Technology as an influential variable in the development of dialogical learning

Abstract

Schools have a responsibility to prepare new generations born in a globalized and interconnected world. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the role that technology plays in the development of dialogical learning in learning communities. We try to understand the influence that technology has in fostering communication and interaction in an educational project that presents interaction and words as basic learning tools. An instrumental, interpretive, and embedded case study is applied in which the communicative methodology is developed from interviews and two discussion groups. The singular case involves a rural school constituted as a learning community that is geographically split into two villages; each village has its own lecture room, one with technology immersion (A) and another with progressive incorporation of technology (B). The results show the influence of the technological factor in learning development that facilitates the creation of meaning; a pedagogical principle that learning communities develop to promote dialogical learning.

Keywords

• learning communities
• information and communication technologies
• communicative methodology
• learning and knowledge technologies
• dialogical learning