The significance of affect in multi-modal communication: lessons for online learning
Dr Bridget Cooper
Leeds Metropolitan University
Carnegie Faculty of Sport and Education
Beckett Park
Headingley
Leeds
United Kingdom
LS6 3QS
Tel 0113 2332600 ext 3584
e-mail B.Cooper@leedsmet.ac.uk
Abstract
This paper considers the theory and findings from six projects, which through a range of
quantitative and qualitative methodologies, considered deeply the role of affect in the
learning process. The thinking is then applied critically to virtual learning environments.
It concludes that consideration of affect in learning has not been seriously considered for
the future of learning on line, which is why many virtual learning environments fail to
engender positive emotion in learners and teachers and therefore have limited capacity
for successful interaction and learning.
Key words: affect, empathy, learning, positive interaction, virtual learning
Introduction
In Orwell’s “Animal Farm” (1945) the sheep are taught to bleat “four legs good, two legs
bad” as the animals plan to overthrow their human controllers. Eventually, as the pigs take
the lead, assuming the privileges in the animal revolution, they develop human
characteristics, and they rise onto two legs and the sheep are taught to say “four legs good,
two legs better”. As willing sheep we have been too often imbued with the assumption by
our leaders and scientists that people are bad and computers are better. Perhaps the time
has come for a human revolution and we need to start saying and understanding that
computers can be good but actually humans are better, only then will we understand how
best to design and use computers for real human advantage in communication and
learning.
Understanding the significant role of emotion and empathy in teaching and learning
affords a major advantage in the study of human, computer interaction and computer
mediated learning. Humans clearly have superiority over computers when it comes to
emotion and neuroscience teaches us that emotions are at the heart of our most complex
decision making processes (Damasio, 1999). Emotions may have been ridiculed in the
past, as an irrational aspect of a peculiarly gendered view of the world, but we now know
that they are central to the fast processing of the brain and are embedded in all our
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interactions with our fellow human beings and the environment. Understanding the
holistic nature of learning, including its affective aspects, is central to high quality
education and equally therefore, to the design of successful computer applications and
systems which might support learning. Many academics still emphasise cognition at the
expense of emotion and the total separation of emotion and cognition is still apparent in
academic work. Like the nature of learning itself, embracing the significance of emotion is
a giant leap and ironically, fear is the greatest barrier which prevents many academics
engaging seriously with emotion as a central aspect of learning. Precisely the same fear
denies learning to humans throughout their lives because of the pain it can engender. The
antithesis of pain is pleasure, which by contrast promotes learning and development and
supports memory (Damasio, 1999).
Related work
It is infinitely easier to focus on concrete issues, such as curriculum and testing, in order to
produce quantifiable measures in large research studies in education. It is also decidedly
easier to focus on what is said in interactions, than on how it is said, easier to look at
words rather than intonation. It is much more straightforward to count and analyse
numbers and words (Broadfoot, 2000), rather than consider gesture, body language and
the intangible aspects of climate in learning environments. The trouble with humans is that
they are a highly complex, sophisticated species and interactions between them even more
so. Across disciplines with notables from Rembrandt to Darwin, the importance of nonverbal signals, as a key to communication have always been recognized. Humans are
expert multi-sensory communicators. According to various researchers, over ninety
percent of communication falls into the non-verbal category (Mehrabian, 1971). Humans
love multi-media because it reflects their natural way of comprehending the world, using
more of their senses and brain capacity and enhancing their engagement and enjoyment
and moreover humans embed a sense of value in their social interactions (Cooper, 2002).
Learning and interaction created through human communication is socially constructed
and dependent on context. Eckman (1997) argues that to fully understand non-verbal
signals the understanding of the context and the people involved are vital. Computer
systems which do not understand and value these high levels of human sophistication will
struggle to succeed and system after system which tries to enhance the complex social and
financial organization of our sophisticated networks fail and fail again at huge cost
(Guardian, 2001). Educational research which fails to take into account the affective
elements of learning will also struggle to have any major impact on the quality of learning
taking place in our society, precisely because of the central role which affect plays. Many
educational initiatives, for example, attribute their success to curriculum changes, when
frequently, factors which have a greater affective impact such as better tutor/student ratios
or the use of more informal settings can be the real change agents. We need a fundamental
rethink of how we understand and support learning and this paper, building on the
thinking and findings from six projects, tries to illuminate why.
