Using a Social Web 2.0 Tool in Geography and Environmental Research Project: A Content Analysis of Greek High School Students’ Learning Exchanges

Abstract

The first part of this paper refers to the contribution of geographic education in the development of knowledge, attitudes and skills for environmental protection in the context of sustainable development of the world's societies. Thus, specific concerns identified regarding the young people participation in research and collaborative actions using Web 2.0 applications, in the context of geography and environmental education, through sociocultural constructive view of learning. In particular, the concerns relating to the way of the young people interaction using an educational online environment and how it can help to improve their learning process. Accordingly, the study considered the following research question: Does the sociocultural constructivist interaction of students in an educational online environment affect their cognitive development and their geography and environmental approach to the research issue? The answers to above question is given by the empirical part of the research that is based on results which focused on the analysis of sociocultural constructivist interactions of high school of Athens students (N=16) during an eight-month geography and environmental for sustainability research project in a social computing and specifically a free social bookmarking site, Diigo. The results indicated that the quality of their interaction was at a satisfactory level with most complete learning exchanges, progressively developing essential skills for an organized and integrated geography and environmental approach, throughout the project.

Keywords

• Geography and Environmental Education,Web 2.0,Sociocultural Constructivist Interaction

Kaynakça

1. Apostolopoulou, E., Klonari Aik., Lambrinos, N. & Soulakellis, N. 2009. Children’s understanding of physical landscape with 2Dand 3D maps. The New Geography, 57, A Special issue, IGU, 95-99. Aviv, R., Erlich, Z., Ravid, G., & Geva, A. (2003). Network analysis of knowledge construction in asynchronous learning networks. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 7(3), 1-23.
2. Baker, T. R., Battersby, S., Bednarz, S. W., Bodzin, A. M., Kolvoord, B., Moore, S., Sinton D., & Uttal, D. (2014). A Research Agenda for Geospatial Technologies and Learning. Journal of Geography, 1-13.
3. Bednarz, S. W., Acheson, G., & Bednarz. R. S. (2006). Maps and map learning in social studies. Social Education 70(7), 398-404.
4. Brown, B. J., & LeVasseur, M. L. (1981). Geographic Perspective. Perspectives of global education: A sourcebook for classroom teachers, 33-39.
5. Cerratto, T., & Rodriguez, H. (2002, August). Studies of Computer Supported Collaborative Writing. Implications for System Design. In COOP (pp. 139-154).
6. Cohen, L., and Manion, L. (1994). Research methods in education (4th ed.). London: Routledge.
7. Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2007). Research Methods in Education, 6th ed. London: Routledge. De Laat, M. (2002). Network and content analysis in an online community discourse. In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning: Foundations for a CSCL Community. International Society of the Learning Sciences, 625-626.
8. De Wever, B., Keer, H. V., Schellens, T., & Valcke, M. (2010). Roles as a structuring tool in online discussion groups: The differential impact of different roles on social knowledge construction. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(4), 516-523.

