One Question Interview

Processos Pedagógicos em Elearning

Unit 1 - Task 4

  

ONE QUESTION INTERVIEW

  

In Unit 1 – Cooperative Freedom -, for the 4th activity, Professor Morten Flate Paulsen suggested we should do a one-question-interview to an expert in e-learning. António Pedro, Ana Maria Marmeleira e Margarida Marmeleira created their individual questions, and decided to present them to experts from Portugal, Spain and France, because we thought it was important to know different opinions. While we were waiting for their answers, we decided to contact as well Terry Anderson, from Canada. However, in order to avoid Terry to receive many solicitations, we decided to publish our questions in the course forum and ask if anyone wanted do join us. Manuel Pimentel e Paula Silva joined us: Manuel’s question was the same than António Pedro’s, Paula’s was different but complementary. Professor Morten Paulsen advised us not to ask too many questions to the same expert, so we joined all the ideas and fused them into three questions: the first question for António Pedro e Manuel Pimentel; the second question for Ana Maria Marmeleira e Paula Silva; and the third question for Margarida Marmeleira.

Terry Anderson, answered us promptly and his answers were posted in the course forum as the performance of the task. Shortly after, José Lozano Galera, from Spain, kindly and promptly answered us. Furthermore, he suggested another expert - Javier Martínez Aldanondo, from Chile, and sent him our questions. This expert was also very cooperative and answered us promptly.

We decided now to publish in our blogs all these answers, taking the occasion to thank publicly Terry Anderson, José Lozano Galera and Javier Martínez Aldanondo. In our final work, we will compare all these points of view.

Obs: We used English to interview Terry Anderson, and Spanish to interview José Lozano Galera and Javier Martínez Aldanondo, so we are publishing their answers in the original version.

Learn more about:

Terry Anderson: http://terrya.edublogs.org/

José Lozano Galera: http://grupos.emagister.com/jose_lozano_galera/u/115876

Javier Martínez Aldanondo: http://www.gestiondelconocimiento.com/ficha.php?colaborador=javitomar

  

  

  

1) (In English) Most e-learning courses have an opening and ending date, equal to all students. Therefore, can we effectively talk about freedom of pace and time in that situation?

(In spanish) La mayoría de los cursos e-learning tiene una fecha de apertura y fecha de finalización, el mismo para todos los estudiantes. ¿Por lo tanto, realmente podemos hablar de libertad de ritmo en esta situación?

Terry Anderson: Athabasca University, unlike most Open universities offers continuous enrolment. We find this maximizes student freedom, but also results in lower completion rates than we would like. Sometimes students can not handle the freedom afforded by self pacing- especially since they have so little practice at lower educational levels. So it is question of freedom to choose - more or less freedom and only individual students can answer this. I like options and alternatives.

José Lozano Galera: La libertad de aprendizaje es básica en el e-learning. Muchos Centros de formación, Universidades, cursos on line siguen imitando los procesos de la formación presencial: desde la matrícula, al grupo o clase, las fechas del curso, métodos, etc. En e-learning es el estudiante el centro y motor de su propio aprendizaje por eso que la libertad en los momentos para aprender es fundamental y muy importante para la evolución de los sistemas de e-learning en todo el mundo. Pero también es clave la armonización de todos los procesos y las fechas de un curso: inicio y fin, permiten a la administración académica la organización de su Escuela, Universidad o centro de formación. Todavía queda mucho por hacer para encontrar el mejor modelo en cada situación donde sea posible dar la máxima libertad de aprendizaje al alumno compatible con la correcta organización de un centro o empresa de formación on line.