The tendency to dismiss, even ridicule the role of emotion, has been dramatically reversed
in some academic quarters due to the work of neuroscientists (Damasio,1999; 2003) and
other more humanistic psychologists and educators (Leal, 2002; Best, 2003). It
reinvigorates the work of the humanistic educators and researchers of the sixties and
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seventies (Aspy,1972; Rogers,1975). Vygotsky (1986), now ubiquitously quoted most
usually in relation to cognitive scaffolding, also asserted that the separation of cognition
and affect was one of psychology’s biggest failings. However reassessing a body of
knowledge and recognizing its intrinsic limitations because it has focused on only some of
the relevant factors, is a challenge to academic self-esteem itself and as academics we
need to be emotionally robust to even begin to consider revising the accuracy of our
historical body of knowledge. Moreover if research presents governments with the
potential for greater costs (for example the need for smaller classes to provide higher
quality human relationships) then their findings are not likely to be looked upon
favourably ( Drori, 2006)
Empathy in teacher/pupil relationships
This paper incorporates a more fundamental understanding of empathy and its role in the
teaching and learning process (Cooper, 2002) and illuminates the impact computers can
have on learning as multi-sensory learning tools, especially when embedded amongst
natural human processes. It considers the impact of this renewed emphasis on emotion in
learning, on the nature of computer mediated communication and argues that an empathic
design methodology can support teacher and student esteem and support a positive
emotional response to the change inherent in the implementation of new ICT systems. The
paper draws directly on findings from six different projects, each of which built on the
findings of the last, dealt with learning from infant to adults, and encompasses a wide
range of literature to form its argument and then applies its theoretical understanding to
problems currently encountered with on-line learning.
A study of teacher/pupil relationships (Cooper, 2002), made distinctions between different
types and degrees of empathy and showed that a high level of empathy between teacher
and student optimises learning but that a number of factors severely curtail the degree of
empathy a teacher can show. Whilst fundamental empathy allows us to create and begin
relationships through human skills such as listening, valuing and giving attention to others
through sensitive verbal and particularly non-verbal behaviour, profound empathy,
which emerges over time and through frequency of rich one to one interaction is the most
powerful in facilitating learning. It involves creating a rich mental model of the other
person, which connects deeply to your own understanding both affectively and
cognitively.
Relative or functional empathy is used as a tool by teachers working with larger groups
and tends to model stereotyping because the teacher interacts with a mental model of the
group, rather than with individuals. This has negative implications for education, of both a
moral and academic nature (Cooper, 2002). Functional empathy lays greater store by
boundary setting and rules, because large groups need more of this to enable them to exist
comfortably. Typically teachers have to require behaviour by rule, which they do not have
time to model or reciprocate. For example they require individual pupils to listen to them
but have little time to listen to individual pupils. Lastly a category entitled feigned
empathy was identified, which can be associated with the mock or short-lived empathy,
for example shown by child-abuser whilst grooming their prey. This is associated with
manipulative behaviour and could, in its milder forms be associated with other social
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phenomena, for example, the attentive car salesman pursuing his own commission, or
even social climbing and networking, where people pretend to be interested in others, but
have a key aim of facilitating their own advancement.
Profound empathy and the most positive relationships and learning are seen where
empathic teachers have opportunities to work one to one with students. Here non-verbal
communication plays a key role and the emotions become increasingly positive, resulting
in happiness, fun and humour in interaction. Advice and constructive criticism can be
more easily accepted in a generally positive atmosphere. Empathic teachers give time and
sole attention, especially to students who need it more. Physical contact with students is
seen to be necessary at times and they create a relaxed, comfortable and informal context
for learning.
