Preface
Background to the Series
"Media Education Publications" of the
Media Education Centre, Department
of Teacher Education, is the continuation of an earlier series called OLE
Publications, created in late 1995. Its purpose was to provide a forum for
teachers and researchers to publish articles in English, French or German on
themes and topics connected to two European Union-based open and distance learning
(ODL) projects, coordinated by the Department of Teacher Education, University
of Helsinki. The two projects were the OLE Project
(Open and Distance Learning in Teacher Education to Promote the European Dimension;
1995-1997, and the APPLAUD
Project (A Programme for People to Learn At University-level at a Distance;
1996-1998).
The Media Education Publications series
consists of articles dealing with media education, modern information and
communication technologies (MICT), telematics, computer-mediated human communication
(CMHC), distance education (DE), open and distance learning (ODL), flexible
learning (FL), dialogic communication and comparative education with a special
view to the European dimension.
Background to the Present Volume
The original idea to do research on dialogism was born many years ago. The
first discussions, initiated by Marja
Mononen-Aaltonen, took place in 1995 in Bulgaria. A Finnish team of several
educational experts were carrying out a World Bank-financed project directed
by Seppo Tella, in order to upgrade foreign language teaching and training in
that country (cf. # 155; # 156;
an article in Finnish). When the Media Education
Centre was established in August 1996, it gradually became clear to us that
these two themes, dialogism and media education, shared a number of issues that
were intertwined in a most challenging way. This publication grew out of our
mutual interest to look into some theoretical aspects of these two areas, with
a special emphasis on teacher education, foreign language education, and modern
information and communication technologies.
Once we had the general structure of the study outlined, we noticed
that there was an enormous interest in Vygotskyan ideas, especially in his
Zone of Proximal Development, but also in other philosophers and theorists
discussed in this study, especially in Bakhtin and Kramsch. We have found
it most challenging to integrate ideas originated in the Russian philosophy
with Western theories and interpretations, in a context that covers a number
of areas from philosophy, literature, education, technology and communication.
We believe that this kind of integration is necessary in order to contribute
to the theoretical basis of telelogically defined media education (cf. Tella 1997).
There is one feature that makes this study different from everything
else we have written before. We had wide and intense access to the World
Wide Web in order to find out what sort of articles and data we could gather
through this new media we were about to study, as part of the whole research
design. To our positive surprise, we found many interesting research findings
related to the dialogic aspect of this study. Naturally, we also realised
the uneven and unbalanced quality of the writings we could access through
the web. One of the technical problems was connected to the way of indicating
the web-based references. We were not the first to trip over this issue.
Jones (1997), for instance wrote as follows:
"The Web is problematic, for it at once provides
connection, but it does not provide archiving. Scholars are, for instance,
grappling with the difficulties of a medium that does not readily provide
them with a means of citation. How do we maintain the associations that
a citation system provides?" (Jones 1997, 28)
We have adopted a very brief way of indicating these sources in our
References list. We were also unanimous about indicating the date when the
data was browsed, as it is a well-known fact that web pages come and go
and tomorrow you might not find the page you cited yesterday. In order to
be on the safe side, we also printed all the web pages we make references
to in this publication.
Why is dialogue and dialogism so important then? In our opinion, Isaacs
(1996) points to one of the essential criteria when he argues that
"[dialogue] is iconoclastic in its continuous invitation
to people to live from present experience, not from memory." (Isaacs
1996, 27)
In the same spirit, Kitajgorodskaja (1992, 63-65) contends that dialogue
is a tool for satisfying the spiritual needs of the individual for the other.
Dialogue is always geared towards another human being. In dialogue, a human
being is no longer a tool but the aim. A teaching-learning process based
on dialogue gives one a chance to meet another person on an equal basis.
The division of labour between the two
authors of this book took place along the following lines:
The need for writing about dialogism in media education and foreign
language education was first expressed by Marja Mononen-Aaltonen. The general
structure of this publication was originally co-authored by Tella and Mononen-Aaltonen
and further elaborated by Tella.
Chapters 1, 6, 7, 8, and 9 were co-authored. Chapters 2 and 5 were based
on Tella's previous research on the communication channels, but were elaborated
and redesigned for the purposes of this publication.