Javier Martínez Aldanondo: La mayoría de los cursos e-learning tiene una fecha de apertura y fecha de finalización, el mismo para todos los estudiantes. ¿Por lo tanto, realmente podemos hablar de libertad de ritmo en esta situación? La educación en general (no solo virtual, también la presencial), tal y como se entiende tradicionalmente tiene algunas “características” que existen porque tratan de hacer manejable el sistema, no porque sea lo mejor para que las personas aprendan. Por ejemplo, la educación media dura 12 años, la universitaria duraba 5 (Bolonia lo lleva a 4), las clases en la escuela duran entre 45 minutos y 1 hora cada una, los niños se separan por edades (en algunos colegios también por sexos) y avanzan juntos y al mismo ritmo aprendiendo lo mismo, la forma de verificar que aprenden es un examen escrito o tipo test (el mismo para todos), el curriculum de lo que deben aprender fue diseñado hace muchos años y no refleja lo que las personas necesitarán cuando salgan a la “vida real”, etc. En ninguno de estos procesos, el alumno tienen libertad alguna para decidir ni proponer nada, no le queda otra alternativa que asumir y obedecer. Es un caso paradigmático donde el cliente, ni influye en el servicio que recibe ni lo puede evaluar. Un curso e-learning es primero que nada un “negocio” que solo se sostiene si los números encajan. Los elementos que se tienen en cuenta para planificar un curso son el número de alumnos, el coste de la infraestructura, el coste del profesor y los materiales, horas de duración, etc. pero de nuevo, nunca se planifica a partir de las preguntas básicas: ¿Cuánto tiempo hace falta para aprender lo que los alumnos deben aprender? ¿Cuál es la mejor manera de aprenderlo? ¿Todos tardarán lo mismo? ¿Cómo puedo verificar que aprendieron? Para que un curso sea rentable para quien lo ve como un negocio, tiene que tener principio y final, independientemente de que sea presencial o e-learning. Un proceso de aprendizaje visto desde un alumno sin embargo es difícil determinar cuándo empieza y sobre todo cuando debe determinar. En general, empieza cuando el alumno quiere aprender y nunca llega a terminar del todo porque el alumno lo que hace es progresar en su nivel de conocimiento y expertise pero siempre tiene margen de mejora si tiene interés en seguir aprendiendo. En la vida, cada persona apenas tenemos limitaciones respecto de los plazos a la hora de aprender y tenemos toda la libertad para avanzar a nuestro ritmo y según nuestro interés hasta donde queramos llegar. La educación (presencial o virtual) sin embargo no se puede permitir tanta flexibilidad y como contraprestación a llevar la educación a toda la población, ha estructurado un sistema rígido que obliga a que el aprendizaje ocurra en un lugar (colegio, aula), liderada por alguien en particular (un profesor), basada en unos contenidos prefijados (asignatura), verificados mediante exámenes, … Por lo tanto, curso y libertad son casi conceptos antagónicos cuando aprendizaje natural y libertad son casi sinónimos.

   

   

   

2) (In English) According to Paulsen’s Cooperative Freedom Theory, there’s a balance between cooperation and freedom. However, having work group activities isn’t a limitation of individual learning pace? How you do personally, or the institutions you are familiar with, deal with the pedagogical challenge of providing online education that combines individual freedom with meaningful cooperation? (Only to Terry Anderson)

(In spanish) De acuerdo con la Teoría de la Cooperativa Libertad de Paulsen, hay un equilibrio entre la cooperación y la libertad. ¿Sin embargo, la existencia de actividades de trabajo en grupo no es una limitación en el ritmo de aprendizaje individual?

Terry Anderson: I am struggling to convince our University that self pacing does not necessarily mean independent study. I think we should and can offer opportunities for cooperation, but this is challenging with self pacing. However I think new social software and web 2.0 tools make this more possible. We are trying to build optional activities and allow students to see and contribute artifacts of learning to ongoing user generated resources such as links, wikis, blog posts etc .

José Lozano Galera: Aprender siempre es algo individual: aprendo yo de lo que hago, escucho, leo, estudio, pero el modo de hacerlo normalmente es en grupo porque el ser humano es social por naturaleza: aprendemos de todo lo que nos rodea, de nuestros padres, profesores, amigos, compañeros, en múltiples circunstancias y momentos. Siempre estamos aprendiendo desde que nacemos hasta que morimos. Las actividades de aprendizaje en entornos virtuales pueden ser individuales , en grupo o mixtas. Lo importante siempre es encontrar el mejor modelo para que el estudiante aprenda y si una actividad de aprendizaje en grupo limita la libertad del alumno no puede ser buena.

