3. SOME PEDAGOGICAL NOTIONS FOR LEARNING WEB LITERACY

3.3.2 Technology as a vehicle for meaning making

When it comes to technology and how it can support the approach of learning as meaning making, we regard its key factor as facilitating collaboration. The development of technology as well as the approach to learning have shaped the role of technology in learning from behaviourist drilling tools to facilitators of communication and collaboration. (See eg. Kern and Warschauer 2000, Beatty 2003 for an introduction to the history of CALL). In the present study, we will focus on the latter, that is, the role of technology as a vehicle for meaning making, and discuss its role as a collaboration facilitator and describe the learning process in an on-line learning environment. By collaboration we refer to "the construction of shared meanings for conversations, concepts, and experiences" (Roschelle 1992 in Palinscar and Herrenkohl 2002).

An example of technology facilitating collaboration was introduced by Scardamalia and Bereiter already in 1983 (see eg. Scardamalia and Bereiter 1999:280-282, Scardamalia 2002) in a project called CSILE (Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environment), the second-generation version of it being referred to as Knowledge Forum. In this project technology is used as facilitating the knowledge building discussion of a community of learners. CSILE/Knowledge Forum is an electronic space for the members of a community to collaborate and produce new knowledge. In other words, it is both a space for collaboration, that is sharing individual thoughts and ideas, commenting on each other's thoughts and building open dialogues, as well as a database for storing and retrieving these comments and dialogues. Such pedagogical approaches to the use of technology in learning also facilitate the development of many of the knowledge society skills, for instance, collaboration and communication skills, as well as computer and web literacies being developed within such learning environments (Tynjälä 1999:161-162).

Why is it then that collaboration is enhanced by technology? Can we make some comparisons to face-to-face collaboration in classroom? Firstly, let us focus on the forms of communication that are supported by technology. As we have already argued, according to Vygotsky (1978), social practices precede intrapersonal individual learning. Along the lines of Vygotsky, collaboration between learners' results in what Vygotsky calls scaffolding (Beatty 2003:99). By scaffolding he means the learners helping each other to learn. In other words, "scaffolding describes a situation in which a learner interacts with someone who can guide, support and shape his or her learning" (Ellis 1998 in Beatty 2003:101). "Novices, largely unconsciously 'internalise' or accommodate to the goals, values and understandings of those more expert than themselves through scaffolded joint activities with those others and their associated tools and technologies" (Gee 2000:52). Thus, technology enhances such scaffolding, for it is possible to make all the contributions to the knowledge building discourse open to all the learners. Through web-based discussion forums and other publishing functions learners' ideas and reflections are accessible for all in spite of time and place and the progress of discourse is visible. Beatty (2003:112) argues that the most significant benefit of such collaboration is "the way in which it serves to reveal information and ideas, not just to learners' collaborative partners but to learners themselves". Technology, thus, in a way changes the course of communication. The communication within a discussion forum is not necessarily directed to the teacher nor to some specific learner, but rather, for anyone in the knowledge building community who seems interested (Scardamalia and Bereiter 1999). This form of communication is often referred to as many-to-many communication (see. eg. Warschauer 1999, Saarenkunnas et al. 2000, Hampel and Baber 2003:173). The idea of scaffolding can be said to support the view that many of the lived-in-world problems cannot be solved by individuals but require the community in which the expertise is distributed (Tella 2000:23).

In addition to the form of communication, the aspects of pace and participation within a classroom discussion are also diminished, when learners can take their time to think and reflect on the topic before contributing to the process (see Tynjälä 1999:162 for asynchronous learning networks). Kohonen (1992:14-39) elaborates on collaboration as learners having the chance to bring in their personal contributions to learning situations. Through technology this process becomes more equal, as the learners as well as teachers are invited to become members of a community in which there are multiple levels of expertise. This form of equality naturally challenges the members of the community, for there are new requirements in an on-line communication situation. For instance, silence is a stronger message on-line than what it is in a classroom situation. Thus, learners in an electronic learning environment need to take more active roles as participators and generators of the discussion and take responsibility on the whole community's progress. (Taalas et al. 2000.) Furthermore, studies on computer-mediated-communication have shown on-line communication to enforce equal and democratic participation, since social clues such as gender, accent or status, are reduced (Warschauer 1999:61).

Another viewpoint on collaboration and scaffolding is on how the learning space itself can guide, support and shape learning. If we understand scaffolding as the learner facing gradually more challenging tasks and problems and the environment supporting the learning, the environment does not necessarily mean only the other members of the group. By careful structuring of the learning space, its content and instructions, the technology itself supports the learning process.

A recent example of how technology supports learning is Salmon's (2000:25-37, 2002b:10-36) five-stage framework which describes the process of web based learning and teaching. According to this model, there are five phases which learners go through in an on-line course. These phases are access and motivation, on-line socialisation, information exchange, knowledge construction and development (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Salmon's 5-stage model for on-line learning

According to Salmon's model (2000:25-37, 2002b:10-36), the learners need first to be provided with the access to the Internet as well as access to the learning space in question, whether it requires passwords, logins or some information on the use and the structure of the module. The functions of the learning space are introduced and practised. Motivating the learners in the beginning phase is considered highly important for the technical problems may still cause the learners to loose interest and find this new way of learning too difficult. On-line socialisation refers to the fact that in order to create a learning community there must be communication. And in order to create an atmosphere in which learners communicate freely, support for getting to know the netiquette and forming a coherent group is needed. Only after this is established can the learners begin to exchange information related to the subject matter and slowly begin to collaboratively construct meanings. In Netro, we do not want to divide the learning process into such strict phases, but believe that the phases overlap to an extent. However, Netro can be seen to contain all the Salmon's stages, even though they do not necessarily appear in such a clear linear order. How Salmon's stages are presented in Netro will be further presented in chapter 4.4.3 when introducing the learning space in more detail.

In addition to the technology supporting collaboration, we want to mention some additional strengths of electronic learning environments. First, technology provides multimodal possibilities for learning environments which can be seen to support individual learning preferences and learning styles (see eg. Svensson 2003:128-129, Hampel and Baber 2003:174). Secondly, technology also supports the cry for authenticity in learning (on language learning and authenticity see eg. van Lier 1996:123-146, Benson 2001:124-126). The web is a medium in which learners have the access to electronic resource materials never before at hand. This in turn can be seen as supporting learner autonomy. When faced with authentic texts, in this case web texts, the learners gain confidence in dealing with challenging authentic materials as well as learn to acquire new knowledge in authentic situations (Little 1997:230-235). In other words, in the case of web literacy this could be understood as the web readers being able to use the diversity of web content as an opportunity for learning more about web literacy. Thirdly, the hypertext structure of the web has also been claimed to support knowledge construction for the learners' are actively building their own reading paths by choosing which links to follow (Warschauer 1999:21, Luke C. 2000:72-73). The combination of interaction and reflection facilitated by technology is also considered to further facilitate critical thinking (see eg. Warschauer 1999:61). Finally, when the focus of the learning space is web literacy, the authenticity of the web based learning space needs no further explanations, but it seems more than natural to integrate the target of the learning and the actual learning space Netro on-line.