Fóruns generalistas da internet: mapeando trocas e processos de aprendizagens

Abstract

This research presents theoretical-methodological components of a study that proposes to investigate general internet forums that are places in cyberspace that bring together people based on different themes. This theme led to the emergence of the following question for investigation: how the exchanges of participants in general forums on the internet are constituted. Research is relevant to education, in order to better understand learning in the context of cyberculture. The research aims to investigate how the exchanges of the subjects and the learning developed by the participants on Reddit are configured, and, specifically, to observe the exchanges between the participants in the actions in the researched subreddits; identify and analyze patterns in the interactions present in these spaces and, finally, analyze the exchanges and patterns in the interactions of participants in the subreddits and how these can generate network learning. The field study took place between August 2020 and March 2021. During this period, ethnographic observations were made on the subreddits of the r/coronabr community, producing reports with reflections on these observations. In this work, the results of the analysis of 10 subreddits are presented, from which the largest threads were cut (discussion blocks with more than three posts), the exchanges were analyzed from elements of the observations of the interviews in the research field. Learning was analyzed using the PAIED (Participation, Interaction, Engagement and Drift) message mapping model, in which the interaction category is extended into the following subcategories: Discursive/Questioning Interaction (ID); Reactive Interaction (RI); Dialogic Interaction (IDIA); Argumentative Interaction (AI) and Impositive/Imperative Interaction (II); and, finally, Multimodal Interaction (IM). Such mapping was built in the pilot project of this study and sedimented with greater elements in the thesis. In the research, methods are articulated in a kind of bricolage as a way of better answering the study questions. We chose to develop methodologically in this way, considering that these issues can be better approached and understood in a variety of ways, which implies a variety of methods. Preliminarily, the field research showed that forums are fruitful spaces for network learning, with great sharing of information, exchanges between participants, collaborations, elements of communities of practice, elements of Hacker culture, connectivist learning, among other learnings. in network. In the subreddits, many complex and well-founded dialogues were observed on the topics that were discussed. In these, the participants always tried to respond, in general, in a grounded way and many messages were linked to scientific research and/or journalistic texts in order to corroborate the message that was posted and consequently having a greater depth of what was discussed. The results show that most interactions are reactive IR, that is, with poorly elaborated responses in participations, this type of interaction is always very common in participations in internet forums. The second group of posts most present in the forums were the ID discursive interactions that would occur when a participant, while answering, provokes a discussion. The third group of messages most present are the dialogic interactions IDIA that present greater exchanges and deepening of the discussions in the attempt of a consensus and, finally, the argumentative interactions with syntheses developed by the participants in the discussions in the subs. The imposing interactions were the ones that least appeared in the general discussions in the analyzed forums.