Transcript Skaidrė 1 - eTwinning

Application of Web 2.0
Technologies in Education
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eugenijus Kurilovas
Manager of Lithuanian eTwinning NSS
Head of International Networks Department
Centre of Information Technologies in Education
Ministry of Education and Science, Lithuania
eTwinning PDW, Vilnius, 10-12 June 2011
Web 2.0 in Education – Outline
• Web 2.0 notion
• Review of related studies
• 4 main dimensions
• Good practice recommendations
• Interconnection with PDW parallel
workshops
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
The literature review is based mainly on [email protected] project http://www.teachus.eu/
There’s still a huge amount of disagreement about just what Web 2.0 means:
•
Web 2.0 is an expression which was used for the first time in 2004 and
referred to the second generation of Internet. The main characteristics of
new era in Internet is connected with its constant development and delivering
services tailored to the needs of each user
•
Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of the Web, which enables people
with no specialized technical knowledge to create their own websites, to selfpublish, create and upload audio and video files, share photos and
information and complete a variety of other tasks
•
While there is no set definition of Web 2.0, it generally refers to the use of the
web as a more social platform where users participate by generating their
own content alongside the content provided by the websites
•
Web 2.0 is a new way of thinking about the web which provides tools and
functionality for publishing, collaboration, and information access that
normally existed only in the realm of desktop computing with software
packages like Microsoft Office
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
•
The literature on the use of Web 2.0 to support teaching practice in the
school sector is sparse and fragmented and few systematic reviews have
been carried out
•
Studies explored the relevance and validity of what has been highlighted as
a key driver in promoting Web 2.0 for teaching: the notion of ‘changed
learning paradigms’
•
This posits the idea that the new generation of eLearning will combine social
networks with context-based services
•
Even though formal content will not vanish, modern technology will support
user-generated informal content, and teachers will have to adapt to a new
role as facilitator instead of a pure information transmitter
•
Personal learning environments (PLEs) will replace formal educational
environments, like the school and the University, so that learning becomes
literally ‘life-embedded’ – part of a seamless process in which there is no
separation between, school, home and work
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
•
‘New millennium learners’ do not think linearly and are less structured than
previous generations. They gain knowledge by processing discontinued,
non-linear information, which changes their learning styles
•
The literature review identifies a number of implications for learning and
teaching practice that derive from the ‘changed learning paradigm’
•
Due to information overflow, there is a necessity to learn how to sift, select,
organise and manage information according to relevance. Learning in the
digital era is fundamentally collaborative in nature; social networks arise
around common learning interests and aims and scaffold the learning
process by providing social and cognitive guidance and support
•
The learner plays a central role in the learning process – not as a passive
recipient of information, but as an active author, co-creator, evaluator and
critical commentator
•
As a consequence, learning processes become increasingly personalised,
tailored to the individual’s needs and interests
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
•
The review concluded that, due to the novelty of social
computing, take-up in education and training is currently still in
an experimental phase
•
There are various and diverse small scale projects and
initiatives, launched all over Europe, which try to exploit social
computing for a multitude of learning purposes, but research on
enabling and disabling factors is scarce
•
However, looking at current practice, the review suggests that at
least four different – though overlapping – innovative ways of
deploying social computing tools in primary, secondary,
vocational and higher education can be discerned:
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
1.
(LA) Learning & Achieving: Social computing tools can be used as methodological or
didactic tools to directly support, facilitate, enhance and improve learning processes
and outcomes. Social computing is conceived of as a means of personalizing
learning processes and promoting the students’ individual learning progress,
ultimately leading to an empowerment of the learner
2.
(N) Networking: Social computing can be embraced as a communication tool among
students and between students and teachers, supporting also the exchange of
knowledge and material, but mainly creating an environment of understanding and
assistance, thus contributing to the establishment of social networks or communities
between and among learners and teachers
3.
(D) Embracing Diversity: Social Computing can be thought of as a means of
integrating learning into a wider community, reaching out to virtually meet people from
other age-groups, backgrounds and cultures, linking to experts, researchers or
practitioners in a certain field of study and thus opening up alternative channels for
gaining knowledge and enhancing skills
4.
