Aprendizagem colaborativa desenvolvida em ambientes virtuais

Abstract

Collaborative Learning Developed in Virtual Environments

Abstract: This paper describes an investigation that evaluated the use of collaborative learning virtual environments in the process of building knowledge about natural sciences in a group of 16 third year high school students from a public school located in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre. The research had a qualitative approach of the case study type and the collected reports were analyzed by Discursive Textual Analysis (ATD), with emerging categories. We used an available Microsoft® on the OneDrive® platform like virtual environment. Participants identified contributions provided by the use of the virtual environment and technology in the classroom, highlighting their benefits to the educational process. The arguments found in the participants' answers are the following: increased mobility provided by technological resources; ability of virtuality to enable the emergence of multiple processes of experimentation; reduction of the feeling of distance between the students and each other in relation to the teacher; overcoming the limits imposed by the time and space of the transmissive classroom and; enhancement of reconstructive questioning, as resources for information seeking are available and can be readily accessed and questioned by the collaboration group. As a result, the research concluded that participants recognize that collaborative learning in virtual environments enables the implementation of a practical form of research education, as it develops along a process that involves interaction with consultation sources and working groups, opening the possibility of the emergence of new understandings and relationships.

Keywords: Collaborative learning. Virtual environments.