The role of education within the
framework of information sciences and
technologies
Asunción López-Varela Azcárate
(LEETHI Research Group)
Departamento de Filología Inglesa II,
Facultad de Filología, Av/ Complutense s/n,
28040 Madrid, Spain.
Phone: (34)-91-3945858 Fax: (34)-91-
394-5762
alopezva@filol.ucm.es

Asunción López-Varela Azcárate
(Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
alopezva@filol.ucm.es
Author’s profile
Specialized in 19th & 20th century Anglo-American Literature,
Comparative Literature, Critical Theory and Media Studies, Dr.
Asunción López-Varela researches semiotic aspects of space and time
within literary representation. Her interest en Computer Assisted
Language Learning (CALL) and Computer-Mediated Communication
(CMC) as innovative teaching resources within the European Space of
Higher Education directs her most recent research to the study of
space-time representational changes, brought about by the extended
use of hypermedia technologies. Defending the importance of literature
for the study of languages and the development of intercultural
approaches, Prof. López-Varela participates in several research projects
financed by the Spanish Ministry of Education and is a member of the
Research Group LEETHI at [http://www.ucm.es/info/leethi/index.php]
and [http://www.ucm.es/info/guias/indexdom.htm]. Prof. López-Varela
also coordinates the area of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
in English for the project E-excellence in the humanities gateway Liceus
at [http://www.liceus.com]. For a more detailed account of interests,
research and publications visit
[http://www.ucm.es/info/FInglesa/Profesores/lopez_varela.htm]

Abtract
This paper presents the work of L.E.E.T.Hi (Spanish and European Literatures from Text
to Hypertex), a research group based at Universidad Complutense Madrid whose
projects have focused simultaneously on the teaching of literature from an intercultural
perspective while helping to develop competence on information literacy following the
impact of entrepreneurial activities on the academic research system.
European Convergence didactic patterns and hypertextual models are employed by
L.E.E.T.Hi. to create new educational spaces that can generate novel learning
processes and new forms of production of information and transmission of knowledge.
These projects address the potential role that the Social Sciences and Humanities
(Education and Literature in particular) can play with regard to the imminent
transformations to a European knowledge-based society and its educational, ethical
and societal implications.
The emergence of the knowledge-based society will entail new forms of relationships
between its citizens, on one hand, and between its citizens and institutions, on the
other. Hence the emphasis placed by LEETHi on intercultural approaches.

Literature, CMC, AT, and the
development of intercultural
approaches within ESHE
LEETHI employs Computer Mediated Communication models to create new didactic
spaces
Within literary studies, these hypertextual and hypermedia spaces produce new
ways of associative reading which lead to transversal and intercultural forms of
learning and which we have termed “transliterary”.
We have created two Web spaces
A Cyberguide to orient students in their reading, an interdisciplinary project
that explores cross-reading among 1) literatures in different languages 2)
different kinds of texts 3) different media, etc.
http://www.ucm.es/info/guias/indexdom.htm
L.E.E.T.HI. Webspace- a place to meet the group, its historiography and its
didactic tools. Here we have selected a dynamic interface that brings forward
the constructivism of our mental-textual representations and invites complex
reflections on the relationship between the reading-writing process and the
development of conceptual thought.
http://www.ucm.es/info/leethi/index.php

Literature, CMC, AT, and the
development of intercultural
approaches within ESHE
In recent years the speedy changes brought about by the spread of new technologies of
information and communications are imposing new and dynamic alternatives for the acquisition
of knowledge and its transmission. In a few years the great part of the work force will be
employed in occupations based on the use of information (documentation, data processing,
information retrieval and analysis)
The impulse of the European Space of Higher Education is causing European research to focus
on the demands that the modern knowledge society places on higher education graduates, and
the degree to which higher education equips graduates with the competencies to meet these
demands. The research work developed by LEETHi has sought to concentrate on these
fundamental aspects regarding learning and teaching perspectives developed within ESHE, in
particular the introduction of new teaching methodologies that promote:
– The creation of teaching materials and participation in virtual campuses, b-learning experiences, etc.,
together with the development of new forms of evaluation, tutorials etc.
– The development of students’ autonomy through teaching methodologies that promote research and
creativity processes as well as cooperation among students.
– The introduction of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).
Ours is not only a didactic approach but an epistemological inquiry into the relationship
between the literary event, its spaces of representation and the changes that we are
experiencing in our cultural models, product of changing cognitive activities, related to the
shifting textual medium and production of information and transmission of knowledge