Such teachers know themselves well, remember their own childhoods, are very human and
fallible in the classroom and share aspects of their lives with students. They seek to
understand students deeply and explain ‘why’ rather than simply ‘what’. They help with
social and emotional as well as academic development, believing they are all interrelated.
Empathic teachers understand the different relationships students have with other staff,
peers and parents which affect their attitudes to learning.
Profoundly empathic teachers treat students as unique individuals, valuing their existing
knowledge and development and building on that. They treasure difference rather than
normative comparison, so that students, whatever their level, are encouraged to develop
further. They aim to create resources and an environment which combine to make students
feel confident and secure but which interests and challenges them. Their closeness to
students and the sharing of emotion leads empathic teachers to care deeply for students, to
seek solutions to their needs, to sacrifice themselves for the sake of students, to protect
students and to perceive the whole person more deeply.
Empathic teachers see themselves as bridges of understanding between students, adults,
parents and community and have a very holistic view of students and their worlds. Their
deep concern for students, shown by their emphasis on individual care, allows teachers to
model morality. Students reciprocate their care and enact it with others creating a more
empathic ambience in classrooms. Where teachers have the opportunity to develop
profound empathy in one-to one teaching, behaviour and learning can be transformed.
Typically, student teachers in this study came into the profession with great capacity for
showing profound empathy but had to learn quickly how to use functional empathy or
they struggled to cope with classes. It may be that constraints in school settings which
prevent high quality relationships being formed, play a major part in the massive exodus
of new staff from the profession in the first five years. This may also apply to some extent
in Higher Education.
Unfortunately the research also revealed that the many constraints in the environments in
which we learn and teach, limit the profound empathy which can be shown. Factors such
as poor teacher/pupil ratios in large classes, the learning environment and the nature of the
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curriculum and the assessment system, the empathy or lack of it in management and the
nature of the students we teach, can all limit our ability to successfully utilize our empathy
and often result in drastically reduced levels of empathy and morality which often affect
most strongly the students who need our empathy the most. These findings will have
implications for the success of moves towards wider participation and the increased
diversity of the student population.
Research into empathy and neuroscience gives us a different perspective on learning and
interaction. If all interaction is registered in the body as a feeling and if generally we need
a positive emotional climate in order to open up to learning and if positive emotion is
generated through high quality human relationships, these issues need to be central to
understanding about how we design our learning environments and processes. Such ideas
were tested and explored in all of the following projects and have particular relevance now
when we consider the changing nature of university learning, the greater strength of
market values in Higher Education, the worsening ratios of staff to students and
particularly on-line learning.
The NIMIS project
NIMIS (Networked Interactive Media in Schools), an international project, European
Union funded, applied this theoretical understanding about the importance of frequent and
positive interaction central in profound empathy, to the design of a classroom of the future
in three European countries (Cooper & Brna, 2002). In the UK branch of the project and
using the participant design process, NIMIS produced a highly interactive infant
classroom, in which computers with child-friendly tablets and a large interactive board,
embedded thoughtfully in a classroom environment enabled frequent, high quality
interaction though increased collaboration. The project also initiated an empathic agent
Louisa, whose persona represented an empathic model, in the form of an older child, to
support creative writing in the software T’rrific Tales. Video analysis revealed higher
levels of positive emotion and engagement than in the normal classroom. Emotional
scaffolding was usually greater between adults and students than between students, though
to some extent this depended on the individuals involved.
It is clear that the integrated and multi-media nature of the interaction was important. The
class learned intensely together, in a shared space, with a sense of common interest, the
human and the computer interaction complementing each other. Children were delighted
and engaged by the colours, sound and size and interactivity of the large screen. This was
apparent in the video-analysis and the interviews. Whole – class sessions became more
interactive and fun. The children were able to talk about why they liked the big screen and
the teachers were also aware of its power to engage them and how it facilitated their
teaching (Cooper & Brna, 2002).