Javier Martínez Aldanondo: De acuerdo con la Teoría de la Cooperativa Libertad de Paulsen, hay un equilibrio entre la cooperación y la libertad. ¿Sin embargo, la existencia de actividades de trabajo en grupo no es una limitación en el ritmo de aprendizaje individual? No conozco la teoría que mencionas y por tanto, determinar cuál es el equilibrio entre cooperación y libertad no creo que sea algo fácil de decidir ni imagino que sea posible decidirlo por igual para todas las personas. En mi opinión, no es posible obligar a nadie a aprender si este no quiere. Si no le interesa, puede simular que aprende pero en realidad, solo el “alumno” determina cuando quiere empezar a aprender. Ahora bien, si quieres aprender algo, significa que reconoces 3 cosas: 1. Que hay algo que te interesa, 2. Que no sabes y por tanto estás dispuesto a aprender como medio para obtener eso que te interesa y 3. Que hay alguien que si sabe lo que tu no sabes (experto) y por tanto le reconoces ese saber y estás dispuesto a aprender de él. Eso significa que si estás dispuesto a someterte a ese proceso de aprendizaje, entonces estás dispuesto a asumir que el proceso que ha diseñado ese experto es adecuado y estás de acuerdo en seguirlo. Obviamente eso impone una restricción a tu libertad (no puedes hacer cualquier cosa que se te ocurra ya que el experto ha diseñado el flujo de actividades que hay que seguir para aprender lo que quieres aprender). Y en ese flujo, es perfectamente natural que se determine que determinados elementos es mejor aprenderlos individualmente y otros es mejor hacerlo en grupo. No hay que olvidar que el proceso de aprendizaje es personal (nadie lo puede hacer por ti) pero no únicamente individual (aprendemos de otros y con otros). Otra cosa es que en la realidad pasan 2 cosas:

1. La mayor parte de la gente que diseña programas de aprendizaje, a pesar de ser expertos en sus ámbitos, no son expertos en aprendizaje y por tanto imitan el proceso que siempre han conocido: preparar contenidos y contárselos (o mostrárselos en un ordenador) a sus alumnos. Y el problema es que las personas no aprendemos escuchando o leyendo sino haciendo.

2. Existe mucha confusión respecto del tema de los estilos de aprendizaje. Desde mi punto de vista, todos aprendemos igual: haciendo. Lo que ocurre es que para ello, usamos estilos distintos. Por ejemplo, hay quien prefiere primero investigar y leer, hay quien sin embargo prefiere lanzarse a la piscina y probar, hay quien prefiere ver primero como lo hace otro, hay quien prefiere hacerlo pero paso a paso y guiado de la mano por un experto …. Un buen programa lo que tiene que hacer es, reconociendo que para aprender hay que practicar, proveer caminos para que el alumno tenga la posibilidad de escoger la forma que mejor le acomoda y por donde quiere empezar y como quiere progresar.

   

   

   

3) (In English) In an article of yours, you talk about a seven dimension of freedom – the freedom of relationship. Do you think that the fact that some e-learning courses demand for their students to work in group is a limitation for the students freedom?

(In spanish) En un artículo, Terry Anderson habla sobre una séptima dimensión de la libertad - la libertad de relación. ¿Cree usted que algunos cursos de aprendizaje electrónico que requieren sus estudiantes para trabajar en grupos es una limitación a la libertad de los estudiantes?

Terry Anderson: Again it is a limitation, but some people need and want the freedom to create learning relationships with others- we are social beings, so I don't like systems that are so hung up on freedom, that they do not allow cooperation and learning relationships to be formed.

I see three generations of Distance education pedagogy. The first based on behavioral/cognitive designs and focused on independent learning and delivered by books and one way mass media. The second based on constructivism with paced online learning groups using both synchronous and asynchronous technologies. And an emerging 3rd generation based on networks and connectivist designs. These allow, but do not require that relationships be formed with current and past students studying the same materials. You might want to read works by Jon Dron and myself on the difference between second generation groups and 3rd generation networks.

José Lozano Galera: El aprendizaje en grupo no puede limitar la libertad individual porque una persona aprende cuando y donde quiere, por tanto si no quiere aprender en grupo no lo hará y si quiere aprender en grupo buscará el mejor momento y modo para hacerlo: bien en una clase presencial, bien en un entorno virtual o estudiando solo. Hasta los monjes ermitaños se agruparon para compartir, vivir, rezar juntos y aprender siempre. Es compatible la soledad con el aprendizaje con los otros. Si el conocimiento sólo estuviera disponible para procesos individuales la humanidad no avanzaría tan rápidamente. Por tanto el sistema no puede coartar la libertad individual que tiene todo ser humano para aprender de modo individual o en grupo. Siempre lo más importante no es el entorno o el modo de aprender, sino que realmente aprendamos del modo más fácil y mejor para cada persona. El e-learning no ha venido a sustituir la formación presencial, sino a aportar más libertad para aprender a cada persona.

