DANCING WITH META-COMMUNICATION FOR DISTANCE EDUCATON: I

7th International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference, under the theme Of Sacred Crossroads. July 3-7, 2008 Kingston, Jamaica

Anadolu UniversityEskisehir, TURKEY

udemiray@anadolu.edu.tr

OverviewToday we are living in the knowledge society. The rapid technological changes and developments in science obligate us to update nearly all knowledge even if it is achieved yesterday too.

This paper defends the idea that the meta-communication concept could help the teachers’ and course developers’ better redesign knowledge building for especially in distance education according to daily developments in science and technology.

The The major objective of this paper is to discuss the structure of knowledge building, according to the knowledge building principles and its relationship with the “communication” concept which surrounds its development.

The prefix can have various meanings but as used in communication, philosophy and psychology its meaning is best recognized as about. Thus, meta-communication is communication about communication; meta-language is language about language; meta-message is a message about a message.

In relationship communication you often talk in meta-language and say things like,

“we really need to talk about the way we communicate when we’re out with company” or

“you’re too critical” or

“I love when you tell me how much you love me.”

Meta-communicationAnd, of course, you can use nonverbal messages to meta-communicate. You can wink at someone to indicate that you’re only kidding, look longingly into another eyes when you say “I love you” to show that you really mean it, or sneer after saying “Yeah, that was great,” with the sneer contradicting the literal meaning of the verbal message.

All non-verbal elements of communication are sometimes called ‘meta-communication’, comes from the Greek word ‘meta’ meaning ‘beyond’ or ‘in addition to’. ‘Meta-communication’ is therefore something ‘in addition to the communication’ and we must always be aware of its existence.

Methodology (slide 7/24)

Learning that is centered around ideas and deeper levels of understanding rather than the completion of often unrelated activities. The process of "knowledge building” defines problems and hypothesizing, researching and collecting information, analyzing and collaborating.

Comparisons of the organizations of traditional schools, university-level research institutes, and highly successful commercial corporations clearly point to the common link in these successful organizations - the production of knowledge.

In Knowledge Forum, students are expected to pose questions, define their own learning goals, acquire and build a knowledge base, and collaborate with one another. Built-in scaffolds ´cue´ students to the thinking strategies that characterize ´expert learners´ while the structure of the database with its communal views necessitates sharing of information via computer in distance ed. Students contribute public notes, "build-on" to others' ideas, and "reference" the work of peers. The ongoing practice of these advanced operations, combined with teacher support and coaching, helps students acquire the sorts of learning strategies that characterize expert learners. (http://www.knowledgeforum.com/Kforum/InAction/resrch.htm Retrieved 25th May, 2008).

To understand knowledge building it is essential to distinguish learning -"the process through which the cultural capital of a society is made available to successive generations“this, in turn, requires distinguishing knowledge building from a broad range of activities that share its constructivist underpinnings, but not its focus on the creation of new knowledge. These include collaborative learning, guided discovery, project-based learning, communities of learners, communities of practice, and anchored instruction and distance learning.

Knowledge building teaches students how to develop their repertoire of skills that allow them to become experts in the art of learning, a skill that, once developed, can be used across their academic and working lives. I

In a knowledge-building environment, structured assignments can assist learning for students, rather than teachers, are invested with the individual and collective responsibility to identify holes in their knowledge, develop plans to close them, and assess progress in attaining their goals.

Knowledge building is work on the creation and improvement of ideas. The dynamic is social, resulting in the creation of public knowledge. In contrast to knowledge situated within the individual mind public knowledge has an out-in-the-world character. Public knowledge can itself become an object of inquiry and the basis for further knowledge building.

Thus there is the possibility of a knowledge building dynamic that drives the continual creation and advancement of new knowledge.

What makes knowledge building a realistic approach to education is the discovery that children as early as grade one can engage in it. Thus there is a clear developmental link running from childhood education on into advanced education and adult knowledge work, in which the same process is carried out at increasingly high levels (http://ikit.org/kb.htmlretrieved on 21st May, 2008).

In science, it is clear that when we talk about Newton's theory we are not talking merely about something once encoded in Newton's brain but about something that even today is discussed, tested, taught, applied, evaluated, and credited with causal force.

When we speak of schools as knowledge-building communities, we mean schools in which people are engaged in producing knowledge objects that, though much more modest than Newton's theory, also lend themselves to being discussed, tested, and so forth without particular reference to the mental states of those involved and in which the students see their main job as producing and improving such objects.

Restructuring schools as knowledge-building community’s means, to our minds, getting the community's efforts directed toward social processes aimed at improving these objects, with technology providing a particularly facilitative infrastructure. (Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. 1994).

Newman (1981) wrote an article linking attribution-making with meta-communication in ongoing, intimate relationships. Newman states that meta-communication can be “a message which signals how a person intends a message, how a person wants the message to be answered, how a person is attempting to define the relationship, etc” (1981, p. 124).