This delight and engagement and the shared space in which all interaction with people and
artefacts occurs, contrasts sharply with many of the virtual learning environments students
are asked to use currently in our universities which are often dull, disjointed and textbased. The success of the NIMIS classroom led to several follow – on projects and large
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interactive screens can now be found in most British classrooms and are intrinsic to the
education system and curriculum delivery.
The ICT and Whole Child Project
The ICT and Whole Child Project (Cooper & Brna, 2003), funded by the Nuffield
Foundation, extended the work of the NIMIS project. It built another computer integrated
classroom for year two students (six and seven years old) with input from teachers and
developed scales for levels of emotion in the classroom to add to those on engagement,
interaction and control used in the NIMIS project and compared a normal classroom with
an ICT embedded classroom, over two years.
The project confirmed that teachers work to engage students and focus their attention in a
multi-sensory and varied way, allowing them to be absorbed and emotionally involved in
the learning process. This could be seen in observations and teachers articulated this in
interviews. Self-esteem was considered to be vital to positive emotion and interaction and
teachers invested considerable thought and effort into raising esteem through sensitive
handling and positive reinforcement and through building on student’s own interests.
Affective issues were revealed to be at the heart of learning and quite distinct from the
predefined National Curriculum in the UK, although more recent initiatives such as
‘Excellence and Enjoyment’ (DFES, 2003) are beginning to recognize the role of
enjoyment in learning and linking it to excellence. However the emphasis in government
policy is usually on the need for schools and teachers to change the curriculum or for
teachers to have more training. By contrast, the failures inherent in traditional class sizes
and the impact they have on the quality of the teacher/pupil relationship, emphasizing
negative managerial interaction are rarely recognized. University learning, meanwhile, has
traditionally focussed more on cognition than affect, although with the trend towards
widening participation and increasingly diverse groups, affect may now need to be more
seriously considered. However worsening staff /student ratios and increased moves
towards teaching with larger groups and less frequent contact, coupled with blended
learning can diminish the role of relationships in learning. If we seriously asked how
effective learning is at university and if we thought about how learning actually works,
how much better might it be if we attended more carefully to improving the process both
in face to face and in on-line learning?
In the ICT and the Whole Child project (Cooper & Brna, 2003), positive emotion was
generated in abundance in the computer embedded classroom where teachers and students
continually collaborated around the machines. A range of cross-curricular software was
installed on the machines and all had internet access. In addition to the large interactive
whiteboard and the table with four small tablet computers, the classroom had a scanner,
digital camera, remote keyboard and electronic microscope.
Teachers with good facilities felt they enhanced their teaching and students' learning and
made it easier for them to do their job. This suggests that the quality and quantity of ICT
provision and its embeddedness in classrooms, with all the attendant human support that it
provides, for both staff and students is vital to its optimum use and adoption. High quality
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ICT, designed to meet needs, which provides us with continually reliable responses adds
to the positive atmosphere and engagement in the classroom and both teachers and
students, novice and expert alike, can learn to love ICT in learning because they engage
positively and frequently with it, and rapidly become successful with it which improves
self-esteem and skills. The technology supports them and gives them pleasure and new
challenges, mathematically compounding their positive sense of self. Moreover teachers
felt that teacher/pupil relationships were enhanced by work on and around computers with
teachers and students enjoying more familiar relationships, with more positive attitudes to
their work.
Despite an initial computer phobia, the elderly class-teacher close to retirement, rapidly
saw the benefits the classroom brought to her students’ learning and to her own learning.
She became a rapid convert and couldn’t believe how much her feelings about computers
had changed, which you can see from her comments about her new room.
‘ it’s fantastic, those talking stories are just brilliant’
yes it’s the touch-screen that’s the – I would still say it’s really, really, very, very
valuable. I wouldn’t have said so last year at this time …
She used the big and small screens, the wireless key board, and a wide range of software
between Easter and the summer and became really quite familiar, so much so that when
she moved into the NIMIS project classroom the following year she was still very
confident.
