Forums as a tool for negotiating knowledge in Higher Education

Abstract

This article discusses an innovative educational experience carried out as part of teaching of the module ‘Technologies of Education’ to third-year students completing the ‘Expert in Social and Cultural Education’ course in the Department of Education Studies at the Bologna and Rimini campuses. The experience examined the use of an online forum as a virtual environment for interactions between students. This experience is based on the hypothesis that significant knowledge can be gained by taking part in learning communities. In particular, this can occur within a deliberately educational digital environment that allows for individual learning to be given a new meaning, thanks to contributions from other participants, which, precisely because of its asynchronous nature, encourages reflective thought. The results are in line with studies that reveal the positive potential of forums: they are shown to be an effective environment for collaborative negotiation and the consolidation of knowledge, as well as for meta-reflection, as they enable topics previously dealt with in the classroom environment to be resumed and reformulated in the context of group discussion.

Keywords

• blended learning
• higher education
• knowledge building community