9. De Wever, B., Schellens, T., Valcke, M., & Van Keer, H. (2006). Content analysis schemes to analyze transcripts of online asynchronous discussion groups: A review. Computers & Education, 46(1), 6-28.
10. Downs, R. M. (2014). Coming of Age in the Geospatial Revolution: The Geographic Self Re-Defined. Human Development, 57(1), 35-57.
11. Edelson et al. (2013). A road map for 21st Century Geography Education. Executive Summary. Washington: National Geographic Society.
12. Exarchou, E. & Klonari Aik. (2012). Using a social bookmarking system to enhance environmental and geographical learning of secondary students. A pre-study review. In Kynigos, C., Clayson, E. J. & Yiannoutsou, N. (eds), Constructionism 2012: Theory, Practice and Impact. Greece, Athens: Vivliosynergatiki S.A., 671.
13. Exarchou, E., & Klonari, A. (2013). A pre-study on the use of web 2.0 social networking technologies in geographical and environmental learning for sustainability of Greek secondary students". In 13th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology (CEST2013), Greece, 256.
14. Favier, T. T., & van der Schee, J. A. (2014). The effects of geography lessons with geospatial technologies on the development of high school students' relational thinking. Computers & Education, 76, 225-236.
15. Fisher, T. (2004). Information society, situatedness, and social construction: student teacher’s learning on a PGCE Geography course. ICT for Curriculum Enhancement. Intellect Books, 140-152.
16. Granados Sanchez, J. (2011). Teaching geography for a sustainable world: a case study of a secondary school in Spain. Review of International Geographical Education Online: RIGEO, 1(2), 158-182.
17. Gunawardena, C. N., Lowe, C. A., & Anderson T. (1997). Analysis of a global online debate and the development of an interaction analysis model for examining social construction of knowledge in computer conferencing. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 17(4), 395- 429.
18. Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P. (1995). Ethnography: principles in practice, London: Routledge.
19. Heffron, S., & Downs, R.M. (2012). Geography for life: The national geography standards (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: National Council for Geographic Education.
20. Houtsonen, L. (2003). Maximising the use of communication technologies in geographical education. In International handbook on geographical education, 47-63. Netherlands: Springer.
21. Houtsonen, L., Kankaanrinta, I. K., & Rehunen, A. (2004). Web use in geographical and environmental education: An international survey at the primary and secondary level. GeoJournal, 60(2), 165-174.
22. Ioannidou, A. et. al. (2006). ICT and Environmental Education: Research in the Greek area. In 5th Hellenic Conference on ICT in Education. Thessaloniki, 5-8 October 2006.
23. Kerbrat-Orecchioni, C. (1992). Les interactions verbales, Tome II, Armand Colin. Paris.
24. Klonari, Aik., Tsoukala, A., Tzoura, M., Kofopoulos, G., & Tsirtsis, G. (2012). Application of GIS for Students’ Sensitization in Carbon Emissions. In Falk, C. G., Haubrich, H., Müller, M., Schleicher, Y. & Reinfried S. (Eds), IGU-CGE 2012 Symposium Proceedings: Experience-based Geography Learning. University of Education Freiburg, 22-25 August 2012, Germany: mbvberlin, 184-185.
25. Klonari, A., & Mandrikas, A. (2014). Experiential In-service Teachers’ Training for the Pilot of the New Geography Curriculum in Greece: A Different Experience with Tangible Results. Review of International Geographical Education Online, 4(2).
26. Koutsopoulos, K. C. (2010). 1. Teaching Geography-Instructing with GIS and about GIS. Using GeoInformation in European Geography education, 3.
27. Lambrinos, N. (2009). GIS, Map Reading and Geographical Visualisation. In: Using Geoinformation in European Geography Education, Karl Donert (ed.), 2009, Chapter 5, 50 – 58, IGU-UGI – SGI (Societa Geographica Italiana), Rome, 186.
28. Lockyer, L., & Patterson, J. (2008). Integrating social networking technologies in education: a case study of a formal learning environment. In Advanced Learning Technologies, 2008. ICALT'08. Eighth IEEE International Conference, 529-533.
29. Lynch, K., Bednarz, B., Boxall, J., Chalmers, L., France, D., & Kesby, J. (2008). E-learning for geography's teaching and learning spaces. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 32(1), 135-149.
30. National Research Council (2006). Learning to think spatially: GIS as a support system in K-12 education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
31. Scharl, A., & Tochtermann, K. (2009). The geospatial web: how geobrowsers, social software and the Web 2.0 are shaping the network society. Springer. Scholz, R.W., Lang, D.J., Wiek, A., Walter, A.I. and Stauffacher, M. (2006), “Transdisciplinary case studies as a means of sustainability learning, historical framework and theory”, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 226-51.
32. Sigala, M. (2009). Geoportals and Geocollaborative Portals: Functionality and Impacts on Travelers’ Trip Panning and Decision Making Processes. Paper presented at the International CHRIE Conference-Refereed Track, 1-8.
33. Sing, C. C., & Khine, M. S. (2006). An analysis of interaction and participation patterns in online community. Journal of Educational Technology And Society, 9(1), 250.
34. Stauffacher, M., Walter, A. I., Lang, D. J., Wiek, A., & Scholz, R. W. (2006). Learning to research environmental problems from a functional sociocultural constructivism perspective: the transdisciplinary case study approach. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 7(3), 252-275.
35. Stauffacher, M. (2010). Beyond neocorporatism? Transdisciplinary case studies as a means for collaborative learning in sustainable development. In: Gross M., Heinrichs H., (eds) Environmental Sociology. European perspectives and interdisciplinary challenges. Springer, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, 201–216.