The touch-screen in the Year 2 class - I became very confident and could see it’s great
value in class teaching,
She also described how she felt before we put the equipment in:
Well you know me I tend to – lack confidence, I might be a bit older - but I do lack
confidence and I have always had to work really hard because I don't have a computer at
home, and therefore when you said they were coming in to me, I though – oh! (worried)
And (now) I feel sad that I had to leave it because I certainly gained in confidence and felt
I could have pursued it more but that is at it is. And so I’ve definitely felt more confident
in the other – with the other set.
Suddenly she has a strong opinion about how computers should be deployed in school:
But I do think there’s great, great value in having them in the class, rather than having a
suite….
Because if they are in the classroom it’s hands-on they can go to it. You can have it in –
because it covers everything, so you can use it in every subject and therefore when it’s in
the classroom it’s there, if it’s in a suite they are going to do it for half an hour.
…..And I’ve changed my mind over that.
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She felt it was important for SEN students, it increased their concentration span and focus
gave them a sense of positive emotion through excitement and raised self-esteem.
And I have a special needs child in my class who’s very, very small concentration span
but on the computer he’d be there all – well not all the time but as much as possible.
Int: Why is that?
It’s visual I think.
Int: Visual?
………His speaking is very poor and I think it’s satisfying for him. He’s achieving isn't
he?
I think, which is important… for David to achieve and I think -it could be used more if the
child had more of my time or more of somebody’s time to help him to make more progress
because you have to home in on something they find exciting in order for them to feel
good about themselves and I think the computer has a lot to offer there.
but particularly for your low achievers it’s absolutely … it seems to stimulate them.
And the climate improves …
And I find that with the low achievers the other achievers will gain as well.
She considered self-esteem to be very important as the other teachers in the previous year
had.
Definitely. The most important thing is your self-esteem.
Now I put that as a priority and if you’re given – and you say ‘well done’ and they can
achieve on that (computer), it dovetails together and I’m not bothered about how fast they
go but the progress that the child or adult makes.
She also commented on the fact that I had praised her progress and raised her self-esteem
You come and say – look at me – you said to me – ‘Oh look at your whizzing!’. I
obviously wasn’t doing very much - but that boosted my golden centre! You said that and
I – you know we all need it.
I’m coming at it from the inside, the golden centre of the child, this thing inside us, when
we’re coming into school and the thing we … we do – they do know where they are. They
do - they have a good idea the bright ones even at my stage, … they know which box they
are sort of in and the (lower attaining) children, if it helps them (the computer), which it
does help them, overcome it, let’s use the tool, use it and obviously we are using it.
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She thought the computers promoted positive emotions but her own sudden positive
attitude took her by surprise.
As a tool you know I would just use it more because they enjoy it, you know, it’s all about
being – enjoying the thing. And I find it frustrating, well – I have a job to teach 24
children and I can't. David is an example, Steven’s another one, another boy who’s come
in to me; there’s Sam poor child. I have got a surprising number of children who have
poor hand control and obviously you know they need to practice that. But I mean if they
get on here and they get the word banks you know they can do it “Look at me Mrs
Jennings - I’ve done the draw(ing) … look at this picture”. “Fine”. I find myself,…… I
am quite surprised I am talking like this!
Like the students she was aware of her own ranking in the competence hierarchy but had
gained esteem in this regard.
I knew where I was in the competence ---but I have been made to feel better.
She felt the big screen was very supportive for literacy and used role-play to make the
students the expert in front of the screen
Shared work, get the shared work, talking, writing, ‘Look at it – right - does it sound
right?’ Obviously make a mistake, do something on purpose - they correct it for you,
you’re in role; you put something up , they (say) ‘ no, no’. ‘Right what’s wrong with it?’ you know?
They are the teacher. The children are the teacher, you are the one who’s – you’re the
child.
Int: why do you use this (technique) ?
Why am I doing it? Because I think it makes the children think and --I need their help and
I think the children- it makes them feel good and they remember it more. There again it’s
more hands-on because they are in charge - [] and there’s rapport and yes I think they
are learning the skills more.
