Abstract:

We live in an increasingly complex era, of paradigmatic ruptures, simultaneously driven and conditioned by the fast dissemination of digital networks and communication technologies within the various spheres of life. In online education this complexity can be verified in each moment of the educational process and in each “classroom environment”. Understanding the “complexities” in the virtual and blended educational environments is a key factor to achieve success in distance education courses.

In the present article we analyzed, within the context of distance education, four of the concepts and/or principles of Moran’s Epistemology of Complexity (2001, 2006, 2009, 2011), namely disjunction/simplification, normalization/cultural imprinting, cultural dialogic, and recursivity. The objective was to identify and explain complex aspects that emerge from the confluence between the teaching-learning processes, communication, and the technologically rich educational environments (such as virtual learning environments – VLE).

The complex thought seems to us rich enough to stand up to the practical and methodological challenges presented by the interactive dynamics from the first distance education course of the University of São Paulo, implemented on the second semester of 2010 (curso de Licenciatura em Ciência ). Several controversy situations were encountered in the general forum of the course. Although they were considered as statistically irrelevant due to their deviation from the “Gauss curve”, as highlighted by one of the course teachers, the messages posted in the forum which had a problematic content led to its closure for a one year period. In a general way, these situations can be classified according to four variables: insults and personal attacks (flaming); inappropriate language for a university (VLE); criticism to the course (activities, contents, programme, etc); and linguistic and communicational problems (lack of clarity in messages, misunderstandings, noise).

Keywords:

Blended learning, complexity, disjunction, cultural imprinting, cultural dialogic, recursivity.