Educat.l Medtd. Comm_eng (trav)€¦ · Web viewEducational mediated communication, distance learning, and communication technologies. A position paper. Dr Daniel Peraya. Abstract

EDUCATIONAL MEDIATED COMMUNICATION, DISTANCE LEAR-NING, AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES. A POSITION PAPER1.

Dr Daniel Peraya2

AbstractThe author analyses the main concepts describing different types of pedagogical mediated communication related to distance education. This relatively recent field implies a effort to clarify its limits and concepts even more so that the increasing use of information technologies drives research towards a distorted technological direc-tion which hardly escapes marketing forces. The first part of this paper describes and analyses the different forms of educational communication, either face to face, or at a distance, either mediated or non-mediated. The second part takes on unders-tanding and defining the emergence of technologies in the field of distance educa-tion, while insisting on educational practice as a taxonomic criterion.

1 COMMUNICATION AND PEDAGOGY"To teach and to communicate are activities that have very close meanings" wrote Vandevelde (1978). By and large, considering the teachers' daily practice, teaching processes, and educa-tional activities as communication acts may appear obvious given that, since man's early ages, education and communication have been tightly interwoven. Socratic dialogues and maieutics have long been taken as didactic models, but aren't they also prototypal and typical schemes of communication ? And regarding oral tradition civilisations, they use speech as the privileged way to express and transmit the collective memory and culture. Human history offers countless testimonial examples of communication schemes used for educational purposes: rhetoric fi-gures, dialogues or conversation, arguments, etc.

Communication theories entered the field of educational science at the end of the '60s when the concept of educational technology was developed. This concept was defined3 as a complex and integrated process implying the participation of people, techniques, ideas, setting and organisa-tions in designing, implementing, analysing, evaluation and managing a number of issues rela-ted to human learning processes (Stolovitch, Laroque, 1986:10). Such a concept follows un-doubtedly the development of educational media just after world war II, then called audio-vi-suala) instruction. Progressively, these techniques and machines turned not only into auxiliary devices, helping and facilitating the learning process, but soon became the source and the means of learning themselves: it was not only possible to learn with the media but also from de media. This is the conception prevailing today.

1 This text is based on the rewritten version in English of a speech given during the symposium "Forma-zione a distanza professionale e scolastica", organised by the Dipartimento dell'Istruzione e della Cultu -ra et l'Istituto Svizzero di Pedagogia per la Formazione Professionale, Centro Monte Verità, Ascona, held in October 27 and 28 1994. The original French text is published in Jonhnson S. & Schürch D. (1995), La formation à distance. La formazione a distanza, Peter Lang, Berne, 17-43. I would like to express my gratitude to Pierre Dunand Filliol for his precious help in reformulating and clarifying concepts as well as finalising the English text. I also owe a special thank to D. Bossut who gave an ini -tial nudge to the English transcription2 Dr Daniel Peraya, Education Technologies Unit (TECFA), University of Geneva (Switzerland), 9 route de Drize, CH-1227 Carouge, Switzerland. Email: [email protected]. Fax: 41.22.342.89.24. Tel.: 41.22.705.96.95. WWW: http://tecfa/general/tecfa-people/peraya.html.3 See Scholer M., (1983) on the history and evolution of this term.

D. Peraya, Educational Mediated Communication, page 1

Soon, a broader discipline emerged, including teaching and learning psychology, as well as communication theories and the 'mediatic'4 - known for focusing on mass media and educatio-nal communication technologies analysis. The development of semiotics and pragmaticsb)

broadly contributed to define and develop this new field of research. It is noteworthy to point out that in the French speaking area, the notion of educational communication was coined after the first analysises of mass media and their educational uses (La Borderie, 1972). Two other inter-esting orientations are represented by audio-visual methods for foreign language learning and by the visual display of information in textbooks, handbooks, etc. The well-known influence of semiotic references and theory are quite important in these two fields, as we recently showed (Peraya, Nyssen, 1995). From another point of view, we can mention the work of Guislain, Di-dactique et communication (1990) in which the author analyses educational communication in face-to-face classrooms drawing on pragmatic concepts and rhetoric of persuasion, a concept also developed by N.J. Kapferer in his studies of advertising campaigns. Finally, let us quote Laurillard (1995): "Teaching is a rhetorical activity: a mediated learning process allowing stu-dents to acquire knowledge from someone else's way of experiencing the world".

Distance education, for reasons to be developed later, has widely contributed to the de-velopment of educational communication. A striking example is to be found in the course title of a distance education curriculum at the London University: "Adults learning and communication in distance education". Finally, for about a decade, a new interest for educational communica-tion has appeared since the development of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and virtual communication settings such as the Virtual Textual Reality (VTR) (see Mason et Kayes, 1989; Rapaport,1991; Waggoner, 1992; Peraya, 1994-a; Jones, 1995, Zane et Mauri, 1995). Moreover, an important literature is now being published directly on the Internet and available throughout the World Wide Web.

Taking in view the diversity of practices and of research fields related to educational communi-cation, its definition and limits remain quite nebulous. Therefore, in a first step, we need to bet-ter clarify and define its main founding concepts.

2 PEDAGOGICAL AND SOCIO-EDUCATIONALC) COMMUNICATIONOne cannot analyse communication mechanisms, whichever they are, without referring to the concept of discourse. Verbal language never constitutes an homogeneous entity. As a social instrument of communication and of interaction between people, it diversifies and specialises it-self according to the users, and current usage to generate different kind of discourses. We don't use the same language at home and at school, with our family and with our students. These discrepancies form what Bakhtine (1984) called the "genres de discours", different kinds of dis-courses. To reckon with these notions, we are compelled to formulate a hypothesis according to which educational communication, as a verbal language, is modulated by the producers and the speakers who use it. It also depends on the characteristics of the various social situations, and on the social scene where the interaction takes place. Bronckart (et al., 1985: 33) has defined this social scene as "the co-operation zone" within which a specific activity, bound to a linguistic reality, takes place. It is therefore a very general concept, covering not only various institutional types and ideological environments in society, but also other territories of every day practice.

