Abstract:

This paper presents the outcomes of a research project aimed at analyzing the design (concept, idealization and form) of two Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), from the perspective of Bakhtin’s architectural form[1] with the contributions of the Multiliteracies Pedagogy[2], the didactic models of VLEs[3], the concept of Multimodality[4] and Remediation[5].

In the analysis we sought to understand how it configures the design of two VLEs with their tools, how the design of a tool can collaborate for the use of different semiosis and how the concepts of Multimodality and Remidiation contributed to this process. Grounded in Bakhtin's theory of architectural form, we understood that the dimensions of the genre practiced in the VLEs are directly related to their designs, their architectural embodiment defended as the design of a VLE, which can be the agent of Multiliteracies, can provide or not flexibility for achieving multisemiotic genre, common from the contemporary world.

Also part of our theoretical lenses, we observed the acts of Remediation, the representation of a medium by another, from the traditional classroom environment to the digital one, which we still found the influence of the traditional presence-based school in the concept, idealization and form in one the VLEs analyzed. Reflecting a tendency to conventionalization of standards based on the traditional classroom teaching curriculum, providing the virtual learning environment with only alphabetic texts or alphabetic icons, which held much of student interaction to information. Due to its design, little space is left for multimodal communication. We also observed that the acts of Remediation for the design of this VLE was based on the traditional class or in the relations of time and space (and power) of the 1.0 school, generating an architectural embodiment of the traditional school represented by its conventional genres and school literacies.

The second VLE in its architectural whole, we observed that the design model provides tools for the use of different language modes - text, graphics, sound, with static and dynamic images with an easy communication/interaction with other technological means. Its structure is based on the model of social networks, proposing a much more interactive learning process and dialogical construction of collaborative intelligence distributed to different communities across the world.

We concluded that VLEs must in their design, provide different transformations in the mode of interaction with learning to establish a renewed sense of the past and create new future directions, which approximate the reality experienced by the contemporary citizens and their new modes of meaning.

References:
[1] Bakhtin, M. (2010 [1924]). Questões de Literatura e de Estética: A Teoria do Romance. 6. Ed. São Paulo: Hucitec.
[2] Kalantzis, M.; Cope, B. (2006 [2000]). Multiliteracies – A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures – The New London Group. New York: Routhledge, 2006.
[3] Coll, C.; Monereo, C. Orgs. (2010). Psicologia da Educação Virtual: Aprender e Ensinar com as Tecnologias da Informação e da Comunicação. Porto Alegre, RS: Artmed.
[4] Kress, G. R.; Leeuwen, T. V. (1996). Reading images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London, New York: Routledge.
[5] Bolter, J. D.; Grusin R. (2000). Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge, MA, USA: The MIT Press.

Keywords:

Design, Virtual Learning Environment, Bakhtin’s Architectural Form, Multimodality, Remediation.