Javier Martínez Aldanondo: En un artículo, Terry Anderson habla sobre una séptima dimensión de la libertad - la libertad de relación. ¿Cree usted que algunos cursos de aprendizaje electrónico que requieren sus estudiantes para trabajar en grupos es una limitación a la libertad de los estudiantes? Creo que la libertad individual siempre limitaciones en la vida, no solo en los cursos. El hombre es un ser social, necesita de otros para vivir (el bebe necesita de su madre y de su familia o en caso contrario moriría), para trabajar (nadie trabaja solo, tiene compañeros de trabajo y al menos tiene clientes que influyen en su libertad), para vivir (habitas una sociedad que te reconoce ámbitos de libertad y también restricciones de la misma) y por supuesto necesitas de otros para aprender (hay algunos casos interesantes de seres humanos que crecieron aislados de todo contacto con otros semejantes, por ejemplo se criaron entre lobos y que no aprendieron a caminar, lo hacían sobre 4 patas, ni a hablar, solo emitían gruñidos, y no pudieron hacerlo). Todo proceso es siempre una limitación porque te dice qué debes hacer y desde ese punto de vista, te limita en lo que tu consideras coherente hacer o no. Si por ejemplo estás aprendiendo a jugar a baloncesto o a futbol, no basta con que aprendas técnica individual ni desarrolles tu condición física porque cuando juegues un partido, lo harás con otros y siguiendo unos comportamientos grupales que debes aprender y para ello, necesitas aprenderlos con el resto del grupo. En mi opinión, el problema en el aprendizaje virtual no es que haya que trabajar en grupo per se, sino que la mayor parte de las veces, ese trabajo en grupo consiste en un mero intercambio de opiniones por distintas vías (mail, foro, blog, twitter, etc.) que siendo interesantes y enriquecedoras intelectualmente, no habilitan al alumno a hacer nada directamente porque el alumno lee y escribe pero no practica. Por tanto, hasta que no aplicas y practicas lo que otros dijeron en ese intercambio, no necesariamente estás aprendiendo gran cosa. El problema no es hacer actividades grupales o no, el problema es que la mayor parte de veces están mal diseñadas.
   
   

Transparency in Online Education - LO

PROCESSOS PEDAGÓGICOS EM ELEARNING

      

A Learning Object on
Transparency in Online Education

Unit 3 - Activity 2

Transparency in Online Education is an interesting discussion subject. There are some questions all online teachers and students should consider:
          - How important can transparency be in online education?
          - How does it promote cooperation and quality?
This prezi presentation will help us all reflect a little on this subject, taking the example of what happens in our Mestrado de Pedagogia do Elearning. Enjoy it.

Transparency in Online Education on Prezi

Unit 3: Transparency in Online Teaching - Annotated Bibliography

   
Processos Pedagógicos em E-Learning

  

An annotated bibliography on Transparency in Online Education

  

Much can be said and writen about transparency in education, and particularly in online education. Some important texts were already presented in our course, so, in this annotated bibliography, I focused on some other issues I consider interesting. Therefore, I recommend the following texts about: (1) the way each one of us can become a teacher by making our thoughts and learning transparent, (2) the importance of social networks to promote transparency in education, (3) the learning contract as a transparent tool, and (4) an example of how difficult it can be to make a transparent online course. 

   

     

1) Teaching as transparent learning, by George Siemens

http://www.connectivism.ca/?p=122

  

This is a very interesting blog post that makes us think about the importance of being transparent when teaching and learning. Sharing in blogs, wikis, social networks, and so on, what we know or what we are learning promotes transparency and enriches knowledge. The author states something important and absolutely true: «when we make our learning transparent, we become teachers. Even if we are new to a field and don’t have the confidence to dialogue with experts, we can still provide important learning opportunities to others.». He gives the example of prominent educational technology bloggers, such as Will Richardson, Terry Anderson, Stephen Downes, Grainne Conole, that are transparently share with others their thoughts and findings about technology and related trends.

  
  

2) Social networking sites: Transparency in online Education, by Christian Dalsgaard

http://eunis.dk/papers/p41.pdf

  

This article analyses how important social networking sites can be in facilitating transparency in learning. Networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Ning combine personalization and socialization, what promotes transparency and creates awareness between students, because they can see each other’s work. Social networking may be used to share information and resources created by the students individually, but made available to others through bookmarks, references, links, and notes. This shows us that if these tools are used, combined with other tools, they can contribute to a more interesting course.