Any given communication situation can be defined by the speakers involved, their aims and goals, their verbal and social interactions, and so on. Hence, a communication situation corres-ponds to an archetypal discourse manifestation that can at least be identified and described by the following three general properties:

1. thematic: defining specific themes and contents, each interaction scene or site defi-ning its own set of references;

2. formal: setting various discursive or semiotic markers; i.e. specific ways of using cer-tain meaningful units or of favouring the use of some of them to the detriment of others;

1. relational5 establishing a given relationship and how it can be expressed through for-mal communication structures. As an illustration let's quote the French use of the personal pronoun with its two forms for the second person singular. "Tu" (the En-

4 This terminology was used in Canada for quite a long time.


glish thou) is used for familiar and intimate language and contrasts with "vous" as a formal and polite form of addressing someone. We may add that the same "vous" is sometimes still in use in traditional circles as a sign of respect from chil -dren towards their parents, but the practice is gradually disappearing.

Our own experience in educational communication based on video programs, scripto-visual ma-terial, electronic mail and computer mediated communications (CMC) confirms this hypothesis. If one carries on an analysis of educational material or courseware under the three above as-pects - thematic, formal and relational - distinctive differences will clearly appear like, for ins-tance, between a video for industry managers, and a school TV program or between a docu-mentary film and a video produced by high school students in their classroom, for their own use. The wording, the way the audience is spoken to, the images chosen, the editing style, the soundtrack, and their relative importance in each context, all are specific. In short, the settings in which the communication takes place display completely different properties (Meunier, Per-aya, 1993).

Semiotic analyses of educational programs and products have revealed a number of discursive traits. Many educational movies and programs seem still nowadays to be based on verbal dis-cursive models. The cinematographic treatment of the subject matter follows a narrative model that takes precedence in the narrative or explanatory sequence: in fact and in most cases, these products are mere recorded courses or talks.

In other respects, Jacquinot (1977) showed that the construction and organisation of edu-cational programs using motion pictures correspond to two different pedagogical strategies. The first one so-called 'product pedagogy' considers the contents taught as a pre-built conceptual entity, some sort of abstract, or self-contained substance to be transmitted with minimal infor-mation loss. In this context, the communication means, the media, does not have any influence on contents: it can be considered as a simple carrier. The second one, called 'process pedago-gy' considers cinematographic language, structure and substance as contributing to building knowledge. It focuses on the system of representation considered as a kind of mental technolo-gy. This is now a prevailing view even if educational routine has not yet entirely evolved in that direction.

From another point of view, we have described a number of semio-pragmatic mechanisms at work in audio-scripto-visual communication and its cognitive impact on the public (Meunier, Per-aya, 1993). For example, let's first quote the opposition between 'speech' and 'narratives', two linguistic concepts proposed in Benveniste's linguistic theories (1966, 1974). 'Narratives', on one hand, mark fictions without a narrator, i.e. a type of narration that does not manifest an ac-tive storyteller, sharing his point of view, biases and comments with the reader. 'Discourses', on the other hand, designate stories with a narrator as an active element shaping the story being told. In turn, cases of motion picture plots, centred or not on the character of the conventional hero, exhibit features that are known to induce diverging attitudes in the viewer. The first ins-tance forbids empathy and induces in the viewer/learner a cognitive and rational process of comprehension while the second instance leads the spectator to a well-known psychological process of identification. This process can further be analysed as being either self-centred - in the case of an individual hero - or social-centred - when the hero is a social or a political figure.

More generally, let's also keep in mind that there are important differences linked to the cultural context, to specific educational traditions, to the expectations and to the psychological and so-cial peculiarities of a given audience. Comparative studies between French, English and Dutch educational video programs revealed national styles and patterns of discourse much more fun-damental and important than first presumed. For instance, the use of humour, of the exemplary value of errors, or of counter-examples so well accepted in Anglo-Saxon educational traditions are not welcome in French speaking countries. The alternate use of both discursive and narra-tive techniques constitutes another characteristic (Meunier, Peraya, 1993). To illustrate these significant distinctions, we compared French ("La pub c'est pas de la tarte": explaining to youngsters how and why advertising campaigns are set up), British ("Get it right", a series ex-5 It is generally considered that a given message, whatever its contents may be, presents an important relational aspect that could be outlined as follows: How do we see our fellow speaker ? What image do we have of him and how do we convey it to him ? What kind of relationship do we have with our own discourse and how do we express it ?


plaining their legal rights to teenagers who get in trouble) and Dutch ("Wat verkoopt je me nou ?": a young worker, a 'hyper-consumer' repeating catchy phrases and identifying himself with characters in commercials) video programs (Peraya, 1994-b).

The French video includes fragments of informative and educational discourse in the continuum of the tale. They are recognisable through voice modulations, the kind of vocabulary used and the level of the language, a 'spoken-written' language. Very differently, the British video marks clear-cut distinctions between narrative and explanatory parts: the act is played like a typical story to maintain a process of identification. Diversions, 'distanciation' markers through humour and caricatures - as means of encouraging in the listener a critical dissociation from the main character -, are proposed in the course of explanatory parts, built like formal speeches. They are read by an off voice, doubled by scripto-visual elements on the screen. Finally, the Dutch films are build like a typical narrative with little didactic or explanatory markers. Here again, hu-mour is used to help the viewer avoid the identification process. (Peraya, 1994-b).

In summary, the existence of relatively contrasted kinds of discourse are observed in which pe-dagogic and socio-educational programs could constitute two contrasting poles (Peraya, 1993). In addition, to each of them correspond a series of external, non-discursive characteristics, lin-ked to specific sites of social interaction: for example, educational aims and goals, themes and audiences, organisational constructs, etc. The first kind of discourse - socio-educational com-munication - concerns education about a number of social or social life-related problems whe-reas the second kind, the didactic one, strictly implies a will to instruct with a specific teaching goal or educational system in mind.

Socio-educational communication does, hence, constitute a kind of assistance in social life and includes loosely structured actions on non-academic topics, to bring about behaviours or teach much needed knowledge in social life situations (in the professional sphere or elsewhere). In other words, it contributes to the harmonious integration of the individual in society. It therefore will promote actions in health care and education (AIDS prevention, campaigns against smo-king, etc.), road safety, job hunting (interview preparation), etc.