Newman (1981) also points out that one person’s interpretation of meta-communication may be distinct from another person’s intended meta-communication. Newman suggests, “[K]nowledge of implicit attribution-making, or interpreted meta-communications, might aid in the prediction of subsequent interpersonal responses” (1981, p. 125). Attributions constitute the cognitive counterparts to actual messages of meta-communication.

Use meta-communication to improve your interpersonal and relationship communication to preface important messages or to analyze and ultimately improve relationship communication, for example, and avoid meta-communication when it substitutes for addressing an immediate problem. (Source: Retrieved on 22nd May, 2008 and available from http://tcbdevito.blogspot.com/2007/11/abcd-meta-communication.html and Demiray, 1995, p.12)

De Vito (2000) suggests that for a message to have meaning, both elements, verbal and nonverbal, need to be present. He defines nonverbal communication as communicating without words: “You communicate nonverbally when you gesture, smile or frown, widen your eyes, move your chair closer to someone, wear jewellery, touch someone, raise your vocal volume, or even when you say nothing.” (DeVito, 2000, p. 130).

According to DeVito, meta-communication is “communication that refers to other communications”

Focusing on educational ideas and enabling technology for knowledge-building discourse is very important. The conceptual bases of Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments -CSILE- come from research on intentional learning, process aspects of expertise, and discourse in knowledge-building communities.

ConclusionImportant elements of a course development strategy are student characteristics, the knowledge topic and objectives, the content, the teaching and learning activities, and the course assessment. Clearly, Knowledge building and development for distance learning is a complex and challenging task. (Yousuf, & et. al., 2008) For each element, some guideline questions are required.

Conclusion

Student characteristics

Course topic and objectives

Knowledge content

Conclusion

In writing styles some factors are very important for writing the distance education material. 

Format of distance education material

Visual and learning material

ConclusionIn knowledge-building contexts, the focus is on problems rather than on categories of knowledge or on topics. Explaining is the major challenge, with encouragement to produce and advance theories through using them to explain increasingly diverse and seemingly contrary ideas. Engagement is at the level of how things work, underlying causes and principles, and interrelatedness of ideas explored over lengthy periods and returned to in new contexts.

Decentralized open knowledge is building, with a focus on the collective knowledge. From the perspective of social interactions, there is an expectation of constructive response to one another's work. Inquiry on all sides is driven by questions and desire for understanding. Negotiating the terrain around ideas is marked by complex interactions with others, using purposeful and constructive ways:

Conclusion

to engage busy people, to distribute work among members, to sustain increasingly advanced inquiry, to monitor advances of distant groups working in related areas, and to ensure the local group is indeed working at the forefront of their collective

understanding.

ReferencesAlexander, G. O. (1972). Instructional Meta-communication and Self-Directed Learning. Paper presented at the International Communication Association Annual Convention (Atlanta, Georgia, April 19–22, 1972). Retrieved 25th May, 2008. Available from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED063737&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED063737Atac, E. & Mutlu M. E. (2006) Very Large Scale E-Learning Practices in the Open Education System at Anadolu University, E-Learn 2006, 13–17 October 2006, Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii. I addition this Paper presented at EADTU 2005,, Working Conference, 10-11 November 2005, Roma.Bateson, G. (1955). A theory of play and fantasy. Psychiatric research reports, 2, 39–51. Reprinted in Bateson 1972.Beckham, K. & King, J. (2008). Ohio State University Fact Sheet CDFS-6, Communication in Coalitions, available from http://ohioline.osu.edu/bc-fact/0006.html. Retrieved 29th May, 2008. Chen, P., & Chen, H. (2007). Knowledge building and technology dynamics in an online project-based learning community. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, 3(2), 1-16. Available from http://www.sicet.org/ijttl/specialIssue/chen.pdf. Retrieved 29th May, 2008.Dainton, M. (2000). Maintenance behaviors, expectations for maintenance, and satisfaction: Linking comparison levels to relational maintenance strategies. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 17, 827–842.Demiray, U. (1995). Iletisimotesi iletisim[Meta-communication], Turkuaz yayincilik, Eskisehir, Turkey.