(S) Opening up to Society: Finally, social computing can be conceived of as a tool for
making institutional learning accessible and transparent for all members of society,
promoting the involvement of third parties like parents, but also facilitating the access
of current and prospective students to information
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
•
The other study case assessment critically examines impacts and outcomes, as well
as obstacles and barriers, and factors for failure and success. All the cases highlight
the vast potential of social computing for promoting pedagogical and organizational
innovation, thus transforming educational approaches, institutions and systems, and,
at the same time, they indicate the existing obstacles and bottlenecks
•
Against this background, it is argued that teachers have new needs that require
addressing. The core need is for facilities to support active, discovery-based learning.
This requires teachers to acquire technical and methodological skills regarding the
use of Web 2.0 in classes, and skills to carry out the new classroom roles required
•
The expected impacts associated with the acquisition of these new skills are
associated with: new ways of collaborative creation, identification, aggregation and
exchange of learning content and metadata and new forms of communication among
learners and teachers/trainers
•
It is argued that Web 2.0 use in classes offers motivational advantages by active,
enjoyable, discovery-based learning approaches and learners’ sense of ownership of
produced content; Web 2.0 related skills and competencies are, at least to a certain
extent, pre-conditions for a successful implementation, while they are at the same
time further developed and improved by organizing Learning 2.0 activities
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
•
The technical ‘grand vision’ underpinning this perspective highlights a trend towards:
•
embedded or integrated solutions (e.g., LMS & Web 2.0 tools) vs. isolated tools
•
virtual worlds and mash-ups are near-future trends
•
a more intense integration of external social communities and tools is emerging
•
targeted use and tailored integration of Web 2.0 tools as a success factor
•
•
In terms of professional development the study identifies following relevant skills:
•
Subject-specific and higher-order skills
•
Basic and more complex ICT and multimedia skills
•
Specific and general communication and networking skills
•
Multitasking and complexity-management skills
•
Meta-cognitive and quality management skills
•
There is general need for systematic development of ICT (and Web 2.0)-related skills and
competences in teacher training
Generally the issue of assessment and formal certification of Web 2.0 experiences and
knowledge needs to be further investigated
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
•
The main outcomes show that Learning 2.0 initiatives can be successfully
implemented within formal educational settings in schools
•
In several of the cases studied, Web 2.0 tools were used to transcend the limitations
of formal learning settings by extending the classroom to become a virtual learning
environment, accessible at all times and places. In other cases the focus lies on
embedding self-organised learning into a supportive online learning community
•
A highly relevant factor for the success is the general support of the organisation
where the initiative is based. This support can express itself in different dimensions
like financing, equipment, personnel, or the readiness to adapt organisational
structures like time schedules. With implementation of Learning 2.0 new interfaces
emerge between formal and informal learning environments and settings
•
Web 2.0 offers more possibilities for collaborative content production and review of
content. Whereas in traditional web-based learning approaches the learning content
is typically delivered in a top-down approach, wikis, social bookmarking systems and
other Web 2.0 tools allow user-based content sharing, exchange and tagging
•
While, in traditional environments, user activities are usually limited to the
communication about the content, users of Web 2.0 enriched environments can work
more directly on the content itself. The aggregation of content and, in the future, also
the aggregation of tool functionalities (mash-ups) is possible
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
•
Another study looked at Web 2.0 policies, practices, and perspectives in US
schools from the perspective of school district administrators
•
The study points to the emergence of ‘new millennium learners’ as a key
driver in shaping how teaching needs are developing in the 21st century. It
argues that today’s children and youth are immersed in the participatory Web
2.0 culture outside of schools, and that this is blurring the boundaries
between ‘traditional’ education and new forms of learning
•
A key conclusion of the study is that teachers do not have the necessary
competences to deal with these new conditions
•
In the survey, more than 95% of district administrators said that Web 2.0 will
require a new type of teacher training
•
Moreover, it is not just a ‘teacher problem’. The survey argues that school
administrators also require skills in Web 2.0 and that these skills are
currently in scarce supply
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
The study suggests seven priorities that need to shape the
development of teaching and administrative staff in schools:
1.
