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As we can easily infer from its name, our Video-Supported Collaborative Learning (VSCL) pedagogical model is grounded on two main pillars: a collaborative pedagogy on one side and the use of video technology on the other.
As per the former it can be realized through many different activities based on collaboration, like it is in the case of group interactions, negotiations and sharing of meanings (Beers, Boshuizen, Kirschner & Gijselaers 2005; Kirschner, Beers, Boshuizen & Gijselaers 2008; Stahl, Koschmann, & Suthers 2014, De Jong 2020). This happens in activities like consultations, discussions, conversations, dialogues, as well as in processes like providing feedback, reflecting, using authoritative sources, analysing practices and situations, and the like. Such a dynamic and dialectic exchange often takes the form of creative processes leading further than collaborative learning, to real knowledge building (Scardamalia & Bereiter 2014). A provisional, incomplete list of illustrative activities of this first pillar appear in the yellow circle on the left of Figure 1.
As per the latter, the use of video technologies interacts with the above-mentioned pedagogy in providing tools that support collaborative processes. In this sense, illustrative activities appearing in the blue circle on the right of Figure 1. refer to the possibility of viewing, capturing (recording), editing, enriching, and annotating videos; these are all activities related to a video pedagogy (Cattaneo et al. 2019; Evi-Colombo et al. 2020; Ramos et al. 2020).
What we are proposing here is a pedagogical model. Therefore, it is important to make explicit that the interaction and intersection between the two pillars from which we started is aimed at fostering learning and professional development. For this reason, a third pillar appears from the combination of the previous two, giving immediate relevance to the intentional learning objectives which any VSCL activity is functional to (see intersection in Figure 1.). We set learning objectives at the beginning, we design and plan an effective use of our video solutions and our collaborative pedagogies, and finally we aim at specific learning outcomes that can be measured (side view in Figure 1. on the right).
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Figure 1. The main pillars (Collaborative learning activities; Learning objectives; Video-based technology use; Agency) of the pedagogical model (top view above, front view at bottom, side view on the right).
Finally, in Figure 1. one can also realize that there is a further base on which our pillars are based, i.e. professional agency. This applies both to teachers and learners and has to be meant as a sort of pre-condition for the engagement of the actors in the VSCL system and for learning, agency. Agency implicitly concerns both personal and professional values, beliefs, and resources (knowledge, skills, and attitudes, i.e. the main components of competence), as well as the actor’s engagement and final behaviour enacted in a situated activity (Leijen, Pedaste & Lepp 2019).
So, basically, this constitutes the foundations – and at the same time the support – of our model, this being the first layer that gives the impulse to in-form (to give form) to the model itself. The model represents the instructional choices on which a VSCL pedagogical scenario is based and is constituted by two axes. The x axis represents time. The y axis represents a set of possible VSCL learning activities, as previously mentioned. Just to mention a few, these include for example creating, designing, analysing videos (through reflections, comments, discourses, use of authoritative sources, dialogues etc.) in different learners’ group compositions (couples, small groups, circles, whole class), including or not tutors and coaches (see Figure 2. y axis). Such activities can happen in presence or at distance, and in this latter case synchronously or asynchronously. Moreover, we can distinguish if the analysis and reflection activities happen within the video (e.g. via writing, e.g. through a video annotation tool) or out of the video (e.g., via an oral discussion), and by whom (e.g., peers or teacher). As a result, the model can be used as a designing tool to visualize complex VSCL scenarios.
For example, in Figure 2. we see the representation of a teacher education scenario. It starts from the individual video capturing of a professional situation (a lecture) happening in presence individually. The next step is an asynchronous activity where peers give feedback on the video-recording putting their comments directly in the video. After that, again at distance but synchronously, a group session based on feedback follows, preluding to a next session in presence for dialoguing with the whole group. Something similar then is repeated again, but this time the conclusion comes to an assessment at distance.
Figure 2. Illustrative example of a VSCL scenario. We used shape coding to represent synchronous vs asynchronous, in presence and at distance activities, and colour coding to represent different kinds of collaborative activities.
Although the y axis also gives somehow a hint on the social implications of the scenario, what is still missing is a third dimension, explicitly referring to the nature of the collaboration (See Figure 3). This last can be further integrated in the design graph or not, but it is surely worth explicit consideration when designing the learning scenario.
Figure 3. The third dimension of the model, concerning the nature of the collaboration in the VSCL scenario.
References
Beers, P. J., Boshuizen, H. P. A., Kirschner, P. A., & Gijselaers, W. H. (2005). Computer support for knowledge construction in collaborative learning environments. Computers in Human Behavior, 21(4), 623-643.
Cattaneo, A., Evi-Colombo, A., Ruberto, M., & Stanley, J. (2019). Video Pedagogy for Vocational Education. An overview of video-based teaching and learning. In. Turin: European Training Foundation.
De Jong, F. (2020). Knowledge in-ter-action. Wageningen, The Netherlands: Aeres Applied University Wageningen/Open University The Netherlands.
Evi-Colombo, A., Cattaneo, A., & Bétrancourt, M. (2020). Technical and Pedagogical Affordances of Video Annotation: A Literature Review. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 29(3), 193-226.
Kirschner, P. A., Beers, P. J., Boshuizen, H. P. A., & Gijselaers, W. H. (2008). Coercing shared knowledge in collaborative learning environments. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(2), 403-420.
Leijen, Ä., Pedaste, M., & Lepp, L. (2019). Teacher agency following the ecological model: How it is achieved and how it could be strengthened by different types of reflection. British Journal of Educational Studies, 1-16.
Cattaneo, A., De Jong, F., Ramos, J., Laitinen-Väänänen, S., Pedaste, M., Evi-Colombo, A., Monginho, R. M., Bent, M., Velazquez Godinez, E., & Van Steenbergen, R. (submitted). Video-based Collaborative Learning: A Pedagogical Model and Instructional Design Tool emerging from an international multiple case study. European Journal of Teacher Educartion.
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2014). Knowledge building and knowledge creation: Theory, pedagogy, and technology. In K. R. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (2nd ed., pp. 397-417). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Stahl, G., Koschmann, T., & Suthers, D. (2014). Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (2 ed., pp. 479-500). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.