Social Interactive Entropy in Online Classrooms Symposium "Social groups in CALL contexts: complex adaptive systems (CAS)" Rafael Vetromille-Castro Education.

Apresentação em tema: "Social Interactive Entropy in Online Classrooms Symposium "Social groups in CALL contexts: complex adaptive systems (CAS)" Rafael Vetromille-Castro Education."— Transcrição da apresentação:

1 Social Interactive Entropy in Online Classrooms Symposium "Social groups in CALL contexts: complex adaptive systems (CAS)" Rafael Vetromille-Castro Education Technology, PhD Applied Linguistics, MA Federal University of Pelotas (UFPEL) Multimedia Laboratory of Research on Language Studies and Literature (LAMPELL) Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

2 Starting point Online [language learning/language teacher education] classrooms: what kept students interacting in VLE? Groups of individuals in VLE: Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) Entropy: social interactive entropy – implications for CALL practice

3 Theoretical background Sociocultural and Complex perspective: Central role of interaction (The ‘Five Graces Group’, 2009:2; Vetromille-Castro, 2012) Groups in [online] learning contexts: CAS (Davis & Simmt, 2003; Bowsfield, 2004; Vetromille-Castro, 2008) Social interactive entropy (Vetromille-Castro, 2008)

4 Theoretical background Sociocultural and Complex perspective: Central role of interaction (Ellis, 1994: 143-89; The ‘Five Graces Group’, 2009:2) Language: consists of multiple agents (the speakers in the speech community) interacting with one another; is adaptive and, being so, generates future behavior based on agents’ past and current interactions; and has its structure emerged “from interrelated patterns of experience, social interaction, and cognitive processes

5 Theoretical background Neural network : minimal brain unit (Nicolelis, 2011) Neurosocial network: locus of knowledge construction (Vetromille-Castro, 2012)

6 Theoretical background Groups in [online] learning contexts: CAS (Davis & Simmt, 2003; Bowsfield, 2004; Vetromille-Castro, 2008) Vetromille-Castro, 2008 (Larsen-Freeman, 1997; Bertalanffy, 1973) Dynamic Nonlinear Chaotic Unpredictable Sensitive to initial conditions Sensitive to feedback Open Self-organizing Adaptive Davis & Simmt, 2003; Bowsfield, 2004 Internal Diversity Redundancy Decentralized control Enabling constraints Neighbor interactions

7 Theoretical background Entropy (Clausius, 1865) ▫Concept linked to the Second Law of Thermodynamics ▫The amount of energy that is lost in certain phenomena ▫Entropy: different areas, similar phenomenon Social interactive entropy (Vetromille-Castro, 2008)  Energy in social CAS: interaction

8 The research: context Language teacher education online course on CALL material development 3 editions 37 in-service teachers [13/13/12 stds.] Course period: 10 weeks Interactive tools: weekly fora + unpredictable and self-organized use of portfolios

9 The research: methodology Analysis on exchanged messages ▫Quantity ▫Content ▫Qualitative Social Values (Piaget, 1973) Objective: ▫What kept people interacting in VLE: identification of both highly interactive periods and values permeating interactions

10 Discussion Three different systemic behaviors ▫maximum entropic force [week 1-2] ▫systemic resistance [week 3-7] ▫systemic surrender [week 8-10]

11 Social interactive entropy: behavior

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13 Conclusion The essentiality of energy [interaction] for systems’ survival and development Guidelines and forum opening messages fostering collaboration and autonomy Interaction: exchange of social values – mutual benefit (Piaget, 1973) and solidarity support (Estrázulas, 2004) Interaction in unpredicted VLE areas allowed Fighting social interactive entropy

14 References Bowsfield, S. (2004). Complexity in the English language arts classroom: prompting the collective. In: COMPLEXITY SCIENCE AND EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE, 2004, Chaffey’s Locks, Canada (pp. 147-154). Proceedings… Chaffey’s Locks, Canada. Davis, B. and Simmt, E. (2003). Understanding learning systems: mathematics education and complexity science. In: Journal for Research in Mathematics Education (pp.137-177), v.34, n.2. The Five Graces Group (2009). Language is a complex, adaptive system: position paper. In: N.C. Ellis; D. Larsen-Freeman. (Ed.) Language as a complex adaptive system. – Language Learning 60 th anniversary special issue (pp. 1-26). Wiley-Blackwell, v.59, n.1. Gleick, J. (1989). Caos: a criação de uma nova ciência. 16ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: Campus. Paiva, V.L.M.O. (2011). Caos, complexidade e aquisição de segunda língua. In: V.L.M.O Paiva; M. Nascimento. (Ed.). Sistemas adaptativos complexos: lingua(gem) e aprendizagem (p.p.187-203). 2ª ed. Campinas: Pontes, 2011. Piaget, J. (1973). Estudos Sociológicos. Rio de Janeiro: Forense. Vetromille-Castro, R. (2007). A interação social e o benefício recíproco como elementos constituintes de um sistema complexo em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem para professores de línguas. 2007. 226 f. Tese (Doutorado em Informática na Educação) – Programa de Pós-Graduação em Informática na Educação, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre. _____. (2008). Considerações sobre grupos em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem como sistemas complexos. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada (Impresso) (pp. 211-234), v.8, n.1.

15 Muito obrigado! Thank you! vetromillecastro@gmail.com