Discourse, Dialogue and Technology Enhanced Learning

Researchers have the difficult task of interpreting discourses; the multiple meanings and perspectives they contain, the interaction between voices in the dialogue and also between the researcher and the researched, including (hidden) intentions and absent voices. Discourse, textual or spoken, is therefore central to researching education. Each chapter of the book focuses on the ways in which alternative levels of discourse analysis provide tools for the researcher, enabling insights into the way language works in learning and teaching practice and in wider society.

Discourse, Dialogue and Technology Enhanced Learning is invaluable to all those wanting to explore how dialogic processes work and how we facilitate them. Dialogue is an important learning tool and it is by understanding how language affects us and how we use language to encourage, empathise, inquire, argue and persuade that we come closer to understanding processes of change in ourselves and our society.

Most researchers in Education will find themselves interpreting some form of data in the form of words; whether these words be explanations, conversations, narrations, reflections, debates or interviews and whether they are conducted through digital media or face-to-face. Discourse, textual or spoken, is therefore central to researching education. Each chapter focuses on the ways in which alternative levels of discourse analysis provide tools for the researcher, enabling insights into the way language works in learning, teaching practice and wider society.

Drawing on the author’s own ‘DISCOUNT’ discourse analysis coding scheme and including a wide range of dialogue examples, this book covers:

• Why Dialogue? The Role of Dialogue in Education.
• Debate: Learning to Argue and Arguing to Learn
• Towards Meaning-Making: Inquiry, Narrative and Experience
• The Role of the Significant Other: Facilitation, Scaffolding and Mediation
• Inclusion, Collaboration and Community
• Media, Mode and Digital Literacy
• Researching Voices and Texts

Discourse, Dialogue and Technology Enhanced Learning will be an essential resource for all students, educators and educational researchers who have an interest in the role of discourse in educational contexts.