Psycholinguistic approaches to task planning have focused on internalization of knowledge
and, therefore, failed to uncover a key factor which also contributes to task resolution:
the fact that knowledge is shared, transmitted and experienced in interaction.
Hémard (2006)’s work evaluates hypermedia structures as means of improving language
learning strategies and motivation. He claims that it is important to pay attention to the
socio-cultural perspective, and that individual and collective consciousness are situated
phenomena which evolve dynamically with practice and are transformed in the process.
While providing a structural framework for the design of hypermedia activities or tasks
there is more to second language learning than just acquiring a language for it
involves the acquisition of its culturally-related content.
One of the major problems facing foreign language teaching lies in the fact that
languages are increasingly reduced to being considered merely as a means of
communication and not representational and critical exponents of their foreign
cultures.
Hémard’s work shows that the use of hypermedia alone may not generate
increased motivation. Ellis (2000) has also shown the human/ethical component is
a key factor. And this is where the introduction of literary works in second language
acquisition becomes a crucial element for providing the necessary socio-cultural
background and developing the intercultural elements required in the ESHE.

LEETHi was created in 2002 when a group of researchers from different areas of the Faculty of
Humanities of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid got together after a seminar and decided to
work towards the ESHE, trying to bridge different teaching experiences and epistemological
perspectives in order to reflect on the literary event and its intercultural repercussions.
The work of the group combines integrated interactive e-learning and a contact learning scenario
(blended learning), offers instruction and scaffolding particularly at the beginning of the course.
Autonomy is, thus, potentially developed during the course as one of the course strategies. Thus,
the group has promoted:
The creation of teaching materials and participation in virtual campuses, together with the
development of new forms of evaluation, tutorials etc. and participation in the Universidad
participation
Complutense b-learning platform known as “Virtual Campus”.
b- Campus”
The design of curricular actions that promote both the development of conceptual knowledge and
development
attitudes and the acquisition of abilities that bring the students closer to social and professional
students
contexts, teaching them to mobilize resources and transfer the results of their learning to other
results
areas.
See our postgraduate course “The New Professions of Languages”
Languages”
http://www.ucm.es/info/FInglesa/otros_cursos.htm
http://www.ucm.es/info/fgu/directorio.htm
The development of students’ autonomy through teaching methodologies promoting research and
students’
creativity processes and cooperation among students.
An emphasis on intercultural approaches in language teaching, with hypermedia support.
with
The encouragement and integration of literary readings in the classroom following the trend of
classroom
work carried out at the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) that has found how texts
employed in class can contribute to the development of an intercultural consciousness.
intercultural

In order to achieve these objectives the group based its educational strategy on two
foundations:
Reading: a communication process that escapes spatial and temporal borders and promotes
dialogical interactions. Employing reception theory Fenner (2001) argues for reading as a
communicative experience and as a productive, not a receptive skill. Based on a specific
approach, reading literature in the target language is seen as a dialectic between reader and
text as well as between two cultures within the social interaction of the classroom. The
author investigates such dialogic encounters from a hermeneutical point of view where one
aspect of communication and development is adjusting attitudes and views between
individuals and between cultures. Thus the reading process is a hermeneutical process
comparable to the learning process.
The use of Activity Theory and Computer Mediated Communication, which as recent
ESHE literature has also shown[1], increases students’ intercultural awareness for new media
technologies use interactive forms of communication and can heighten motivation because
students are free to interact with other students and find their own resources in the Web.
Internet uses -hypertext, chats, discussion forums, videoconferencing, etc.- enable
information to be moved, transformed and manipulated. Hypermedia tools allow students to
participate in a cooperative learning process and a continuous interaction with the different
agents of the system: student/professor, student/student.
[1]http://www.ecml.at/
For a catalogue of publications see:
http://book.coe.int/EN/ficheouvrage.php?PAGEID=39&lang=EN&theme_catalogue=120243, particularly
Information and Communication Technologies in Vocationally Oriented Language Learning (Book + CD Rom) (2005) by
Tony Fitzpatrick, Andreas Lund, Bernard Moro and Bernd Rüschoff

