launch optimum results. The first because existing the means and the forms for the utilisation of multimedia resources, do not do frequently, or at least were not evident in the observations realised. The resources are available, but they were not significant in the meetings, which highlights that virtual education is not only because of having the means but should be used in the most appropriate way. The media can be at hand, but perhaps because of a difficulty in the order of the methodological and the lack of culture in the virtual, they do not end up being very significant at the time of learning or are used only instructional or instrumental without taking advantage of the real potential that mimes can have. This is the case with the expected integration of the entire virtual component in the courses: a mechanical use of some basic tools that virtuality can offer is perceived, but it is not inserted in a significant way in new ways of learning and relating to the contents they generate, on the one hand, the recognition of the benefits that these may have, but at the same time, a limited use for training purposes.
Likewise, it is evident that the communication does not go beyond the scope of the training for the same reasons stated in the previous lines, since it remains at the level of the instrumental and basic that an internal mail or a participation forum can offer. Individual with very little interaction, not taking advantage of the possibility of networking or generating important discussions on the issues worked on, this is largely due to the culture of face-to-face education where virtual resources are not widely used and from which all students.
Conclusion
Virtuality as mediation for training appears in the scenario of new information technologies and provides various possibilities for the professor to generate other interactions with students, giving fundamental interest to those that can serve to develop other types of learning from of new forms of teaching, no longer focused on the keynote speeches of the professor alone but on the development of other materials that can motivate learning. It is a new way of teaching, but also of learning and that is supported by several successful experiences that have implemented appropriate virtual teaching models.
These models must put the professor as a generator of learning environments, in which the student is the one who develops most of the work thanks to the possible interactions from the virtual classroom, the courses of the Facultad de Educación Virtual y a Distancia of the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios, seat Bello show the need for a correct implementation of the model to avoid the risk of leaving it alone in the implementation of digital materials which does not ensure a teaching-learning process from the virtual.
The risk of confusing digitization of materials with virtual education is latent since not having many scanned or digitized documents and sending and receiving emails is a virtual teaching model, nor can these be just the teaching-learning strategies, because as we have seen, these are only basic elements of virtuality, we will have to go further and delve into the tools that allow the real development of real spaces for interaction between virtuality and training.
On the other hand another important conclusion is the need that virtual strategies enable the generation of autonomy of the student against their training process, the various theoretical references used in the research make constant reference to this differentiating element of education from the virtual and not it was possible to show this in the information obtained since, since there are few strategies that stimulated the courses, it is not possible to speak about the fact that this autonomy is being achieved in the student body.
Hence, the scarce use of various resources of the platform itself and the equivocal way of virtualizing documents and various support materials with the true intention of a strategy in virtuality has become evident. This is an important point as a return to the institution that has allowed research as it is interesting to review how this process is carried out and if it is really useful as a pedagogical mediation for the training of future professionals. In this sense, the resignification of the concept of virtual strategies from what has been found is imperative for the institution, since by confusing virtual strategies with virtualization, the formation of competent subjects that have been formed in a virtual model is put at risk. Distance and would leave them in a hypothetical work disadvantage compared to those that have been trained under the traditional face-to-face model.
One of the relevant issues as a conclusion of the project is that it is necessary to train professors and professors in virtual models, since if you want to work under these strategies, the first thing to do is to outline the conceptual boundaries that distinguish both face-to-face and the virtual modality, this to make it clear that the work strategies are different and that the means through which it is expected to achieve the training objectives are specific to each modality. At the same time, the training of students is important, given that many of them have been schooled from the classroom for most of their lives, and the paradigm shift upsets the school's imaginary and the role it plays in it.
Acknowledgments
The authors appreciate to the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios, seat Bello, for accepting and support the present research with the bottoms of the III Announcement of Projects of Research and Innovation of Lower Quantity– 2016-2017.
References
- Barberà, G., Badia, E., & Garganté, A (2005). The educational use of the emergent virtual classrooms in the upper education [article on line]. Magazine of University and Society of the Knowledge 2 (2), 1-20.
- González, V. (2003). Strategies of education and learning. México: Publisher Pax.
- Hernández, R., Fernández, C., & Baptista, P. (2006). Methodology of the research. Mexico, D.F.: McGraw Hill.
- Varón-Sierra, A. C. (2012). Educación virtual aprendizaje autónomo y construcción de conocimiento. In Editorial Politécnico Gran colombiano (p. 104). Bogotá: Poligran. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/www.poligran.edu.co/editorial
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Publication Date
09 April 2019
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Multicultural education, education, personal health, public health, social discrimination,social inequality
Cite this article as:
Múnera, C. A. A., Hincapié, J. E. G., & Ramírez, L. J. G. (2019). Virtual Classrooms As Pedagogical Mediation In Teaching-Learning Processes. In E. Soriano, C. Sleeter, M. Antonia Casanova, R. M. Zapata, & V. C. Cala (Eds.), The Value of Education and Health for a Global, Transcultural World, vol 60. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 1018-1025). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.04.02.125