She explained how she overcame the barrier of feeling incompetent with the computer.
Well I couldn’t, you know, (I believed) that was way beyond (me) – because I was never
taught that – that was way beyond me. It was somebody, in my opinion, was up there and
you don't have to be, you don't have to be. It’s just practice and then you can do it and
that is what – it’s taken a long time to learn that. Because I’m one of the people who’ve
never felt competent at it, but I know that it’s not difficult, you’ve just got to learn and just
practice it.
Achievements at the end of two years were higher in the computer embedded classrooms,
as was self-esteem (Cooper & Brna, 2003). Students had twice the computing skills of the
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comparative class. These skills were largely transferable and the students were able to use
five times as many programs as students in the other class and knew them to greater depth.
Students in the ordinary classroom mostly used only two basic programs and were very
insecure, even in the use of these two, for creating, storing and retrieving files. There was
insufficient access for students to use ICT across the curriculum in that class and neither
could the teacher model ICT use as she had no interactive board. In the project room the
children made greater progress generally and also achieved more highly in standardised
tests results, despite having more special needs students.
The nature of the design process was key to the success of these two projects. Empathic
participant design (Scaife et al,1997) ensured that the computer integrated classrooms
were appropriate to the needs of the teachers and students and supported human
interaction and collaboration alongside human computer interaction. Classrooms were
observed beforehand and teachers and children consulted. Equipment was designed to be
easy to use so as to create no barriers to communication and learning, robust so it did not
break down and child and teacher friendly. Support with both hardware and software awas
provided for teacher and students for the first few weeks.
The Ripple Project
The Ripple Project (Cooper, 2005) funded by Becta looked at the impact of the two
previous projects on the staff in the whole school. It showed the importance of positive
affect in the learning of adults also, and the importance of embedding ICT in the
curriculum in well-designed rooms, with high quality hard and software, rather than
teaching it as skills in separate suites, away from normal classroom learning and greater
human interaction. Teacher interviews showed they preferred appropriate support and
training in school, on their own equipment, as and when they needed it. One off training
sessions, in distant institutions with different equipment and software were not considered
to be very useful. Learning of skills, as advocated by the National Curriculum did not
enthuse students or teachers. However cross-curricular use of ICT within various
meaningful subjects and themes did enthuse teachers and children. Older, more
experienced teachers were more able to integrate ICT effectively across the curriculum,
while younger teachers and teachers with larger classes tended to stick to national
curriculum objectives and a skills-based approach which was less enjoyable and
successful. Having good equipment in the specially designed rooms, all day every day,
really helped teachers and students learn to use it rapidly and appreciate it and they soon
wanted even more software. Teachers with poorer equipment, who had had less chance to
see the benefits of ICT for children and less chance to use it themselves, were more
skeptical about its benefits and more anxious about its use. Like traditional literacy
computer literacy benefits from frequency of practice. Generally emotions ran high about
teachers’ own learning in ICT, whether they were positive or negative and confirmed the
central nature of affect in learning and the importance of supportive and timely
relationships as well as practice opportunities to support their learning.
“I find that you are either elated – well, I am because I’ve done it, or I’m frustrated and
think – oh, switch the blooming thing off.”
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“I think it’s [the best sort of training] having colleagues around and the time at home to
mess about with it.”
The project reiterated the understanding about the significance of affective issues in
learning for students and teachers shown in the results from the other two projects (Cooper
and Brna, 2002; 2003). The interviews revealed complex understanding about the causes
of staff motivation, interest and learning in ICT. Having projects in school and seeing
novice or phobic staff succeed has persuaded, even inspired, some of these teachers that
more machines and interactive boards would be an asset. However, a number of staff were
nevertheless influenced negatively in their attitudes by their existing and historical limited
provision and its inappropriateness, either through insufficient equipment or software or
insufficient time for teacher learning, to enable them to integrate ICT effectively into the
curriculum. Teachers are essentially pragmatic people with a large and difficult task to
fulfill. If their resources are adequate and seen as helpful to their task, they will make the
effort; if not, they see their effort quite rightly as wasted. Their attitudes are quite rightly
time-precious. Similar attitudes are also apparent in staff required to use e-learning and
virtual learning environments in universities. We need to ensure that the equipment and
software enhance provision and support teachers and the learning process, if we expect it
to be taken up enthusiastically.