ReferencesAlexander, G. O. (1972). Instructional Meta-communication and Self-Directed Learning. Paper presented at the International Communication Association Annual Convention (Atlanta, Georgia, April 19–22, 1972). Retrieved 25th May, 2008. Available from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED063737&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED063737Atac, E. & Mutlu M. E. (2006) Very Large Scale E-Learning Practices in the Open Education System at Anadolu University, E-Learn 2006, 13–17 October 2006, Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii. I addition this Paper presented at EADTU 2005,, Working Conference, 10-11 November 2005, Roma.Bateson, G. (1955). A theory of play and fantasy. Psychiatric research reports, 2, 39–51. Reprinted in Bateson 1972.Beckham, K. & King, J. (2008). Ohio State University Fact Sheet CDFS-6, Communication in Coalitions, available from http://ohioline.osu.edu/bc-fact/0006.html. Retrieved 29th May, 2008. Chen, P., & Chen, H. (2007). Knowledge building and technology dynamics in an online project-based learning community. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, 3(2), 1-16. Available from http://www.sicet.org/ijttl/specialIssue/chen.pdf. Retrieved 29th May, 2008.Dainton, M. (2000). Maintenance behaviors, expectations for maintenance, and satisfaction: Linking comparison levels to relational maintenance strategies. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 17, 827–842.Demiray, U. (1995). Iletisimotesi iletisim[Meta-communication], Turkuaz yayincilik, Eskisehir, Turkey.

DeVito, J. (2000). Human communication. New York: Longman.DeVito, J. (2001). The interpersonal communication book (9th ed.). New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.Dindia, K., & Baxter, L. (1987). Strategies for maintaining and repairing marital relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 4, 143–158.Ely, R.; Gleason, J.; Narasimhan, B., & McCabe, A. (1995). Family talk about talk: Mothers lead the way. Discourse Processes, 19, 201-218.Giler, J. Helping Kids with Learning Disabilities Understand the Language of Friendship. Available from http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.aspx?r=575. Retrieved 28th May, 2008.Hatcher, S. L. (2003) Reading Between the Lines: Meta-communicative Aspects of Online Education. A paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Pyschological Assocation Toronto Canada on 7-10 August 2003. Retrieved 26th May, 2008. Available from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1b/58/ab.pdfKelman, C. A., & Branco, A. U. (2004). Deaf Children in Regular Classrooms: A Sociocultural Approach to a Brazilian Experience American Annals of the Deaf - Volume 149, Number 3, Summer 2004, pp. 274-280. Retrieved 20th May, 2008.Available from http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/american_annals_of_the_deaf/v149/149.3kelman.htmlMcLean Robert S. (1999). Communication Widgets for Knowledge Building in Distance Education . Computer Support for Collaborative Learning Proceedings of the 1999 conference on Computer support for collaborative learning 1999, Palo Alto, California December 12–15, 1999, Article No. 48. Retrieved 20th May, 2008. Available from http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=1150240&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&type=proceeding&idx=SERIES11363&part=series&WantType=Proceedings&title=CSCL&CFID=69778328&CFTOKEN=28671871Newman, H. (1981). Interpretation and explanation: Influences on communicative exchanges within intimate relationships. Communication Quarterly, 29, 123–131.Patch, M. (1995). The effect of asymmetrical use of metacommunicative behavior on judgments of power. Journal of Social Psychology, 135, 747–754.Patch, M., & Hoang, V. (1997). The use of meta-communication in compliance: Door-in-the-face and single-request strategies. Journal of Social Psychology, 137, 88–95.

Perlmutter, M., & Hatfield, E. (1980). Intimacy, intentional meta-communication, and second order change. American Journal of Family Therapy, 8, 17-23.

Rashid, M. (1999). System of Distance Education: (Study Guide for Non-Formal Education), Islamabad: National Book Foundation.

Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1991a). Higher levels of agency for children in knowledge building: A challenge for the design of new knowledge media. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 1, 37- 68.

Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1992). An architecture for collaborative knowledge-building. In E. Dc Corte, M. Linn, H. Mandl, & L. Verschaffel (Eds.), Computer-based learning environments and problem solving [NATO-ASI Series F: Computer and Systems Science] Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3(3), 265-283.

Steven B. D., & Rita L. (nd) “The Internet’s Role In Education”. Teachıng Technıques Instructıonal Tools, Originally published in Vol. 67, No. 1, Retrieved 27th May, 2008. Available from http://www.asrt.org/media/pdf/foreducators/3_instructionaltools/3.3internet.pdf

Yousuf, M. I. & et. al. (2008). Perceptions of Course Coordinators and Course Writers For Developing Distance Learning Material. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE, April 2008 ISSN 1302-6488 Volume: 9 Number: 2 Article 6. Available from http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde30/pdf/article_6.pdf. Retrieved 20th May, 2008.

WEBLIOGRAPHY

http://tcbdevito.blogspot.com/2007/11/abcd-meta-communication.html.

Retrieved 20th May, 2008.

http://ikit.org/kb.html. Retrieved 20th May, 2008.

http://www.anadolu.edu.tr/en/akademik/fakulteler.aspx. Retrieved 24th May, 2008.

http://eogrenme.aof.edu.tr Retrieved 28th May, 2008.

http://www.knowledgeforum.com/Kforum/InAction/resrch.htm.

Retrieved 25th May, 2008.

http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/Reports/LessonsInLearning/RSS/LinL20070906_Building-knowledge-building-the-future.htm. Retrieved 25th May, 2008.

Greetings

Thank you very much

for your kind attention

Cordially