Distance Education and Online Dialogues: Between Themes and Identities

Abstract

This article presents questions relating to multiplicity of identities and subjectivities that postmodernity allows and its relations with the context of educational practices. The society has experienced in recent decades a great dynamization in information content with multiple possibilities for access to more diverse channels, allowing for new forms of organization and structuring of education and pedagogical practices. We believe that this postmodern context is characterized by a complex level of information and interaction between people. The technologies allow for the support of interactional learning in distance education (DE), by using virtual environments containing discussion forums, webchats, videos and online libraries among others. In this context, the type of thinking developed from classroom teaching and DE reveals the quality of the pedagogical practices used. One important issue to highlight in the article is: it can be said that there is a certain incompatibility, in general, when we observe the pedagogical practices used and thought of for the classroom when transposed to DE without concern for the specifics of each type of education. Once the challenges are known, it is possible to develop some strategies that can be used in distance education. We believe that it is possible to create an ampler curriculum, where the desired outcomes can be constructed, where many singularities will emerge, where affection and joy may be constant and self-referencing subjectivity may also be produced. Within this context, the question remains in the concern to create a learning environment where the social actors are effective participants in the building of true learning communities. It is necessary to be open and not fearful of diversity, to pursue problems and solutions, to capture the possible and impossible. These are not guarantees, but possibilities to develop practices that may maximize different forms of learning and minimize the inconsistencies observed in today’s distance education model.