Having the two previous projects in school, enabled more teachers to see the potential of
ICT, but only a few to experience the benefits of it first hand on a daily basis. We cannot
expect teachers to convert through blind faith alone. They need both evidence and
opportunity. Teachers with an ICT enthusiasm have either been excited themselves or
have had opportunities to observe students benefiting from ICT, usually both. The
importance of positive emotions and profound empathy, in creating atmospheres which
optimise learning, seems to be crucial for both staff and student development. The poor
ratios and curriculum rigidity, which deaden the positive atmosphere for pupils, does the
same for staff. It is difficult for staff to visualise what is stolen from their imagination by
their own circumstances. Staff prefer and need individualised learning, tailored to their
needs, their students, and their current circumstances, in an emotionally sensitive
environment. They need sufficient high quality equipment, well maintained and well
stocked with an appropriate range of quality software to allow them to meet pupils’ needs
across the curriculum. They need a better teacher/pupil ratio to allow them to support
pupils in their learning. They need time to practice, and the appropriate software and
computers to practice on. Above all they want and need to enjoy their teaching and to
enjoy and have success using ICT. The government has recently extolled the virtues of
enjoyment for students in the primary curriculum (DFES, 2003) but if positive emotional
exchange lies at the heart of interaction and learning as our literature suggests, then it is
the teachers who must first model enjoyment, in order to inspire the excitement and
curiosity of students. It is not always easy to do this given their usual working conditions.
The Embedded Literacy and Numeracy Project
The Embedded Literacy and Numeracy Project (Gidley et al, 2004) funded by the NRDC
(National Research and Development centre for Adult Literacy), confirmed that affective
issues were central to teacher/ student relationships with older students on vocational
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courses in Further Education (post-16) and to the successful development and delivery of
the curriculum. Extra-curricular conversations were often key to the effectiveness of
teaching and learning. Personal interest and good quality relationships, allowed students to
feel valued, to shed their negative emotional baggage and become more open to learning.
Many had been put off traditional subjects like English and Maths by their school
experiences and recounted with emotion the bizarre nature of school rules and the bossy
relationships which just made them feel small and which were irrelevant to their learning.
Their tutors felt similarly:
Pete: I hated school with a vengeance -they were the worst days of my life - I hated it and then I came to college and I was top student - –yes –it was all relevant and I knew I
wanted my own business and I knew I wanted to be the best
Making learning positive through informal approaches helped a lot. Web-based games
were very helpful for developing literacy and numeracy with these students, without
seeming too school-like.
Embedding literacy and numeracy was shown not to be just a matter of mapping a basic
skills curriculum to a vocational curriculum and then finding time to teach and ways to
teach them, but was a living, dynamic developmental process which involved the students,
the tutors and the courses, in the contexts in which they worked together and also their
wider lives beyond the classroom and workshop. It showed that we need to pay great
attention to the quality of relationships between all the participants, in the social and
historical context in which they interact and to maximise the positive emotion and shared
understanding between them.
What then is the impact of all this understanding for virtual learning? Clearly these
projects reaffirm the nature of affect at the heart of learning, for a range of age groups
from infants to adults. However is the role of emotion seriously considered by designers
of virtual learning? As a species we like multi-modal learning and computers are evidently
capable of supporting this. Our emotions are excited through parallel sensual channels
feeding directly into the brain and learning through computers can be tactile, more
autonomous, visual, audible, interactive, fun and sensually pleasing. We also seem to need
positive emotions and relationships with human beings for learning and those
relationships encompass the personal and the academic, affective and cognitive issues. Do
creators of virtual learning environments or web-based learning consider the role of affect
and the need for human relationships?
