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Interactions in virtual learning environments: new roles for digital technology

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Abstract

For the last 10 years, online pre-service teacher distance education has increased significantly in Brazil. As a result, research on this educational modality has also increased, in particular, research investigating the different roles students and teachers play in these courses. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of digital technologies in two specific contexts: how teachers, tutors, and students play a role in producing interactive digital didactic material and how digital technologies themselves can play a role in teaching distance learning courses. But for these roles to emerge, we point to the need for participants of online courses to interact collaboratively. To identify these roles, grounded theory, a branch of qualitative research, was used as the two roles were articulated. Data were produced from virtual observations in virtual learning environments and virtual interviews. The results stress that both highlighted roles are related. They transform teacher and student roles and participation in the virtual classroom, and an “agency of media” emerges in online mathematics education.

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Notes

  1. Virtual learning environments are virtual platforms on which online courses are offered.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Educação Matemática, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Avenida 24A, 1515, Bela Vista, Rio Claro, São Paulo, 13506-900, Brazil

    Marcelo C. Borba

  2. Instituto de Matemática (INMA), Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Cidade Universitária, s/n, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, 79090-900, Brazil

    Aparecida Santana de Souza Chiari

  3. Unidade Acadêmica de Ciências e Tecnologia Ambiental, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande (UFCG-POMBAL), Rua Jario Vieira Feitosa, Pombal, Paraíba, 58840-000, Brazil

    Helber Rangel Formiga Leite de Almeida

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  1. Marcelo C. Borba
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  2. Aparecida Santana de Souza Chiari
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  3. Helber Rangel Formiga Leite de Almeida
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Correspondence to Marcelo C. Borba.

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Borba, M.C., Chiari, A.S. & de Almeida, H.R.F.L. Interactions in virtual learning environments: new roles for digital technology. Educ Stud Math 98, 269–286 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-018-9812-9

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