In addition, this type of communication presents but a few institutional constrains. It often deals with focused short term actions, limited in scope and framed as sensitisation or 'educational' campaigns. Within such a scheme, certification, medium or long term evaluations, when they exist, mostly consider whether a given campaign has had an influence on the social behaviour targeted. Gauging a decrease in the number of accidents, in their deadly outcome, or in the number of seriously injured can provide a measure the impact of a road safety campaign.

Conversely, didactic communication is strictly limited to a pedagogic rationale determined by institutions or guardian organisms such as schools and/or industries. Themes and contents are directly related to fixed curricula or industry-defined professional profiles. Consequently, the tea-ching provided is strongly structured according to modular or curricular constraints, bridges and pathways are organised between levels of qualification and along various schooling paths and, in most cases, a certification is guarantied on completion of the training.

To establish the above distinctions does not merely answers a need to define and classify. If this were the case, the job would be rather whimsical. A primal preoccupation is to show the in-terdependence between discursive structures and didactical strategies at work . The second aim is to reveal the specificities and constrains related to given social interaction sites. For that reason, learning to know these different languages - the internal factors - as well as to compre-hend the initial conditions of production and dissemination - the external factors - such as pro-ducers, commercial and educational lobbies as well as their audiences with their contexts and modes of reception -, also means to provide tools and ways to better use documentary evi-dence and to evaluate it for what it really is. In this study however, we will mostly consider the pedagogic side of communication.

3 PEDAGOGIC COMMUNICATIONWhat is so particular of pedagogic communication as a specific form of communication ? Let's say that it is characterised by three basic elements:


3. a message, consisting mainly of teaching contents and pertaining to a given topic, or field of study;

4. a social relation brought about by the act of communication (teaching) between the message originator (teacher) and the recipient (student): in other words, we are dealing here with a pedagogic relation which may take any possible shape within the frame of teacher-student interactions and which general pedagogy has taught us to consider. This field includes teaching, contents delivery, tutoring and mode-ration, positive and negative reinforcement, curriculum design, training schemes, managing the learning process, etc.

2. a social interaction site, e.g. a well-defined situation determined by institutional prac-tice of communication and dictating its particular rules, roles, structures and conventions.

Given the above, what are pedagogic communication means about ? How does the teacher ex-press himself, through which expressive expedient, through what kind of language? Very few pedagogic studies treat of educational practice - in a broad sense - under the specific angle of pedagogic communication. However, when observing teachers in their classrooms, one concludes that pedagogic communication corresponds to a particular use of language and of communication systems, well recognised and studied in other contexts (illustrations, sketches, graphics, fixed images, movies, videos, and so on). Thinking for a while about how you teach, one could perhaps agree upon a first classification of the ways we communicate:

5. Oral linguistic communicationTeacher speak and use written documents. Oral verbal language is the basic teaching and trai-ning vehicle, in fact. And we well know that this remains the most important means of communi-cation in education.

6. Non-verbal communicationA teacher moves, has his particular mimics and looks, uses body language and posture to convey his message. As he moves he, in some way, occupies the classroom: he solicits his students attention, prompts one of them to give an answer, etc. In pedagogic face-to-face com-munication, the teacher uses for expressive and communicative purposes an impressive num-ber of non-verbal indications that the recipients have no trouble interpreting. In this same cate-gory are also classified the teacher's changes of tone, vocal modulations and inflections, in brief, any intuitive element contributing to manifest the 'presence' of an interlocutor. This may look like a kind of paradox since these elements are well related to linguistic expression and are still not analysed in linguistics studies, in the strict meaning of the term. They are rather com-pounded with other non-verbal communication forms. As a conclusion, we may say that the emotive and affective aspects of pedagogic communication are mainly carried out by non-verbal communication forms.

3. Audio-scripto-visual communicationIf oral language remains the main vehicle of teaching , other kinds discourse and of knowledge representation modes with educational objectives are evolving and are becoming gradually more widespread. Teachers primarily use written texts but also sound and/or visual documents. Educational software, electronic books and multimedia packages progressively become part of pedagogic routine. Likewise, books and textbooks come up with an increasing number of illus-trations, and, if books are essentially made of verbal language cues (of linguistic communica-tion), let's also remember that they force them into visual and graphic constraints, especially through page layout and typesetting. This is why we call this kind of communication scripto-vi-sual communication. As is the case for verbal language, the audio-scripto-visual mode takes in-to account both informative and cognitive aspects of pedagogic communication.


4 FACE-TO-FACE AND DISTANCE PEDAGOGIC COMMUNICATION.Pursuing this analysis, one still has to try and define mediated pedagogic communication and its relations with distance education. In a traditional teaching situation, the teacher is in direct contact with his students: he speaks, present the topic, suggests working rules and manages his relationship with his students through his guidance, advice, encouragement or blame, etc. The students know how to interpret his vocal expression and variations of tone, his looks and mimicry: his relationship with them is mostly expressed through these non-verbal communica-tion cues. The teacher, and this is the point here, is in direct contact with them; there is no go-between. Such a pedagogical communication is therefore said to be direct.

Note that it is wrong to sometime associate direct, face-to-face pedagogic communication with non-mediated communication. And it may be worthwhile to hypothesise that no knowledge can exist nor be expressed without some kind of symbolic representation (cf. Laurillard, op. cit.). Thus, since indeed verbal language constitutes the main symbolic vector of pedagogic commu-nication, it represents a unavoidable form of mediatisation. It embodies both the representation and the transmission of expertise and instruction. It would hence be more coherent to speak of direct verbal communication as a 'level zero' of mediatisation .

A second reason makes the above denomination inappropriate: we have said it, it is not rare to see teachers using more or less intricate or sophisticated audio-scripto-visual communication means. All these rightly belong to the pedagogic communication act. Direct pedagogic commu-nication must, hence, be considered as a complex setting mixing oral communication means (non-mediated, symbolised as M-) and mediated (symbolised as M+). To exemplify this, let's examine two typical cases.

7. Subordination Subordination would be represented as an insert where a teacher gives an explanation and then shows a slide or diagram and asks the students to observe visual data. Following this, he cross-examines his students to test the quality of their observation. This sequence is represen-ted as ((M-)(M+)(M-)).

