[Building Sakai] Dialogic learning environment for Sakai

[Mark Smith]

Dear Sakai developers community,
 
We are working on a grant proposal and we need your help in assessing
programming work for this project (also, if we get the grant we might need
your help in finding people who can work on this project). Over the past 14
years (since 1996, first using Microsoft FrontPage), we have been working to
build and improve upon a web-based environment which supports dialogic
pedagogy and its emergent pedagogical ecology in our classes at the
University of Delaware School of Education. This class web environment has
been designed to support a learning ecology of dialogue.  In our pedagogical
judgment, we have found that web platforms designed and commonly used for
education seem to build monologic educational ecologies, in which class web
discussions focus on replies to singular topics (like in a FAQ forum), and
the pedagogical design emphasizes instructor control and surveillance of
students' assignments and discussions. In contrast, we have designed a class
web environment that supports a different educational ecology focusing on
the participants' messy exploration of ideas generated by the community of
learners (this "messiness" embedded in our web design is deliberate as we do
not wish to unilaterally organize or control the responsive discourse which
emerges in the discussion). In this classroom community of learners, all
participants, including the instructor, have equal rights for defining and
negotiating the theme of communal discourse. 

However, we feel that our current web platform has great technological
limitations. Most importantly, it is built upon our clumsy integration of
Microsoft SharePoint v.1, JavaScript, MSSQL Server 2000, and MS Access
technology which cannot be easily shared with other instructors outside of
our university. Furthermore, the complexity of our system has rendered it
difficult to support for anyone other than someone well-trained in MSSQL
Server and MS Access database systems, and takes valuable instructor time to
maintain before and throughout the semester.
 
We are currently working on a grant proposal to develop (among other things)
our dialogic class web environment on the Sakai platform and would like to
ask the Sakai developer community questions regarding the feasibility of our
project, as well as the overall costs and time associated with the project
(e.g., costs for hiring developers, what types of work would be needed for
developers to do, and so forth). Our university, the University of Delaware,
has established Sakai as the platform for its course web environments. We
would like to create a class web environment that supports dialogic pedagogy
on the Sakai platform. 

Conceptually, we see a class web environment supporting dialogic pedagogy as
much more than a "dialogic tool" to be added to an existing pedagogical
framework and structure. It is, we feel, a radical departure from existing
educational technology and pedagogy. Although we recognize that pedagogy and
technology provide mutual affordances for each other, we consider
educational philosophy as the guiding principle for the pedagogical and
technological designs for a class web environment. We do not want to sound
arrogant, but in our view, the design of many existing class web
environments is consciously or unconsciously guided by a conventional
monologic educational philosophy based on "covering curriculum" unilaterally
preset by the instructor in advance. Consequently, in the current conceptual
language used about Sakai, each module is described as a pedagogy-free,
self-contained tool. In contrast our approach is ecological rather than
instrumental. For example, in a party, we wouldn't speak of a room, or a
patio as "a tool" as much as we would consider it a space. Similarly, we
look upon the Class Web Environment as a learning space with its own ecology
instead of a tool. 
 
To better visualize what we have in mind, we have developed a web site with
information about our grant proposal here,
http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/diaped_CWE. We would also encourage anyone to
inform us about any current grant opportunities and provide your feedback on
any technological challenges we face, criticisms of our approach, and
pedagogical design improvements, and any new exciting possibilities.
 
We have created a Demo site of our class web environment supporting our
dialogic pedagogy which allows interested developers and instructors to
visualize this web environment, http://www.web-ed.udel.edu/EDUC259.demo
(when you get to the Demo Website, you are put in the student's role, which
is just the tip of the iceberg of what we have designed for the course). On
this site, please notice these key features:
 
1)     Webtalk: A threaded, asynchronous discussion forum which deliberately
has more in common with old NNTP-based newsgroups than currently popular
topic-centered FAQ-like designs of many "Web 2.0" discussion forums, wikis
and blogs. This design, in our experience, promotes dialogue through the
development of a rich threaded network of ideas, in which messages
generating RESPONSES are immediately recognizable, and responses to messages
can change focus, sometimes 3 or more times in a thread (see
http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/diaped_CWE and the "Webtalk" on the demo web
for an example).
2)     Progress Report: A system designed for students to become responsible
for their own progress within the class. Currently providing only daily
updates to students, students can monitor their progress by seeing how much
they OWE the class in terms of work, or how much they have in CREDIT. The
report monitors the students' meeting of minimum web participation
requirements and any COMPENSATION which they owe or have performed for the
class. Students are expected to do a minimum amount of Webtalk postings and
weekly "mini-projects" in a given period of time (in the demo class, per
week). All compensations are due within 3 weeks to keep students engaged.
See the demo web for an example.
3) 	Miniprojects: An assignment system which encourages everyone in the
class - both instructors and students - to respond to each other's posted
work. All assignments are publicly accessible.
4)	E-library: Unfortunately, due to copyright and privacy concerns we
cannot show you the upper level of our class web environment. The
"e-library" has educational resources that instructors share and collaborate
on: databases of miniprojects, lesson plans, interesting links, videos,
readings, surveys, course evaluations, and so on.

Do you think this project is doable on the Sakai platform? If not, why not?
If so, how much time and money might it take?

We look forward to your feedback and suggestions

Sincerely,

Eugene Matusov, School of Education, University of Delaware
Mark Smith, School of Education, University of Delaware
Ana Marjanovic-Shane, Chestnut Hill College
Katherine von Duyke, School of Education, University of Delaware

Relevant publications:
Matusov, E., Hayes, R., & Pluta, M. J. (2005). Using a discussion web to
develop an academic community of learners. Educational Technology & Society,
8(2), 16-39. Available at
http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/vita/Articles/Matusov,%20Hayes,%20Pluto,%20Usin
g%20webs%20for%20developing%20community%20of%20learners,%20THEN,%202005.pdf