Chapters 3 and 4 were based on Mononen-Aaltonen's original ideas but
enlarged through various processes of co-authoring. Mononen-Aaltonen's special
contributions focused on understanding and interpreting the Russian language
original writings and the Soviet Union-based background of the Russian philosophers
discussed in this publication.
On the whole, this study is a product of fruitful co-authoring which
made extensive use of both human-to-human communication (HHC) and computer-mediated
human communication (CMHC) tools, such as the World Wide Web, e-mail, and
groupware functions of the wordprocessors, as explained in this publication.
We are of the opinion that co-authoring is an excellent example of teamwork,
in which some of the fundamentall principles of dialogism, e.g., sharing
one's views in a dialogic atmosphere and showing respect for one another's
sometimes diverging views, were well tested.
We are most grateful for having the chance to add this publication to
the present series of the Media Education Publications of the Media Education
Centre of the Department of Teacher Education. We hope that our study will
contribute to the development of media education and foreign language education.
Our special thanks to Mr Kari Perenius for giving
a helping hand by adding the finalising touches to this publication.
Helsinki, March 1, 1998
| Seppo
Tella |
Marja
Mononen-Aaltonen |
|
Director of the Media Education Centre,
Professor of Media Education,
Media Education Centre
Department of Teacher Education
University of Helsinki
|
Lecturer in Foreign Language Education (Russian and English)
Media Education Centre
Department of Teacher Education
University of Helsinki |
 |
References
Isaacs, W. N. 1996. The Process and Potential of Dialogue in Social
Change. Educational Technology/January-February, 20-30.
Jones, S. G. 1997. The Internet and its Social Landscape. In Jones,
S. G. (ed.) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety.
London: Sage, 7-35.
Kitaigorodskaya, G. A. 1992. Intensivnoe obuchenie inostrannym jazykam:
teoriya i praktika. Moskva: Russki jazyk.
Tella, S. 1997. Media
and Man--On Whose Terms? Aspects of Media Education. In Tella,
S. (ed.) Media in Today's Education. Proceedings of a Subject-Didactic
Symposium in Helsinki on Feb. 14, 1997. Department of Teacher Education.
University of Helsinki. Research Report 178, 11-21
|
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Table of Contents
Media Education Publication 7
1. CHANGE, DIALOGUE, CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY
2. DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
3. DIALOGUE, DIALOGISM, CULTURE, LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY
3.1 Dialogism, Dialogics, Dialogicality
3.2 Western Interpretations of Dialogue
3.3 Dialogism as a Pragmatically Oriented Theory of Knowledge
3.4 Vygotsky, Bakhtin and Bibler on Dialogue and Culture
3.4.1 Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
3.4.2 Bakhtin's Concept of Dialogue
3.4.3 Bibler's Dialogic Culture
3.5 Dialogism and Foreign Language Education
3.5.1 Kramsch's Dialogic Experience
3.5.2 Kitajgorodskaja School
3.6 The Dialogue Project at MIT
4. FROM DIALOGUE AND DIALOGISM TOWARDS LEARNING AND EDUCATION
4.1 Three Contexts of Dialogue
4.2 Addressivity
4.3 Towards Co-Construction of Knowledge via Dialogue
4.4 Moving Freely or Mental Mobility
5. CLASSIFICATION OF MEDIA EDUCATION TOOLS, WITH A VIEW
TO DIRECT VS. MEDIATED COMMUNICATION (figure
on page 70)
5.1 Towards a Multidimensional Model
5.2 The Primacy of Communication
5.3 The Directness of Addressivity
5.4 The Directionality of Communication
5.5 The Dominance of Voices
5.6 The Question of Time: Immediacy or Delay
5.6.1 Synchrony vs. Asynchrony
5.6.2 Temporal Communication
5.7 The Nature of Communication
5.7.1 HHC vs. CMHC
5.7.2 The Internet as a Community, a Collective or a Collectivity
6. TOWARDS DIALOGIC AND VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
7. NETWORKS IN AN ARTIFACTUAL, MEDIATED WORLD
7.1 A Hierarchy of Artifacts (figure
on page 106)
7.2 Mediation, Mediational Means and Mediated Action
8. CONCLUSION: SYNERGY BETWEEN DIALOGISM, TECHNOLOGY AND
THE TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS
9. THE RESEARCH PROJECT
9.1 Aims of the Study
9.2 The Pilot Study
9.3 Focus on Dialogic Learning Environments
10. REFERENCES
11. INDEX
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Information
about the Authors
Seppo Tella is Professor
of Media Education and Associate Professor of Foreign Language Education
at the Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki. He is also
Director of the Media Education Centre of the Department of Teacher Education
and has coordinated a number of European Union projects in open and distance
learning as well as in telematics. His main areas of research focus on analysing
the concept of telelogically defined media education, modern information
and communication technologies (MICT), telematics and open and distance
learning (ODL), CALL (computer-assisted language learning), CELL (computer-enhanced
language learning) and foreign language learning methodology. Professor
Tella is also responsible for initial (pre-service) and in-service teacher
education courses at the Department.