8. Complementariness Complementariness would be symbolised as an alternation where a teacher verbally comments graphic data - maps, tables, ... - and uses this visual information to structure his verbal explana-tions. A sequence represented by ((M- )vs(M+)vs.(M-)vs(M+)vs.(M-)) (Peraya, 1994).

Integrating these various forms of communication by way of a compound setting using multiple techniques (black board, overhead projections, video presentation, multimedia sequences) constitutes a very interesting research orientation especially from the stand point of global ana-lysises of course management. A typical correlation such as (M-)/(M+), called 'intertextuality' or inter-textual configuration, should draw the attention of researchers since it represents a pretty pervasive method of discursive planning. As an illustration, let us discuss the way a teacher or-ganises and structures different modalities of communication, how he manages their relative im-portance and which mode will prevail over the others. A study shows (Mendelsohn, Peraya et al., 1994) that a teacher with a number of technical devices at his disposal does not really change his way of teaching: verbal skills and oral discursive structures take over and constrain other elements of mediated communication. As a matter of fact, verbal communication seems to provide the only possible link between others elements of a didactic sequence, even if is ba-sed on different kind of medium.

In contrast, the situation is very different in distance teaching since the students need to be present neither at the same time nor at the same place than the teacher. The teacher teaches 'off line'. For a long, time this kind of teaching was characterised by a split between teaching procedures and learning processes. It seems more consistent with our frame of reference to say that this split does exist between the emitter and the receptor, between the teacher and the student. Therefore, the contents taught, the exercises, the working directions can only be trans-mitted to the recipient through information and communication means: written documents, clas-sic or computerised audio-visual devices, and today, in some highly technological settings ba-sed on communication technologies such as telematics, digital networks, video conferencing, etc.. This is also the case of specific pedagogical relations which cannot exist without a comple-


tely or partially mediated communication channel, and which are, therefore, built, staged or even simulated. The teacher teaches indirectly and gets in touch with his students through as-sorted communication means: in this case communication is said to be 'mediated', in the most general sense of the word.

With distance teaching, 'mediatisation' presents distinctive characteristics. While in face-to-face teaching the mediatisation process only touches the contents of teaching and relies mostly on the teacher - on his skills - and on institutional factors, in distance teaching, on the contrary, the mediatisation process is inescapable: it is at the very core of the distance teaching act. It affects the totality of the pedagogic communication situation, transforming the contents taught as well as the pedagogic relationship itself. Distance teaching necessarily implies a double mediatisa-tion process because it is an off-line transaction and because it generally excludes all direct communication (oral or otherwise).

Nevertheless, the analysis of distance teaching material indicates that mediatisation mainly in-fluences the contents of teaching: they indeed receive most of the writers', designers', and conceivers' efforts. By acting in such a way, authors and developers forget that they are ad-dressing a specific audience, they bypass the necessity of maintaining a direct contact and of re-establishing conditions of a relational dimension which still constitute a essential learning help for the student. Indeed, in distance learning, tutoring needs are directly related to distance and to feelings of isolation felt by students. To restore a teaching relationship and to find for it specific mediatisation procedures allows us, as G. Jacquinot (1993-a) puts it, to "tame the dis-tance". For this very reason, as far as pedagogic design is concerned, staging procedures should account for the two above-mentioned mediatisation processes - in their relational and tu-torial dimensions - in order to build effective pedagogical mediated communication settings (see sketch 1 below).

Sketch 1: The double scene-setting process

Let's study for now a double process, namely of content mediatisation on one hand and, on the other, of relational mediation. It is a consequence of the spatial-temporal split bound to distance teaching and consequently to the fundamental de-synchronisation taking place between tea-ching activities and learning processes. We should be even more radical in our formulation and emphasise that both mediatisation modes are at the core of distance pedagogic communication procedures and environments.

5 CONTENTS MEDIATISATIONThe notion of mediated communication contains an implicit reference to two other concepts allo-wing one to capture and understand previous discrepancies in interpretation . Let's define them:

· the medium, this obligated go-between and intermediary agent in the communication binding the teacher and his students: it always deals with printed documents, pic-tures, illustrations, etc. with material representations, in short. We can therefor not speak of mediatised communication without referring to, on one hand, the symbolic and cognitive theories of the psychology of representation and, on the other, to the functional theories of signification and meaning in signs and symbols (semiotics);


· media as mass media communication: this almost spontaneous interpretation, is un-derstandable since, since very early on, distance education has drawn on mass media, especially the telephone, radio and television, to reach distant or geogra-phically dispersed learners6.

Research on various pedagogic media taxonomies have shown that the term media, as is the case with the word technology, remains poorly defined and subjected to various conflicting in-terpretations. Most definitions often designate very different realities, even contradictory ones: they indiscriminately refer to language, message type, reception channels, broadcasting sys-tem, etc. (Heidt, 1981; Sauvé, 1994). Therefore, in order to better circumscribe what mediatisa-tion is, it seems essential to describe what information and knowledge representations are - in the symbolic and semiotic sense - in order to distinguish them from all other aspects concerning media, such as broadcasting, delivery, reception sites and channels.

Symbolic representations can be defined by usual terms based on the various languages we use to communicate our experiences, our knowledge and general data: written or spoken lan-guage, graphic representations, iconic and photographic cues, etc. which all deal with various semiotic and symbolic forms7. To clarify this notion, we could refer to a well known example ta-ken from Glass and Holoak, quoted in Denis (1989). The drawing of a cup can be represented by its verbal definition or by a more or less complex mathematical expression: the cup can be described by an elliptic paraboloidal equation and the saucer by a circle equation. As far as we are concerned, we would gladly add that the drawing of the cup already constitutes an analogue representation of the object, the cup itself... With these definition in hand, we have three dif-ferent representation of the 'object cup' available: a drawing, a verbal definition and mathemati-cal equations.

