Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Philosophy for Children pedagogy in different classrooms in several European coun-
tries was extended successfully to Internet-mediated philosophy discussions (a study
by Steve Williams and Richard Athlone described in Wegerif, 2007, p. 267). The
same principle that effective shared thinking needs to be positively taught emerges
from reviews of collaborative learning in online environments (De Laat, 2006,
p. 163).
Widening Dialogic Spaces
Baker, Quignard, Lund, and Séjourné (2003) distinguish between deepening and
broadening a space of debate: Students broaden their understanding of a space of
debate when they are better acquainted with societal and epistemological points of
view, their associated arguments and value systems; they deepen it when they are
able to go deeper into argument chains, to elaborate upon the meaning of argu-
ments, and to better understand the notions involved. While the idea of dialogic
space is broader than that of a space of debate, since it is not concerned only with
explicit argumentation, the distinction between broadening and deepening remains
useful. Broadening or expanding means roughly increasing the degree of differ-
ence between perspectives in a dialogue while maintaining the dialogic relationship.
Broadening can be done through the use of the Internet to engage in real dia-
logues about global issues. An illustration of this is Oxfam's
http://tv.oneworld.net/
site, where video stories from across the world are exchanged and discussed.
Another example of pedagogical use of the potential of the Internet to sup-
port dialogue across difference can be seen in the development education site:
http://www.throughothereyes.org.uk/
In practice this kind of resource may not support real dialogue unless used with
a dialogic pedagogical approach, described above, that equips young people for
questioning, listening to, and reflecting on the views of others. Broadening in the
classroom can be done through structured web-quest-type activities where an issue
is posed and learners are sent to different web-sites to explore it and to question the
people behind different viewpoints.
Deepen Dialogic Space
Deepening refers to increasing the degree of reflection on assumptions and grounds.
With the right pedagogy the broadening potential of Internet dialogues also becomes
a deepening as students are led to reflect on the assumptions that they carry with
them into dialogues. Talk in face-to-face dialogues exists only momentarily and
only for those immediately present. Technologies that support drawing and writ-
ing can thus be thought of as a way of deepening dialogues, by turning transitory
talk and thoughts into external objects that are available to learners for discussion