Guías de lectura[1], a project financed by a Complutense Project in 2002, is a cyberguide
designed to explore the possibilities of b-learning strategies in the classroom. Seeking to
implement European Convergence didactic patterns, this Web space was a pioneer in its
inter-departamental presentation within a heterogeneous Faculty of Humanities. It allowed
devote more attention to the varied student profile and to certain abilities that seemed to be
underdeveloped, particularly concerning information management and the development of
critical capacities. The Webpage facilitated an education process centered on each individual
student; it offered students basic information on the authors and literary works to be studied
within the different courses taught by the members of the research team, and provided tasks
for continual assessment.
The guides were designed to allow students complete autonomy to decide
their reading itinerary while helping them to construct meaning in a pluri-linguistic
and multicultural frame. The flexibility of the hypermedia model allows for the generation
of a network of paths and intersections that stages the dialogical processes of literary
reception, helping to unveil the inter-texts built into our representations and world
conceptions.
However, despite its emphasis on information management through technological
applications, Guías de Lectura sought to enhance the potential role that the Social
Sciences and Humanities (Education and Literature in particular) can play with
regard to the imminent transformations to a European knowledge-based society
and its educational, ethical and societal implications. The emergence of the knowledge-
based society will entail new forms of relationships between its citizens, on one hand, and
between its citizens and institutions, on the other. Hence the emphasis LEETHI has placed on
intercultural approaches.
[1] http://www.ucm.es/info/guias/indexdom.htm

The aim of this guided trip in search of information was not only to help students
to acquire conceptual knowledge but also to foster the development of procedural
knowledge in the learning loop. Students were, therefore, encouraged to share
information with other members of the group, and transfer the results of their
findings. They might consult other classmates and their teacher in class or using
on-line communication applications such as the chat, e-mails, Weblogs,
discussion forums, etc.
Personal Theory in practice
Collaboration
Reflection
Teacher as Learner
Sharing
Theory of Others
Personal Theory
In Practice
Collaboration
Reflection
Sharing
Theory of Others

COGNITIVE ORGANIZATION OF LEARNING PROCESS
knowledge
ACTOR
procedures
Activity
knowledge knowledge
(operations/actions)
ACTOR ACTOR
procedures procedures
Communication
(words/texts)
Horizon
(expectatives/desires)
knowledge Knowledge
ACTOR ACTOR
procedures procedures

For the development of assessment in our project we relied on the following sources:
The European Portfolio of Languages (ELP), designed to foster the recording of foreign language
learners’ individualized experiences with the learning process.
A Questionnaire on specific socio-cultural and educational characteristics, handed out at the
beginning of the course in paper form. Its aim was to find general information about socio-cultural
and educational characteristics –including information literacy- of the students and elaborate a
qualitative study on graduate competences in the knowledge society, helping link the main
structural and institutional factors that shape the relation between higher education and work.
Monthly questionnaires about in class observations, classroom preferences and curricular interests
on-line at http://
Interviews with individuals and groups
Weblogs created by groups of students
Tutorial observation and tutor logbook
E-mail recordings
Continuous assessment of the tasks provided by the cyberguide
Assessment of their tasks proposed by students and their own creative experiences (miniquest)
An optional final examination for those unhappy with their results or those who could not follow the
course

LEETHI’S WEBPAGE
The mechanism of representation of the cognitive model we seek in
LEETHI is necessarily a hypertextual (hypermedia) structure including
a cognitive and philosophical dimension of the phenomenon of
multiculturalism together with a didactic and pedagogic dimension
which can help to develop positive values in the face of diversity.
Research in language learning developed for the European
Convergence has shown that the building up of autonomy as a
conscious metacognitive activity permits a reflection on one’s own
language that gives rise to the emergence of a multicultural
consciousness.
The literary event becomes an exceptional meeting space, dialogic
crossroad of readings that helps to build what we have been,
what we are and what we want to become. The affirmation of
identity –individual, historical, social, cultural, national- is for
L.E.E.T.HI. a space of dialogic learning, of exchange of
experiences with everything that is somehow other and
different –other languages, other cultures, other disciplines-.
Interculturality, interdisciplinarity and a plurality of languages and world
conceptions, form part of this complex educational model seeking to
formalize the simultaneous acquisition of linguistic competence, and
procedimental and performative abilities, without forgetting the
intercultural and social values.