With broadcasting and delivery of data and knowledge, on the contrary, we deal with transmis-sion channels and technical/material devices used by the recipient to take over the message. Finally, the reception environment can be understood in view of the following four different points of view: physical, material, institutional and socio-cultural. The distinction between media and representation we are presenting here is not new. In 1969 already, authors like Tosti and Ball (quoted in Heidt, 1981) asserted that the main learning factor was not the medium itself but rather the way knowledge is arranged and delivered.

Channels: physical and/or technical vectors of transmission and broadcast: air conduction, radio waves, wire technology, etc. as well as ad-ditional device for encoding/decoding. Note that the channel can determine actual material reception conditions as is the case for subdued light required for movie projections

Storage devices: material device for information storage : magnetic tape, optical disk, floppies, hard disks, etc.

Screening devices: material device used to become aware of the actual represen-tation: paper technology, projection screens, computer moni-tors, etc. A technical object allowing a strict restitution, the so-called 'display function'.

Reception environment: the social interaction scene, the material, human, institutional

6 Let's recall that the English Open University, often taken as a model for subsequent distance universi-ties, was first named University of the Airs. This name was later adopted by quite a number of other institutions, e.g. by the College of the Air of Mauritius7 We could say "uses carrying meaning" here. A concept very much in use in the '70s that seems to have lost much of its interest nowadays. Perhaps because is it still carrying too many hidden political and ideological overtones. In spite of this, since this idea integrates the production of meaning and signifi-cation into the framework of social practice, it has not lost any of its appropriateness


and socio-cultural frame of reference.

Types of representation : kinds of representation, 'languages', whether through arbitrary signs (verbal language, mathematical formula) or through va-rious analogue signs and signals rooted in a resemblance rela-tion with the object (photographs, graphics, schemata, etc.)

Table 1: Analysis of media according to fixed criteria

Let us take an example to further explain these distinctions. The photographic representation of an animal, like a dromedary, may be shown as a photography, printed on positive paper, or may be shown on screen through a film, a positive transparency, or may even be digitally scanned and displayed on a computer monitor. In all three cases, the representation, the symbolic form, is identical, while the medium is very different indeed. As representations, all three instances show a photographic image, with its distinctive traits. As a semiotic form, a photography is an 'icon', distinct from a verbal representation using words, i.e. a representation that strongly re-sembles what it represents. The photo of this dromedary resembles an animal that I know through its rendering on a famous cigarette packet, Camel8, through my childhood circus me-mories, through my trips in Africa, etc. This material representation is well in accordance with the prototype image I extract from my various previous former experiences. It may therefore ap-pear to be similar to the animal itself. What distinguishes the three cases at hand is that the ac-tual presentation means and the conditions of perception and/or reception of the message are completely different. In the first case, the image is meant to be read by an individual. In the se-cond case, it is watched collectively, in subdued light. In the third case, we have an object that can be treated in many ways, possible only with digital computerised graphic material.

Consequently, we ought to modulate Tosti's and Ball's thesis since we today know that photo-graphy, as we have described it above, undergoes a process of deciphering by the viewer in which his apprehension and interpretation changes with medium used and in relation with the conditions of reception. These conditions play an essential role together with the influence of the channel on viewing. Hence, understanding a message means to account for all these ele-ments: is a given film seen on TV or watched in the local theatre really the same film ? It is clearly in the light of this kind of observation that the well-known Mac Luhan motto is to be un -derstood: "The medium is the message" (1967).

6 RELATIONAL MEDIATISATIONSpeaking about a mediated educational relationship, naturally evokes the concept of inter-activity. This idea is not strictly bound to the field of computer assisted instruction (CAI) even if, for most teachers, it is chiefly associated with this particular context. It also refers to a number of computer-based applications such as, to name a few, interactive software, interactive scena-rios, interactive video disk technology (CD-I), interactive image generation and processing, in-teractive information terminals in museums and public transport.

As was the case for concepts like media and technologies, interactivity is not an easily defined term. It is closely related to the idea of interaction, in the way this concept has been investiga-ted in the frame of social anthropology studies on interaction (see mainly Goffman, Watzlawick and Weakland). It is also bound to the notions of inter-relation or of verbal interactions studied by linguistics and pragmatics. Consequently, it is included in a heterogeneous semantic web of contrasting notions:

· active vs. passive;· unidirectional vs. multi-directional;· exchange, dialogue, conversation vs. passive reception (Rabaté, Lauraire, 1985).

8 Funnily enough, the image used by the Camel brand of cigarettes is in fact the dromedary "a camel of unusual speed bred and [...] trained for riding" (Webster, New Collegiate Dictionary, C. & C. Merriam Co, 1979).


According to these authors, interactivity has the following distinctive features:

Dialogue between · human speakers

Communication between · human speakers and machines

Exchanging mes-sages

between · subscriber and network nodes

Ability to act on · the software

interfere with · the contents

Table 2: Interactivity, a definition

Since this definition has a high degree of extensiveness, it can take into account extreme situa-tions from the social bond constitutive of interactivity, on one hand, to the mere exchange of in-formations between to machines, on the other9. According to Sansot, interactivity seems to de-signate "... rather an instrumental relationship between humans and machines under control of a request for information" (1985:87). In this perspective, interactivity is bound to the field of hu-man-to-machine interactions, leaving the characterisation of human-to-human relationships bet-ween speakers in the realm of inter-relations. This classification is reminiscent of the distinc-tions made between two forms of interactivity and stands very much at the core of relational mediation procedures such as functional interactivity and intentional interactivity (Barchechath et Pouts-Lajus, 1990). Other authors describe the same kind of distinctions with, respectively, the qualifiers of transitive and intransitive interactivity (Chateau, 1990; Jacquinot, 1993-b).

Let's first elucidate functional interactivity . This category encompasses the interactions bet-ween a machine and its user. Said in more technical terms, this kind of interactivity manages the human-to-machine interface. It describes how far the learner may interact with a machine and its software. Those of you who are familiar with computer software or with arcade games very well know that the degree of liberty allowed to the user as well as the possibilities offered by any given software vary quite a lot. By analogy, this kind of interactivity has been applied and extended to a variety of situations present in CAI. From our point of view, a printed docu-ment or a television broadcast present a very small component of functional interactivity. How can it manifest itself ? What is meant here as interactivity includes the various clues that help the learner during his browsing of a given document and depicts the tools that may assist him in managing and constructing his scrutiny of mediatised documents. It becomes thus apparent that for a written text or a printed document an important constituent of functional interactivity lies in page layout and typesetting properties - Netchine-Grynberg's "mise en page" - as well as in the visualisation of a text's conceptual structures through sripto-visual attributes such as text formalisation and typographic arrangement - Netchine-Grynberg's "mise en texte" or 'textual' layout - (Netchine-Grynberg, Netchine, 1991).

