Ángel García del Dujo

Interacción virtual y aprendizaje cooperativo : un estudio cualitativo

Education today is charged with the task of rediscovering the potential of cooperation in the new communication coordinates offered by virtual technologies. This task involves extending theory and deploying broad empirical analyses that will allow us to better understand and subsequently prescribe the social interaction processes involved in virtual education. Within this general frame, the objective of this research project is to understand how cooperative relations are built amongst students under conditions of technological mediation. Thanks to a research methodology based on current virtual ethnography applied to the world of university education, the authors managed to learn how networks of cooperative interaction are woven amongst physically distant students in today�s new environments through tools of technological mediation. Specifically in this case the weaving of networks was based on the exclusive exercise of text language on discussion forums. The research led the authors to structure a series of pedagogical propositions that can be synthesised as follows: virtual technology, by modulating the interaction flows according to a written asynchronous communication system, adds to the basic form of cooperation a matrix of temporal (and spatial) representation from which students reconfigure their opportunities and strategies for action when learning as a team. That is, interaction time is part of the learning strategy with which and from which students cooperate. The article reveals an emerging line of research in the virtual training field. It constitutes a methodological toehold for gaining a more thorough knowledge of the different modes of educational interaction that are interwoven by virtue of the Internet. The article thus confirms the hypothesis that the virtual environment adds an element to learning, and educational processes must be rethought on that basis.

European Social Science Citation Index: A Chance for Promoting European Research?

In the context of increasingly common and frequent evaluations in Educational Science, the assurance of the quality of publications belongs to those challenges, which have not yet been solved adequately. In the face of new technical possibilities and the sheer volume of publications, it is important to find a new balance between a specialist public communication of the results and points of view of Educational Science and internal communication within the discipline, which promotes the development of the discipline as a whole. This contribution presents a discussion on how processes of quality assurance for publications within the European Research Area can be initiated which provide a better international visibility of research both carried out and published in Educational Science in Europe.

Notas para una interpretación educativa des espacio-tiempo social en la Red.

Basado en el interes que despiertan las caracteristicas de la sociedad infocomunicacional y la Red en el mundo de la Educacion Social presentamos el resultado de una investigacion cuyo objetivo ha sido mostrar la dimensionalidad espacio-temporal en la Red. Los autores, previa exposicion de lo que a su juicio son la contingencia infocomunicacional y tecnocultural del espacio y del tiempo, asi como del discurso teorico y dialectico que fundamenta el trabajo, presentan un estudio multivariante realizado en una muestra de estudiantes de la Universidad de Salamanca. Los resultados mas relevantes de este analisis constatan que las diferencias significativas mas destacadas estan en las variables que hacen referencia a la percepcion espacio-temporal asociadas a la idea de movimiento en el tiempo y a la nocion de continuidad en el espacio. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Based on the interest aroused by the characteristics of info-communications society and the network in the world of Social Education, we present the results of an investigation whose aim has been show the space-time dimensionality in the network. For that end, the authors’ previous exposition to what in their judgement is the info communications and technocultural contingency of space and time, as well as the theoretical and dialectic discourse that underlies the work, present a multivariate and discriminant analysis conducted with a sample of Salamanca University students. The most relevant results of this analysis find that the most important differences are the variables that refer to timespace perception associated with the idea of movement in time and the notion of continuity in space.

Pedagogic dilemmas to flows of knowledge in the age of digital technology

The main purpose of this paper is to argue why we adopted the socio-technical system as a heuristic device. We understand it is a good methodological resource to interpret what is happening in education systems with the progressive introduction of digital technologies, helping us to understand the changes that are occurring, and documented here, concomitant with the technological innovation, also involved political factors and economic modeling ending the “new education”.The main purpose of this paper is to argue why we adopted the socio-technical system as a heuristic device. We understand it is a good methodological resource to interpret what is happening in education systems with the progressive introduction of digital technologies, helping us to understand the changes that are occurring, and documented here, concomitant with the technological innovation, also involved political factors and economic modeling ending the “new education”.

Autoformacion : una perspectiva diferente

El objetivo de este trabajo es el de mostrar que una de las competencias que hoy dia deben fomentarse, si queremos responder realmente a las demandas laborales desde una perspectiva socioeducativa, es la de la autoformacion. Nadie pone en duda que el modelo de desarrollo que se pretende implementar en la sociedad actual requiere una mayor masa formativa, un mayor nivel de formacion en cada individuo. No obstante, pensamos que tambien requiere un modelo de formacion, sino diferente si, al menos, complementario. Mas alla de una pedagogia individualista, mentalista, aislacionista y abstracta, basada en una logica de conocimientos e instituciones, pensamos que el sistema formativo debe recuperar una vision mas social y global de los procesos de produccion y de la vida. Una logica que este apoyada en los modos de accion que tienen lugar en el mundo de la vida y del trabajo. Sobreponiendonos a los simples listados de competencias, nos hemos preguntado por la forma como se generan, adquieren y desarrollan las competencias, concluyendo que el enfoque de la autoformacion responde no solo a determinadas tendencias economicas sino a las transformaciones que viene conociendo la sociedad en la ultima decada. Teniendo en cuenta que el ser humano es algo mas que un nodulo productivo, laboral, y la autofor-macion es una caracteristica que se predica del sujeto en cuanto tal, en su totalidad y en relacion con su entorno, concluimos el trabajo presentando la autoformacion como competencia clave y como modelo de formacion para la sociedad del siglo XXI.