  
    

3) Para uma Pedagogia do eLearning: o ‘contrato’ como instrumento mediador da aprendizagem, by Lina Morgado; Alda Pereira; Luísa Lebres Aires; António Quintas Mendes (Centro de Estudos em Educação & Inovação – Universidade Aberta)

http://medeia.org/files/Pedagogia_eLearning.pdf

  

Transparency in online courses can be achieved by an important tool that all of us know well by now – the learning contract. In this article we can find an explanation of how the learning contracts are used in Universidade Aberta as well as its importance to make online learning more transparent. We can read about the nature of this tool and the way both teachers and students use it. For a better understanding on this subject, the authors analyzed a set of learning contracts defined and negotiated in three post-graduations at this university. It’s an interesting article, because it’s something very close to all of us.

  
  

4) Moving a Large Course Online: Psychology, posted by Robert Griffiths, shared by Ellen Furlong and Melissa Beers from the Psychology Department of the Ohio State University

https://registration.it.ohio-state.edu/blog/digitalunion/2010/04/21/moving-a-large-course-online-psychology/

  

This article is not a theoretical text but the description of the implementation of an online course of psychology, starting in 2007. At the beginning, students scored lower on exams and were more likely to fail the online course than the classroom-based sections. Many changes were needed before the results improved significantly, in 2010. One of the major problems was that the structure of the course wasn’t transparent enough for e-students, so they had problems in organizing and working. At the end of this article we can read the following: «Our initial evaluations suggest that to help students succeed in an online environment, course structure is critical. We would encourage instructors interested in teaching online to pay special attention to making structure transparent to students when converting a classroom-based course into an online format.» It’s a good example of the importance of transparency in online courses.

Processos Pedagógicos em E-learning

   

Unit 2 - Learning Object on Online Teaching Techniques

   
   

Here is a quiz about online teaching techniques. Verify your knowledge on the subject.

   

Online Teaching Techniques » Make A Quiz

Processos Pedagógicos em E-Learning
  

An annotated bibliography on Online Teaching Techniques

   
   

1) How to manage your Online Teacher workload (Kate Butler)

http://community.flexiblelearning.net.au/ManagingFlexibleDelivery/content/article_4180.htm

  

Being an online teacher represents a different way of working with direct implications in the teacher’s workload. Using the online teaching techniques transfers the work from physical classroom to another place, but doesn’t reduce the amount of time needed to work with and for the students. I found this article on this subject and, though it doesn’t go very deep, it gives some suggestions that are worth reading. Curiously, most suggestions are the same generally given to online students. This article focuses on time and information management, on course design and activity types, and on technical issues.  

  
 

2) Manual Web 2.0 para professores (org. Ana Amélia Carvalho)

http://www.erte.dgidc.min-edu.pt/publico/web20/manual_web20-professores.pdf

  

Web 2.0 has brought more new tools to support online teaching techniques. Knowing its existence and acknowledging its importance, doesn’t make us good users of these resources. Thus, I believe this Guide Web 2.0 for teachers is an imperative reading for all those who want to learn to use the Web in elearning. The book consists of the following chapters:

- Introduction

- Blogue, YouTube

- Podcast and using Audacitysoftware

- Dandelife, Wiki and Goowy

- Google Tools: Page Creator, Docs and Calendar

- PopFly as a mashups editor

- Web 2.0 and Mobile Technologies

- Virtual Environments and Second Life

- From Movie Maker to YouTube

- Online Conceptual Maps.

Among all these techniques, one that at the moment arouses me greater curiosity is the use of wikis as a knowledge collaborative constructer. It seems to me an excellent technique to reduce the impression of isolation that an online course may create. In this sense, my next bibliography entry points to the exploitation of this technique.

     
3) Interview to Stewart Mader – Wiki in Education (Debora Batello)
http://www.contosdaescola.net/interview-with-stewart-mader-wiki-in-education/
  

Stewart Mader led the creation of Wikipatterns.com, a site for collaboration and content management best practices. He wrote and published in 2008 a book inspired in this project and Wikipatterns is one of the Top 100 Social Media Books. Mader is also author of Using Wiki in Education (2006), a wiki-book (written and sold in wiki platforms) which consists in a collection of case studies from educators around the world that explores the impact of collaboration tools on education.