Keep students interested and engaged in school
2.
Meet the needs of different kinds of learners
3.
Develop critical thinking skills
4.
Develop capabilities in students that can't be acquired
through traditional methods
5.
Provide alternative learning environments for students
6.
Extend learning beyond the school day
7.
Prepare students to be lifelong learners
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
Other key issues highlighted by the study are as follows:
•
changing the organizational culture – more extended use of Web 2.0 in schools would require
significant shifts in instructional approach, use of time, role and responsibility of learner and
teacher
•
the need for new pedagogic approaches - the uses of Web 2.0 most easily integrated into more
traditional instructional practices are currently the ones most commonly included in curricula and
instructional practices such as sharing visual media, creating polls or surveys, and participating
in online, collaborative projects
•
lack of competences - more than 95% of district administrators said that Web 2.0 will require a
new type of teacher training
•
expected impacts - a majority of curriculum directors anticipate that Web 2.0 will positively
impact four major content areas at all grade levels: social studies, writing, science, and reading.
The top three Web 2.0 applications associated with use in these content areas are: sharing
visual media, online collaborative projects, and creating polls and surveys. Over half of the
curriculum directors reported that they expect little Web 2.0 impact at the elementary level in the
areas of mathematics, visual and performing arts, or foreign language
•
issues around security and risk - the majority of school districts ban social networking (70%) and
chat rooms (72%) while allowing prescribed educational use for most of the other Web 2.0 tools
(e.g., blogging, using wikis, sharing music or sound files, sharing visual media, posting
messages, playing interactive games, creating polls or surveys, etc.)
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
Application of Web 2.0 technologies in education is
focused on the following dimensions:
•
the user needs dimension
•
the technological dimension
•
the pedagogic dimension
•
the institutional dimension
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
The user needs dimension:
The literature suggests that the kinds of technical skills that need to be
cultivated can be divided into ‘generic’ Web 2.0 skills that are required in
all situations, and ‘contextualised’ skills.
Generic skills cover:
•
Creating, sorting and sharing content, categorising it
•
Appropriating and re-using existing content in the production of their own
content
•
Collaborative learning:
•
•
•
•
building communities of practice
working with discussion forums
working with Personal and personalisable spaces for online
conversations
working with archiving and preservation of digital information
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
The user needs dimension:
Contextualised’ skills are dictated by factors like: the educational sector
worked in (primary; secondary; tertiary); the discipline taught (e.g.,
science; arts-based; creative and media); the student profile (e.g. adult
learners; special needs and hard to reach learners). Examples include:
•
skills in using VLE’s to connect the user to school resources, regulations,
help, and individual, specific content such as modules and assessment
•
use of Facebook‘s discussion tools to review and discuss teaching
material
•
use of Social bookmarking systems to store, organise and share the
academic papers they are reading
•
using Second Life to engage and collaborate in social connected
networks of peers and online services, especially in informal learning
•
using Second Life to help learners build communities of practice,
collaborate with peers in group work, create and share content
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
The technological dimension:
The ‘Grand Vision’ of Web 2.0 highlights keywords like “active”, “selforganised”, “learner-oriented”, “social” and “democratic”.