Systems, nations, intercultures, transliteratures, histories and identities are the
shifting combinatory concepts, not global but “glocal”, moving between centre
and periphery
Bidimensional on the screen, the model aspires to generate, in its mobility,
tridimensional mental projections; a systemic configuration around two
combinatory axis: the hypertextual representational and cognitive structure and
the didactic one that helps to implement the theoretical model and transforms it
in autonomous learning and concrete performances.
Nodes and links, as invariant textual moments, bind the different pages within
the hypertext, supplying local stability within the global flux. Each lexia , to use
Landow’s and Barthes’ term, builds up key associative prospects of internal
coherence and consistency and simultaneously demolishes them, placing the
user at the limit of the textual moment and pushing him forward towards a new
discursive territory. The hypertextual space is always a relative subjective read-
writable space, configured by the reader/user along his/her chosen path. The
colours of the cube help to remember the selected itinerary in this complex
associative web.

The relativism of the model is the price to pay for allowing the user the
consciousness of his/her decisions, something that can only be achieved if one
is able to situate oneself simultaneously within and without the space of
representation. On the other hand, any non-deterministic model forces us to
make decisions and situate ourselves both cognitive and discursively,
generating conducts of responsibility that may not be gratifying and we may
want to avoid for the sake of convenience. Autonomy and responsibility are two
sides of the same coin. The user can, however, take the easy way out and
access directly the library in order to contemplate all the documents listed in
alphabetical order. She or he can also use the key-words search engine to find
what is needed.
LEETHi’s pedagogic hypertexts are designed with this objective in mind: to teach
students to become better persons through reading. We believe that learning to
deal with the ‘other’ in literature can make us aware of our own historical
specificity and help us value ourselves more, and thus value the ‘other’ for
helping us to be. Hence LEETHi’s new space aspires to become a data-base of
research essays on the concepts proposed, where we all become students and
the learning process becomes a permanent inquiry into the nature of knowledge
and its changing contextual applications.

Conclusions
LEETHI has found that the use of b-learning approaches to education encourage learning processes
in accordance with ESHE requirements, more specifically:
These strategies encourage students’ autonomy, a cooperative relationship between
professor/students and students/students and translocal learning-research process, adequate
to specific needs and specific times in a process that stimulates both creativity and the
transferability of learning results.
The multimediality integral to hypertext teaching approaches help to integrate text, image, sound,
video, etc., in a single electronic document and the user can have sequential or simultaneous
access to these different kinds of information, thus multiplying the communicational capacity of
the document.
Hypertextual models oblige the user to make a choice, to decide his/her itinerary. They introduce a
systematic question within the unity of the text, encouraging argumentation and showing that
the reading and thinking chain is not unidirectional but relational.
The information search strategies implemented, by transforming the learning experience into a
form of research where students construct their own learning dimension away from
predetermined formulas and solutions, contribute to create socially responsible citizens by
showing that information is generated through a socially constructed process and that the
results of any research, whose aim is to improve human vital conditions, should be transferred
to other areas of our lives.
These technologies can help students achieve cooperative abilities, make decisions and transfer
their learning in relation to their professional profile and to other social areas. Students learn in
dynamic situations where information constantly changes and they need to learn to manage
information excess and select pertinent resources, to find meaning for themselves among the
diverse and numerous informational resources.
The Educational and Cultural Studies background of the group members has encouraged research
particularly in the areas of cross-cultural readings and intercultural awareness which involve
the development of a network of interdisciplinary fields and the coordination of transversal
projects mainly focusing on questions such as self-representation, citizenship, identity,
migration, discrimination, tolerance, etc. Thus, the two Web spaces designed by the group have
tried to promote the use of categories based on interconnection, plurality, etc. grounded on the
possibilities of hypertextual representation.
Readers/users are assumed participants and therefore the potential targets for these hypertexts
that will help them reflect critically upon the implications that their/our own experiences and
practices will have on the complexities of intercultural education when considered within the
scope of ESHE citizenship education