This interview is an interesting way to introduce us to the importance of wikis in education. I find this technique very interesting, because it helps students to work in group in distance elearning.

This interview takes us back to the book Wiki in Education  (see the book) which presents reports made by U.S. professors who used wiki with their students. It discusses what work was proposed, which was developed with each group of students and also the results obtained in each case: positive, negative, difficulties and challenges.

In part, the results pointed to the following conclusions:

- There was an increase in students' participation, since the wiki was monitoring the participation of each student in the history;

- The collective research increases the student's interest in the subject;

- Students learned to respect the opinion of other colleagues, what was necessary to the debate before editing the text;

- Students become builders of their collective knowledge and were always active publishers, not getting the administration and wording of the wiki just for the teacher.

  

   

4) Is There a Space for the Teacher in a WIKI? (Andreas Lund; Ole Smørdal)

http://www.wikisym.org/ws2006/proceedings/p37.pdf
 

As seen in the previous bibliography entries, the use of wikis is a very interesting online teaching technique. However, as the focus becomes the students and their participation in the creation and exploration of knowledge, one can ask what the role of teachers in wiki activities is. This article considers that teachers play an important in establishing balance between learner explorations with a more goal directed effort and stands that Educational wiki designs need to allow such a role in order to support group knowing. It analyzes functions and meta level affordances found in the MediaWiki application and presents a case in which the MediaWiki was used by a class of Upper Secondary School learners in Norway.

  
   
5) Wikis in Plain English (commoncraft)

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
 

In a playful manner, this video gives a full introduction to wikis: what they are, what’s their use and how to use them. It’s based on a fictional situation in which a group of friends need to prepare a camping trip. A Wiki is the best tool for them.

   
   
6) Student-Centred Collaborative Learning Via Face-To-Face and Asynchronous Online Communication: What’s the Difference? (Ainslie Ellis)
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne01/pdf/papers/ellisa.pdf
  

Another online teaching technique I consider important is the use of forums, because, like the wikis, they can help create a learning community. According to this article, «the online forum can provide a different collaborative learning environment, due to its studentcentric, asynchronous, written form». A comparison between face-to-face and asynchronous online forms of communication is presented here in terms of collaborative learning. We can also read about the advantages and disadvantages of the online forum. One of the results of this study shows that online forums are more equitable – especially for quieter students. Therefore, more students participate than in face-to-face communication. Plus, details of the discussion remain and it allows backtrack and reread of messages.

  
  

7) Teaching with Online Discussion Forums (Mark Fullmer)

  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3xo1RipS-c

   

A video that analyses the importance of Online Discussion on today’s education. It refers to some of the activities available in Web 2.0, like participating in forum discussions, commenting blog entries and working in wikis.

Processos Pedagógicos em E-Learning

A learning object about Cooperative Freedom

 

Processos Pedagógicos em E-Learning

 An annotated bibliography on Cooperative Freedom

1. The Hexagon Of Cooperative Freedom: A Distance Education Theory Attuned to Computer Conferencing (professor Morten Flate Paulsen) 

http://www.nettskolen.com/forskning/21/hexagon.html

Any bibliography about cooperative freedom has to include the article writen by its author, professor Morten Paulsen. Cooperative freedom is the theory presented in this article. It starts by referring three theoretical perspectives about distance education systems: Theories of autonomy and independence, Theories of industrialization, and Theories of interaction and communication. The theory of cooperative freedom is associated to the theory of autonomy and independence. It states that many students want individual flexibility and freedom, but they don’t necessarily want to be completely alone, searching as well for group collaboration and social unity, supported in computer mediated communication (CMC). This balance underlays the theory of cooperative freedom, which valorizes the six different freedoms distance learning systems allow, which are freedom of time, freedom of space, freedom of pace, freedom of medium, freedom of access and freedom of curriculum, as well as cooperation between students.

2. An interview with professor Morten Paulsen (Michael F. Shaughnessy Senior Columnist EducationNews.org) 

http://www.ednews.org/articles/an-interview-with-morten-flate-paulsen-focusing-on-his-theory-of-cooperative-freedom-in-online-education.html

This is an excellent reading for all of those who want to understand what cooperative learning is because it’s an interview with professor Morten Paulsen. In this interview, many subjects are discussed, like the difference between individual, cooperative and collaborative learning; a very interesting service for Learning Partners (described in the article: "Learning partner - opportunities for cooperation in distance learning") that received the international Baldic Award 2006 as the most innovative distance education development in the Baltic and the Nordic countries. Other concepts, as Transparency and Individual Progress Plans are also referred. Finally, professor Morten Paulsen talks about the importance of Web 2.0 in learning and mentions some interesting European projects in elearning.