Marja Mononen-Aaltonen
is Lecturer in Foreign Language Education at the Department of Teacher Education,
University of Helsinki. She is an experienced teacher educator, a teacher of
Russian and English, and a co-author of several textbooks and workbooks in Russian
and English. At present, she is an associate coordinator of the European Union-based
project Applaud and co-operates in a number of other EU projects that focus,
among other things, on the impact of the modern information and communication
technologies on the role of the learner. She is also responsible for initial
(pre-service) teacher education courses at the Department of Teacher Education.
Her main areas of interest focus on foreign language education, foreign language
textbook production and evaluation, dialogic communication, and media education.
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Abstract
Tella, S. & Mononen-Aaltonen, M. 1998. Developing
Dialogic Communication Culture in Media Education: Integrating Dialogism
and Technology. Media Education Centre. University of Helsinki. Department
of Teacher Education. Media Education Publications 7.
The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the emerging importance
of dialogue, dialogism and dialogic communication culture in media education,
with a special view to foreign language education and to cross-cultural
communication. The concept of dialogue is discussed in relation to human-to-human
communication (HHC) and to computer-mediated human communication (CMHC).
Another important aim is to analyse the role of technology, especially
modern information and communication technologies (MICT), as an enhancing
component in dialogic communication. This analysis is made through creating
a multidimensional hierarchy of direct and mediated communication, to be
applied to MICT. Tools and media are regarded as cultural artifacts, which
are seen as a concept that integrates dialogism and technology.
Keywords: Dialogic communication; culture; cross-cultural communication;
learning; media education; modern information and communication technologies
(MICT); an information and communication society; pedagogy.
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Abstrakti
Tella, S. & Mononen-Aaltonen, M. 1998. Developing
Dialogic Communication Culture in Media Education: Integrating Dialogism
and Technology. Media Education Centre. University of Helsinki. Department
of Teacher Education. Media Education Publications 7.
Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on kuvata ja analysoida dialogin, dialogismin
ja dialogisen viestintäkulttuurin kasvavaa merkitystä mediakasvatuksessa,
erityiskohteena vieraiden kielten didaktiikka ja kulttuurienvälinen
viestintä. Dialogin käsitettä tarkastellaan suhteessa ihmistenväliseen
viestintään ja tietokonevälitteiseen ihmistenväliseen
viestintään.
Toinen keskeinen tavoite on analysoida tekniikan, erityisesti modernin
tieto- ja viestintätekniikan roolia dialogisen viestinnän keskeisesti
kasvavana kompenttina. Tämä analyysi tehdään kehittämällä
moniulotteinen suoran ja välitetyn viestinnän hierarkia, jota
sovelletaan moderniin tieto- ja viestintätekniikkaan. Välineitä
ja viestimiä tarkastellaan kulttuurisina artifakteina, jotka nähdään
käsitteenä, joka integroi dialogismia ja tekniikkaa.
Avainsanat: Dialoginen viestintä, kulttuuri, kulttuurienvälinen
viestintä, oppiminen, mediakasvatus, moderni tieto- ja viestintätekniikka,
tieto- ja viestintäyhteiskunta, kasvatus.
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Orders
Available at the Media Education Centre,
Department of Teacher Education,
P.O. Box 38, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Marja-Liisa
Lonardi
fax +358 9 191 28114
phone +358 9 191 28112