A second category of interactivity is what we just called intentional interactivity. We are dealing here with communication taking place between an author and his public. It seeks to describe the re-construction of a dialogue situation between a physically absent author who however ma-nifests his presence by the imprint he left on the software utilised and his interlocutor. Said otherwise, intentional interactivity is made up of a simulated dialogue within an interactive com-munication situation: without it, off-line communication would seem completely anonymous and disembodied. Of course, we are here not dealing with a real dialogue, since a distance course

9 It is worth noticing that the concept of communication has been the object of very similar definitions. Hasn't communication been defined as any event that triggers a reaction on the part of an organism (see Bateson et al., 1987:217), even as a transaction or exchange of information that has as consequence a modification of the partners' initial state and is followed by effects pragmatic in character (Moles, 1988) ? These definitions consequently cover many fields: inter-individual communication, the social dynamics of communication as well as human-machine, machine-machine, service-user (servuction) communication. In every case one observes a modification of information previously stored in memory, followed - or not - by effects.


situation is a unidirectional communication setting: the recipients can't answer the emitter. Still, the imprint left by the author, the way he catches the attention of the recipient, how he ad-dresses and involves him, all these features represent an essential way of formalising the me-diated relation. A last remark: in this very case, the term of interaction is better suited than inter -activity, because this term clearly evokes the dialogue and relational dimensions of an interac-tive situation. By developing the so-called conative functions of a discourse (the terms applies to the effect-causing features of a linguistic utterance on the listener) as well as by unfolding the expressive and phatic (by the setting up of a communication channel) properties of commu-nication, a situation of genuine intercommunication is de facto restored (Jackobson, 1963).

With these point in mind, television and video programs may seem less interactive than the computer when considered at a functional level. TV broadcasts and video programs may howe-ver be more interactive than some computer software packages, when seen as items of inten-tional interactivity. Indeed, TV can be pretty involving for the learner if the sensory, affective and intellectual activities developed by the recipient to interpret the message received are taken into account. Intentional interactivity can originate in the constructive recognition the receiver has to perform in order to acknowledge fully the particular context-setting at work in TV programs: a process standing at the very core of the sender/recipient duality (Meunier, Peraya 1993). On the other hand, a number of computer software packages display very little intentional interacti-vity, even if, studied from a functional point of view, they may appear to be functioning satisfac-torily.

Finally, one may find kinds of interaction pretty close to situations of face to face com-munication thanks to various technologies of distance or 'tele-presence', like audio and video conferencing. A number of research results have demonstrated that, in this case, the communi-cation process is characterised by an important loss of information, principally of analogue and non-verbal kind such as gestures and glances which play a crucial role in social rituals like, for instance, those at work in giving the floor to someone during a face to face conference (Perrin et Gensolen, 1992).

As a provisional hypothesis, we might suggest the following table outlining the main distinctive features of interaction10:

Interrelation Intentional interactivity Functional inter-activity

H/H face to face H/H at a distance H/M face to face

Tele-presence Dialogue settings inclu-ding the receiver; constructed relationships

Manipulation

Table 3: Forms of interactivity(Note: H=human; M=machine)

7 DISTANCE EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIESTo overcome distance was, from the beginning on, the primary aim of the first distance educa-tion institutions. Hence the central importance of communication and broadcasting media in this type of training. After, of course, bringing into play the post office, which was its first vector, dis-tance education took advantage of the telephone to soon make use of radio and television net-works. Even now, to sometimes brand classical distance education institutions and public cor-respondence courses institutes as "the conjunction of a school and a post office"11 is not to try

10 One should also take into account situations where the machine, thanks to a simulated 'intelligent tu -tor', substitutes itself to the absent emitter.11 The expression comes from Mr F. Duchesnes, inspector at the Service for distance education in the French-speaking community of Belgium (Service de l'Enseignement à distance de la Communauté fran-çaise de Belgique).


to crack a joke: the Hagen FernUniversität, for instance, has a postage expense budget equiva-lent to a DM 3 Million, to handle and meet the needs of some 50'000 students (Peraya, Haes-sig, 1992).

From a historical perspective, it is believed that the actual development of distance learning coincided with the invention of the postmark and the generalisation of cheap postal services (Henry, Kaye, 1985). The best illustration of this process are the correspondence courses pro-posed by Pitmann as soon as 1840, at the very moment when cheap postal services went into full effect. In a more general fashion, we may say that the development of distance learning is following the transformation of the ways information is being broadcast and exchanged. We should also add to these factors progress made in printing technology and in the production of a cheap paper which allowed both to lower the costs and to rise significantly the quality of printed media. At the same time, this technological evolution has led to an in depth change of how we record, store and retrieve information (Curran, 1992).

It is therefore no surprise that distance learning goes now through an significant revival as tele-communications are growing fast and when digital telecommunications are in the process of completely overturning the way we record, use, broadcast and deliver information (Moles, 1988): utopian views like Mac Luhan and Emerec's global village and the so-called informational society do not seem to have much more to wait to become reality. The information highways, the rise of the Internet and of the World Wide Web look like convincing steps towards this aim. Moreover, the impressive growth of distance learning during recent years seem to confirm this tendency: information technologies and distance learning and training are growing so as to say hand in hand12.

However, to analyse the role of technologies in the field of education and training is no easy task. The term technology itself has since long been subjected to many divergent in-terpretations. This confusion first happened within the field of technology, only to spread further when the word was applied in the domain of education. Besides, and today more than ever, the multiplication of technical devices as well as the growth of services that claim to qualify as tech-nological are trends that add to the confusion.

