Transcript The school of tomorrow: A school open to the world

The school of tomorrow: A
school open to the world –
Examples of elements of good
practice.
Open Classroom Conference, Barcelona 2000
Dr S.A.Sotiriou, Ellinogermaniki Agogi
The use of ICT in the school
The new technologies must not be imposed
as a substitute to the conventional teaching
but rather as an add-on that has to justify
its introduction through the qualitative
upgrade it offers to everyday school
practice.
The vision for the school of
tomorrow
The school of tomorrow will be able to emit and
absorb along different wavelengths, be immersed in
contemporary culture be open to the emotions, facts
and news of its time. It will be permeated by society
but not unprotected. The relationship between the
school and society will be one of osmosis, where the
new educational tools and learning environments will
filter guide and act as a membrane and interface
M. Zini, i3 magazine
The main educational concepts
• Enhancement of a constructivistic approach to
teaching
• Development of an interdisciplinary model in
current educational practice
• Learning should be a collaborative experience
• Equal and parallel development of pedagogical
and technological aspects
• Innovative pedagogical and technological aspects
have to be systematically evaluated
Enhancement of a constructivistic
approach
Learning should be the outcome of formulating
questions, investigating, researching and sharing
results.
Students feel personal investment in the
investigation, they develop critical thinking and
firsthand experience in the ways technology design
can both serve and inspire scientific investigation.
Development of an
interdisciplinary model in current
educational practice
It is held that interdisciplinarity is crucial
towards enhancing the effectiveness of
education, since it provides a unique way of
strengthening learning processes, such as
discovering analogies, similarities etc., while
providing application examples, which are
inherently closer to real world problems.
Learning should be a
collaborative experience
It is widely held that increased students’
participation stimulates interest and enhances
learning. Furthermore, students’ collaboration
and interaction is one of the most essential
characteristics of success of the didactical
approach.
Equal and parallel
development of pedagogical
and technological innovations
In the presented approach technological innovations were
designed to serve clear and specific educational demands.
During the development of the presented tools students and
teachers came together with researchers,
psychologists, and technological and educational experts to
contribute to the re-engineering of the school of tomorrow and
test and evaluate the new ideas, concepts and technologies in
real school environments.
The cycles of school-centred work are not only meant for
evaluation purposes (technological and pedagogical). The
aim is to help both teachers and students reach beyond
“clichιs” to the areas in which they can make the most
valuable contributions, and potentially increase their role
on the world stage afterwards. To assure maximal usability
of the new tools, optimal adaptation to the local
environments and realistic evaluation of the pedagogical
effects, the developed software add-ons use a heavily
student-centred approach.
Innovative pedagogical and
technological aspects have to be
systematically evaluated
The evaluation of the electronic tools of all the presented
projects was performed according to an academic valid
scheme, based on well-defined methodologies. The aim is to
develop a better theoretical framework on how different
types of tools and learning environments support different
types of thinking, reasoning and understanding. The
research process includes quasi-experimental design (preand post achievement tests in control and experimental
groups) and on-field observations (interviews, teachers
logbook, video captures).
Technological Innovation
All presented tools have real time data analysis capabilities.
Our aim for the developed educational tools is for them to
be fast processing tools, free from complex procedures,
giving students the opportunity to easily access the data on
demand. The open architecture of the tools allows for
additions, modifications and improvements in their
introduction to the real school environments as well as for
future expansion. The tools allow for full freedom in the
selection of the parameters plotted, the axis, the time
window, etc.
Application examples
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AgroWeb project
e-Hermes and YouRA projects
Artemis and Athina projects
EuroSPIn project
AgroWeb
The project aims at the exploitation of the ICT for the
development of an environment that promotes
interdisciplinary approaches and makes full use of
the capacity of informal learning. In the
framework of the AgroWeb project students from
four European countries collect information about
the agricultural products of their region, which
they present and sell through the Internet
E-Hermes and YouRA projects
The projects aim at the development and application of a
pedagogical framework suitable for the implementation of
Open and Distance Learning (ODL) to 10-17 year old
students.
Since in this age students do not easily use foreign
languages, during the development of the electronic tool
special emphasis was given in the possibility of non-verbal
communication, communication based in the use of
drawings, photographs and video.
Students
Teachers
Group
Students
Teachers
Group
Students
Teachers
Group
e-Tool
Students
Teachers
Group
Students
Teachers
Group
e-tool
The e-tool’s main characteristics are:
• multi platform software application
• databases with TCP-IP connectivity
• produces plots in real time
The user-interface was developed to:
• guarantee full freedom of students in choosing the form of
plots
• address clear educational demands
www.ellinogermaniki.gr/e-Hermes/dataentry/show.html
pH
Data analysis
Homemade devices
Students construct
their own devices in
order to measure:
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the temperature
the pressure
the height of rainfall
the speed of the wind
the direction of the wind
Students’ activities
The YouRA project: The user-interface
The Artemis and Athina projects
The Artemis and Athina projects aim at the creation of an
advanced technology language course for the teaching of
Modern Greek through various educational channels.
Artemis project is covering the introductory level, while
Athina project is devoted to the advanced level of learning
the Greek language. The projects develop written material,
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM with interactive multimedia and
use digital video and advanced Internet platforms for
facilitating ODL (including interactive applications like
video, distributed authoring environments, web-based
books etc.). The communicative approach to language
teaching is at the core of Artemis and Athina's materials.
e-tools
The EuroSPIn project
The project aims at the development of a model of
cooperation between the media and the schools
throughout Europe. Within the aims of the project
is also the development of a model of active civic
education that allows students to participate in research
efforts. In the framework of the program students perform
a research with questionnaires and interviews on the
preferences, attitudes, political beliefs and ideological
dispositions of European youth, under the supervision
of specialized experts who will collaborate with the
students and the teachers participating in the project.
Instructions – Data entry - Results
Instructions: How to view the questions
Question 13a – Total results – Histogram
Question 13a – Total results – Pie chart
Question 13a – Results after imposed criteria
Conclusions
The presented pedagogical concepts govern the scientific
research in the fields of Pedagogy and Educational
Technology. This research is in principle necessary to be
performed in a large multinational community for science
advance and broad benefits. The developed tools are results of
collaboration of complementary expertise in the fields of
technology, communications, basic research, educational
software development, education, science teaching and
pedagogical psychology, a group that can be brought together
only in the dimensions of the European Union.