3. Collaborative versus cooperative learning: a comparison of the two concepts which will help us understand the underlying nature of interactive learning (Ted Panitz)

http://home.capecod.net/~tpanitz/tedsarticles/coopdefinition.htm

This is an important article to establish the difference between two concepts that are frequently confused: collaborative and cooperative learning. A brief definition is presented at the beginning, as a starting point, according to which «collaboration is a philosophy of interaction and personal lifestyle where individuals are responsible for their actions, including learning and respect the abilities and contributions of their peers» and «cooperation is a structure of interaction designed to facilitate the accomplishment of a specific end product or goal through people working together in groups.» Then it describes what happens in classes centered in each paradigm, presenting also a theoretical approach to this subject.


4. The search for learning community in learner paced distance education: Or, 'Having your cake and eating it, too!' (Terry Anderson, David Annand and Norine Wark) 

http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet21/anderson.html

This report examines the challenges and opportunities for peer communication, support, and cooperation in online courses without losing the learner paced characteristics. It summarises interviews with teachers and course developers at Athabasca University, and telephone interviews with educators in institutions in Europe and the US. It presents also the opinion of students in undergraduate, learner paced courses at Athabasca University about the importance and the use of online interaction. This information is used to develop a set of recommendations that can be incorporated by other distance education institutions that want to combine the advantages of learner paced education and online community.

5. Having your Cake and eating it Too – Part Two (Terry Anderson) 

http://terrya.edublogs.org/2007/10/22/having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too-part-two/

Based on the Theory of Cooperative Freedom, this blog article continues the bibliography mentioned above and analyses the question of freedom in online courses and the problems that can be posed by the self paced learning, like procrastination. It shows that it’s important to establish dated interventions in self paced programming to afford interactive opportunities and to develop social capital and the opportunity for learners to engage in rich and supportive peer deliberations.

6. Supporting Peer Help and Collaboration in Distributed Workplace Environments (J. Greer, G. McCalla, J. Collins, V. Kumar, P. Meagher, J. Vassileva) 

http://julita.usask.ca/Texte/IJAIED.pdf

I consider this article a very interesting reading because it isn’t a theoretical document. It presents a practical application of the cooperative learning. This article describes a prototype system called PHelpS (Peer Help System) that facilitates workers in carrying out “life long learning”, in a world where organizations face constant change and the corresponding need for continual learning and renewal of their workers. PHelpS supports workers as they perform their tasks, offers assistance in finding peer helpers when required, and mediates communication on taskrelated topics. When a worker runs into difficulty in carrying out a task, he can use this system to find a peer helper and to communicate with him in this Computer Mediated Communication system. As far as I understood, this is a may that some organizations found to promote a meaningfull learning. It associates the FREEDOM of the worker to use this system only when he needs it and the COOPERATION of others so the organization as a all is able to achieve its goals. PHelpS is an interesting project because it facilitates the creation of extensive informal peer help networks, where workers help one another with tasks and opens up new research avenues for further exploration of AI-based computer-supported collaborative learning.

7. Relatório do Estado da Arte: Qualidade do E-Learning para PMEs Europeias: Uma Análise de Experiências de E-Learning em Pequenas e Médias Empresas (Edited by CECOA – Centro de Formação Profissional para o Comércio e Afins) 

http://www.nettskolen.com/in_english/elq-sme/Estado_Arte_Qualidade_elearning_PME_PT.pdf

   

Like the previous bibliography reference, this document is a practical example of the use of elearning. The "Report on the State of the Art: Quality e-Learning for European SMEs - An Analysis of Experiences in E-learning in Small and Medium Business" presents the results of the partnership project "E-Learning Quality for SMEs: Guidance and Counseling " in identifying the effects and results, the challenges and barriers and the success factors as well as the costs and benefits of e-learning solutions in atttending the needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The objectif was to analyze the experiences of e-learning in several countries, like Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. The conclusions show that SMEs have particular requirements and that the e-learning can be presented as an interesting and advantageous option in terms of refinement and improvement of skills, using real-life situations and self-learning contexts, as well as in terms of more competitive business results because it reduces costs and promotes higher levels of interaction and collaboration among workers.