The Educalibre Project (Cooper & Dimitrova, 2004) began to consider this seriously
initially. The project used and developed open source virtual learning environments.
However despite being considered theoretically, emotional issues were not really central
to the developers thinking and acting at the implementation level. Perhaps not enough
time was devoted to the creation of the project relationships and shared understanding.
The complexity of the learning process often becomes forgotten in the pursuit of
‘working’ software.
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Implications for virtual learning environments
Again we return to the problem of innate assumptions about ‘computer good, humans bad’
in the style Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ (1945). For many designers it is the human who must
adapt to the machine, not the machine to the human. Unless we begin to value the
amazingly communicative and complex nature of human relationships in learning and the
need for valuing and care as part of those relationships, the success of systems design will
always be limited and its products will be inappropriate. Humans can adapt to inadequate
software and use it but the applications rarely support high quality human interaction,
which is at the heart of learning.
Unfortunately many virtual learning environments (VLEs) or web-based learning portals
are predominantly text-based. Screens are frequently full of tightly arranged text and neat
boxes. They do not engage the brain via the senses through aesthetically pleasing or
emotionally engaging interfaces. They are logical, economical and uninviting. Often the
systems present with errors, or interface ineffectively with other systems either computerbased or human and immediately generate negative rather than positive emotion to users
so vital for learning.
VLEs also create negative emotions for tutors, who find all their natural skills of multisensory communication, subordinated to a mechanistic route through an unforgiving
computer system, which turns their highly–honed interpersonal skills into apparent
disability. Spontaneity is lost in a circuitous route through labyrinths of mouse clicks as
frustrating to high quality communicators as a speech impediment or dyslexia. This
contrasts vividly with the comment of the teacher in the NIMIS classroom designed to
support human interaction, ‘it’s totally integrated . .it’s natural, it’s spontaneous’ (Cooper
& Brna, 2002). Have any of us encountered VLES which prompt this kind of remark?
Many VLE’s actually avoid the very audio – visual stimuli that computers do best,
because these media demand skilled multi-media designers. In terms of affect, many
computer mediated communication systems fail at the very first hurdle, turning what
should be a smooth, holistic, multi-sensory interaction into one that is fragmented,
disjointed and frustrating. Learning via computers must allow the creation of caring, and
mutually respectful relationships, not merely mechanistic and behaviouristic approaches.
Learning which is emotionally bereft and devoid of human interaction, without varied and
stimulating resources and non-verbal communication, will suffice for only the most
emotionally robust individuals. The people who seem to best understand the need for
interaction and multi-sensory provision best are the producers of television based websites where multi-sensory communication and the means of providing it is deeply
embedded in the nature of the media and the understanding of the designers. Their
websites designed to support learning are usually far superior to anything produced by
lecturers or teachers. Of course even when multi-media stimuli are used, offering
everything via one device, a computer screen, ensures eventual boredom. We need variety
as human beings.
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Conclusions
People use applications which suit their interests and particular needs but also have an
infinite capacity for self-blame. If they can not use a system easily they inwardly blame
themselves and avoid using that particular system again. Computer-lovers and designers
also blame the humans operating the machines, rather than the inadequacy of the machines
themselves because this boosts their own self-esteem. We are right to love computers,
they can do fantastic things but we are entitled to hate them too when they are inadequate.
We need to understand their limitations and love humans more and appreciate them more
because that is the only way that we will design successful computer systems, which
ultimately have to serve human needs.
Centrally we fail at the design stage to engage deeply with participants by observing their
human interactions and deciding how they might be enhanced, not frustrated by computer
mediation. Ultimately we fail to understand the need for human beings to see, hear, feel
speak and touch in unison and in a variety of ways and to enjoy their interactions. This is
not to say that all virtual learning systems fail in this regard but many do for much of the
time. We must conclude that humanity, as an intrinsically affective species, requires the
empathic design of embedded computer systems, if they are to effectively scaffold
learning on line.
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