Still, let's try to expound what this term meant. Originally, technology means "the totality of the technological terms pertaining to a field or a science" - technical language, in short. It then was used to designate "a technical method of achieving a practical purpose" in a given profession or scientific activity (Webster, op. cit.). The expression 'technology of a specific field' may thus be used to talk about the different technical methods used within this speciality. Additionally, the word also conveys the meaning of state of the art techniques, drawing on special resources and developing techniques.In its present usage, the term seems to cover three main - and competing - meanings:

· a scientific sense insofar as technologies always are positively connoted by the fact they belong to the field of state of the art research;

· the sense of material as well as intellectual techniques, i.e. pertaining both to the tools used as well as to the design and development of technical products;

· finally, specifying technical objects themselves, as a result of the aforesaid design and production processes.

Clarifying the subject in the field of education is not easier. We owe to Scholer (1983) a well do-cumented study on the evolution of educational technologies, based on their basic concepts, their fields of application and describing the terminology associated with their use. The author quotes a number of research and particularly Davies' (1972) and observes that the term of tech-nology is used in two very different meanings, one referring to a physical idea and the other re-ferring to scientific concept (see Table 5 below). In the first case, the idea points to the applica-tion of engineering procedures to devices used in the teaching process. In the second case, the idea is to apply "scientific principles to education [...], to apply the fruits of theory and research in behavioural sciences as well as those of any other pertinent knowledge to the art of teaching" (1983:29-30).

12 Too succinct an analysis would suggest that there is here only one factor pre sent. It is of course not the case.


In an all-inclusive domain like education, we may perhaps discern to families of meaning. First, technology would be akin to problem solving procedures, to a work style, using scientific metho-dology to find solutions to a problem in the perspective of a particular task. In this case, the ex-pression of technology or rather of learning and instructional technologies is being preferably used. In a second family of meanings, the referent would be about blending various devices and machines to teaching procedures, in order to enhance their efficiency. One then talks about technologies or rather about educational technologies.

TECHNOLOGIES

Process Products

· Science· Théories,· Experiments · Know how

· Engineering· Instrumentation· Machines, etc.

· Technologies pertaining to · learning · instruction

· Educational technologies

· Problem solving · Enhancing efficiency

Scientific conceptualisation Technical conceptualisation

Table 4: Two strands in the definition-making of technologies

When we superimpose blanket definitions in vogue in education with those misused in technolo-gy, we realise that it is not too easy to find our way in the different meanings of the word, as has been the state of affairs when we tried to define the word media above. To add to the confu-sion, general usage puts procedures, design, technical solutions, products and services in this very same category of technology !

8 THE TECHNOLOGICAL MESS: A NUMBER OF EMPIRICAL OBJECTSLet us first mention an assortment of designations found in the literature:

· new information and communication technologies (NICT);· new training technologies(NTT);· information and communication technologies (ICT).

All the above expressions are applied to innumerable technical devices, to the 'ironmongery' as Cloutier puts itd), and they are deemed appropriate for objects fulfilling very different functions such as: DBS television and high definition TV, interactive tele-conferencing using both sound and image, telematics, videotext, ISDN digital networks, different kinds of information up- and downloading systems, data browsing in a telematic system like, to quote but one, the Minitel. In the field of image processing, the above labels are used to talk about the digital photographic camera, videodisks, CD-ROMs, CD-Worms, the CD-I and DVI, virtual worlds, etc. Following suit, each one of these technologies is exemplified in a particular sphere of activity. To quote a few: telecommunications (circulation, broadcasting and reception of information); scanning, pro-cessing and storing images; simulations and production of digital artefacts of all kinds, etc. In spite of all its fuzziness, the term has made a fortune in the market-place of specialised speech and is worth its weight in gold (Bourdieu, 1982).


However, specific typologies are to be found which propose a classification based on functional distinctions. We propose one below after Basinac, Wentland (1984):

1 Techniques :1.1 computer techniques

micro-computers; data scanning, digital data compression1.2 telecommunications

phone lines and modems, telex/teletext networks, digital networks

2 Hardware2.1 storage appliance (devices)

hard and floppy disks, audio CD, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, CD-I, photo CD, video cartridges, videodisks

2.2 input devicesscanning appliances, digital sound and video sampling cards, Videoman

2.3 output devicesdigital video generators, digital transparencies generators

2.4 display devicesmonitors, video [projection systems]

3 Softwareauthoring systems, expert systems, hypertexts, hypermedia

4 Audio-visual devicesclassical appliances (TV, transparencies, etc.) and eletronic blackboards.

We ought to remind the reader that if some technologies do modify profoundly the way informa-tion is managed and processed - as is the case in desktop publishing and computer generated graphics - other ones have a hardly noticable impact on actual everyday practice. A good num-ber of so-called 'transparent technologies' remain completely unrecognised by the user and do not affect the way they are operated: telephone communications are nowadays mostly transmit-ted through digital signals, a fact that most people happily ignore.

DBS television and satelite to dish direct transmissions do, however, indenyably increase both the offer of programmes and the broadcasting of multilingual productions. But, for the viewer, the way the transmission and broadcasting is achieved does not change anything to the way a given programme is selected and received, nor does it modify the consuming habits of TV's tar-get audience. From our particular standpoint, the actual problem is not to transmit, store or communicate information, but rather to receive it. This is an issue very much recognised by Berger. The actual question here is about how much data a subject can actually accommodate once acknowledged that he has a limited time-budget and is already massively overloaded with information and communication items of all sorts.

Accordingly, we believe that it is necessary to establish clear-cut distinctions between technical features and technological systems. Metaphorically speaking, to differentiate among the dif-ferent strata of every particular usage. It is the only way to escape being submitted to either a technological or - even worse - to a market-driven coherence for which novelty for its own sake constitutes a mere marketing advantage disguised as an unavoidable technical necessity (Chambat, 1994). The recent development of multimedia represents an excellent example of the dangers entailed by this kind of drift in markets and practices.

