Abstract:

Contrary to predictions that information and communication technologies would get a new wind on innovative pedagogy blowing, current e-learning platforms have instead a binding effect on effective implementation. This observation is based on our experience with design of the Tandem Canada platform. The Tandem Canada Platform was elaborated to learn French and English in a tandem approach. With this platform, teachers can find a partner class and collaborate with it. Their students grouped in tandem can exchange by text, audio, video in a synchronous or asynchronous way. The platform is composed by different modules, specially the exchange space offers to teachers a technological and pedagogical support to make language learning in tandem. Because of its standard status, Moodle was chosen to implement the exchange space. Then, two difficulties emerged: structure of Moodle is too rigid and its functions are not customizable to support this innovative mode of teaching/learning. More generally, to develop a technological support to innovative pedagogy, the reality had to be twisted to give the closest match to the platform formalism. So, the obtained platform does not really correspond to the needs of the users, they have to adapt to the technology when it should be the other way around. We think it is important that all different users can build a conceptual model which reflects their needs, regardless the digital device. Today, there are user-centered propositions or development-based propositions to design digital devices for teaching/learning. Their design is still in the hands of e-learning platform developers. But how to obtain such conceptual models? How to do these models designed by non-programmers could be directly implemented? We propose a new approach allowing the users to conduct the design workshops. With this participatory approach, users become true co-designers of their own digital device for teaching/learning. This approach is called DEMOS for Design mEthod for demOcratic information System. The purpose is to involve future users in the design of their future system while respecting their viewpoints. The method is presented in the form of a MAP: a navigational structure with a selection of four intentions and strategies to achieve it. First, participants can express divergent visions about the pedagogical tool to be built. Secondly, this allows the emergence of different participants viewpoints on the future platform. Thirdly, the participants, grouped according to their viewpoint, can design their own pedagogical conceptual model. Lastly, the conceptual models are linked together by the participants, to get consolidated viewpoint models directly implementable in the future system. Thanks to various activities such as photolanguage, mind mapping, user stories writing, participants develop standardized conceptual models by always speaking in their current vocabulary. Through the application of this participatory approach to the Tandem Canada platform design, the paper aims to show how to facilitate a better translation of various viewpoints of the users on a conceptual model of the e-learning solution, model that could be directly implemented.

Keywords:

e-learning, innovation, educational platform, co-construction, participatory design, viewpoint.