Influences of the feedback and the social presence on the interaction in an on-line course of dynamic geometry

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the feedback and the social presence on the interaction in a mini-course of dynamic geometry on-line. Also, to determine what meant the interaction for the participants and what types of interactions they happened and in what proportions.; The participants were 8 teachers of geometry of intermediate and high schools in Aguada and Aguadilla in Puerto Rico, that took a mini-course of dynamic geometry on-line during eight weeks, of which, the two first were actual (workshops). The educative platform Blackboard and the Internet was used like communication media mediated by computers and the software Cabri Geometry II for the dynamic geometry. The model of the study was based on the symbolic interactionist methodology and in interpretative methodological ideas. The data were gathered by using five techniques: monitoring and observation, documents of the course, semi-structured electronic interviews, detailed memorandums and data from the educative platform. As auxiliary tool of the data processing the software Nvivo 2.0 was used.; The main findings were: (1) the factor feedback affects positive and negatively to the interaction; (2) the social presence affects positively to the interaction; (3) the four types of traditional interactions and two new ones took place (professor-professor and professor-student-student); (4) the interaction was classified in agreement with the intentions of the participants; (5) the available time by the students and the technology affected the social presence; and (6) the non traditional feedback of student to student took place.