To bring a conclusion on these reflections about technology, we would like to quote a remark by G. Jacquinot: new technologies are so as to say tautologically defined but the fact that they are new. Now, such a characteristic has no meaning outside of a given context of integration or use, out of their particular "ecological niche" (Perriault, 1989). The telephone or the overhead projector may still be regarded as new technologies in the context of some under-developed countries with their particular cultural, social, economical and technical situation. To assert this truism is not to try a flash of wit, but rather to demonstrate the specific way by which the notion of novelty is related to the user's appropriation process. To stay with the same idea, Punie et


al., remind us that an innovation is not simply a product or a service as such: it is mostly an idea. Innovation is therefore new or innovative only if it is perceived as such by potential users (1994: 230; see also the "task-artefact cycle" concept in Carrol, 1991).

9 EMERGENCE AND USAGE, AN OVERVIEWTo reintroduce the notions of user and of niche means to take into full account the relativ ity of innovation in the field of technologies. It requires a critical point of view on new technologies, a stand point of a less technical-oriented nature expressed by notion of 'emergent technology'. We would hence define the field of emergence of a given technology as the intersection of three area, as represented below. In fact, it is a process that cannot be represented by a two-dimen-sional drawing and that typically evolves, undergoing the following phases: birth, negotiation, stabilisation of practice, evolution and/or degeneration.

Sketch 2: Emergent technologies

We shall not develop here the aspect pertaining to the first two factors: users and niches. Ne-vertheless, let us briefly remind the reader that attitudes of refusal or acceptance of a given technology, the degree to which an individual is engaged in the process of adopting it, the pro-cedures for mastering it, all these facets are pretty well-know nowadays. They have been the scope of renewed studies since the introduction of the computer in schools (Huberman, 1992). The adoption of a given innovation, for instance, shows a stratification in different groups accor-ding to the speed at which a specific population integrates the transformation. At the beginning of the process, one typically finds a small number of innovators (2.5%); then, a group of advan-ced modifiers (13.5%) is manifest; after that, an early majority can be found (34%) followed by a late majority (34%), to finally give way to late-comers (16%) (Rogers, 1988). If we investigate more closely the insertion niches of innovative technology, this implies analysing the social, cultural and technical space into which a given practice is born, negotiated and fixed, we find a process that expands according to specific constraints bound to the inertia of established usage - and users13 . Additionally, cases of hybrid practice, mixing long-standing habits with fresh atti-tudes, also play their part. Along the same lines, the concept of ecology of communication pro-posed by Moles (1988) is almost equivalent to the idea of niche proposed by Perriault (1989). Finally, let's recall that, in order to be accepted, an innovation has to offer the user advantages both in conceptual and circumstantial terms. Advantages that could be defined as the associa-tion of both economical and practical gains (Punie et al., op. cit.: 230 et seq.), the economic be-nefits being direct (cheaper service) or indirect (faster service). Our position is that we should go further in the analysis and widen this strictly economic definition to include the notion of ge-neralised cost proposed by Moles: it would include symbolic parameters such as dependability and consistency of communications, security and stability of connections, modifications of the users' image of themselves, etc. (1988).

13? Chambat (1194:262) cites Le Goff (1974) and says that mankind uses the machines it invents sti-cking to attitudes and mentalities it had long before inventing them.


To come back to usage, we would like to propose this classification, appropriate in the pedago-gic field:

AIMS OBJECTIFS EXAMPLES

Broadcasting

Browsing

· To open the acces to a large extend· To widen the reception zone

· Information queries

· DB STV· Filmed courses

· WWW· Robots and exploration devices

(Ways, Veronica, etc.)· Data bases

Communication · Exchange· Tutoring· Debates

· E-mail· News· MOO/MUD· Audio conference· Video conference

Pedagogy · According to a taxonomy of pedagogic tasks:· convergent vs divergent· information vs training

· Electronic books· Educational software· Groupware, etc.

Professional · Professional and/or training tools · Desk top publishing· Medical image processing· Flight simulators, etc.

Table 5: The usages of technologies

10 CONCLUSIONAt a moment when distance education - with the help of maturing communication technologies - makes a growing use of mediated forms of educational communication, we have thought it in-teresting to recall that theoretical research and research fields do not necessarily evolve with new technological objects: a whole set of problems tackled today with so-called 'new' technolo-gies are in fact old questions: they already stood at the core of 'old' technologies.

To exemplify: auditory and visual literacy were among the main themes of research in semiolo-gy which yielded results applicable to the field psycho-pedagogy during the '70s. It is surprising to see them reappear almost as such in research on multimedia and on computer graphics... Besides, the significance and the sphere of influence and dissemination of technologies have also expanded quite a lot, as well as the political, institutional and economical interest at stake.

Another case in point (see above Section 5) is the distinction between presentation forms used and media applied. This subject is haunting pedagogical literature and research since thirty years, without having managed to have any kind of influence on actual pedagogic practice.

Finally, the refusal to take into account basic sociological aspects such as user profiles, social practice and environmental niches as well as the exclusive attention given to technological inno-vation, are attitudes that have negative consequences on the actual implementation of projects especially in the field of communication technologies applied to teaching and are likely to alter their development and their quality in the long term.

It would be a pity that computer mediated communication (CMC), in its contemporary develop-ments, would reproduce the same errors, and hence meet the same failures than other innova-tive technologies from earlier times. Technology is indeed never as such the vector of methodo-logical evolution, and even much less of a pedagogical revolution. It may at best only be an op-portunity for renewal.


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Translator's notes

a) The French speaking use of the word, audio-visual means teaching and learning with specific technological items: motion pictures, TV, slides, audio cassettes, etc.

b) Linguistic studies classically cover three fields : syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Within the field of pragmatics, the 'speech acts theory' explains the effects of language on recipient/liste-ners.

c) 'Socio-cultural' and 'socio-educational' are compound adjectives literally borrowed from the French: they describe both a given culture and the social group bound to it, in, perhaps, the American sense of the word culture. 'Socio-educational', is a qualifier that has even more pre-cise connotations in the sense of education targeted on specific groups and aiming at the social integration of individual behaviour through training providing basic socially recognised skills and abilities.

d) The word hardware misses the sense of collection of metallic tools the French word still re-tains, hence the old British word being proposed here as a translation of 'quincaillerie'.


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Educat.l Medtd. Comm_eng (trav)€¦ · Web viewEducational mediated communication, distance learning, and communication technologies. A position paper. Dr Daniel Peraya. Abstract