According to the OECD, the web can be seen as a vast network of
interconnected services that allows users to move their content across
and between a variety of applications and contexts
Web 2.0 supports democratic change forms of self-expression and interaction
between users that provide potentially fertile sites for informal learning
In practical terms, the literature review suggests that different kinds of Web 2.0
can be used in different ways to support more effective learning
outcomes
The slide below summarises the key conclusions from the review:
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
The technological dimension:
•
Wikis: Supports shift from ‘right answers’ to ‘right questions’; Coproduction of knowledge; Text interpretation; critical review of texts;
Design for learning; Composition practice
•
RSS: Updating; professional development; Events and information
distribution
•
Blogs: Critical review; Events and information distribution; Developing
essay plans; Following personal development of students
•
Podcasts: Making learning material accessible, increasing flexibility and
personalisation
•
Immersive environments: Field work; Simulations; Supporting new
pedagogic and scientific methods, particularly in science, creative and
media subjects
•
Multimedia sharing: New visual teaching content; Social networking;
Personal knowledge management; Knowledge exchange
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
The technological dimension:
A number of technical issues that need to be addressed in support of effective teacher
training is as follows:
•
Access to technology was felt by teachers to be crucial for effective Web 2.0 use
•
In some schools, barriers included insufficient access to computer suites,
insufficient levels of technical support (including specialist support for Web 2.0
tools) and/or insufficient bandwidth
•
The most active Web 2.0 schools had high levels of ICT resourcing, particularly
in terms of staffing to support teachers as well as learners, though it should be
noted that more widespread use of services can increase the administrative
overhead on teachers and the system
•
Adequate bandwidth is essential where schools need to access large files over
the internet and to run simulations and podcasting
•
Issues of storage, back-up systems and control of content were addressed by
practitioners in different ways – some through local control, others through
buying into a regionally managed system. The desire for some secondary
schools to maintain their autonomy in this area was still evident
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
The pedagogic dimension:
The literature review identified a clear call for the implementation of specific pedagogic theories
models and approaches in support of the utilization of Web 2.0 in teaching and learning
“Radical pedagogy” changes teachers roles from a transmissive position, that emphasizes the
imparting of explanation and the ‘correct’ answer, to one that emphasizes questions: e.g.,
‘wiki-pedagogy’ creates radical equality where traditional hierarchies between students and
teachers will disappear
•
Institutions of formal education should be the hubs of open collaboration, instead of turning
into gated communities of further segmentation and deepening digital divides. The system
logic of formal education needs to be nourished by the logic of collaboration and sharing
evident in informal peer-to-peer interaction of the digital world
•
Web 2.0 provides opportunities for supporting ‘scaffolded learning’ and helping learners –
particularly ‘less well-performing’ – to learn at their own pace
•
The dominant pedagogic model in Web 2.0-based teaching draws on the constructivist
school, defined as ‘collaboration amongst learning peer groups, defined as ‘a place where
learners may work together and support each other as they use a variety of tools and
information resources in their pursuit of learning goals and problem solving activities’
•
A future vision of learning is incorporated into the concept of learning spaces that embed a
learner centered educational model and the learners are considered both as consumers of
learning content and co-producers of such content
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
The pedagogic dimension:
In contrast:
•
A more pragmatic approach in which Web 2.0 technologies act as
supportive tools for new teaching practices that are in turn shaped by
purposes and context
•
Web 2.0 brings to the surface and valorises the innate learning
capabilities we all have in all situations - most of the learning that takes
place on Facebook is the learning that would have taken place
previously in the corridors, back of classrooms, cafeterias and afterschool telephones conversations
•
This requires less of a ‘new pedagogic theory’ and more of an effort to
equip teachers with the skills necessary to modernise their teaching
approach, to initiate and moderate individual and collective learning
processes and to consider informal learning as a part of school teaching
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
The institutional dimension:
This idea for supporting teachers in modernising this practice could not be
realised without attention being paid to changing the organisational
culture of the educational enterprise
•
The educational change ”involves learning to do something new, and
interaction is the primary basis for social learning. New meanings, new
behaviors, new skills and new beliefs depend significantly on whether
teachers are working as isolated individuals or are exchanging ideas,
support and positive feelings about their work”
•
The existing schools are considered as a means for synchronizing
diverse activities in space and time. That is what scheduling is all about,
and within a particular class, a teacher needs diverse arts for
synchronizing effort on the subject at hand
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
The institutional dimension:
A new ICT driven educational reform should be based on three key factors
which can powerfully transform the way schools work:
•
Asynchronous space and time - the ability of people who are not
synchronized in the same place at the same time, to communicate easily
with each other in a variety of responsive ways
•
Responsive environments - the ability to endow spaces and periods with
an electronic responsiveness to the particular people in them, and
adapting the environments to the needs of their particular users
•
Virtual reconstruction - the ability to use interactive multimedia
components to redesign and reconfigure the human experience of
existing physical spaces without having to make physical, structural
changes in buildings
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
The institutional dimension:
•
Learning 2.0 is beginning to realise examples of these kinds of radical new
educational structures and environments, focusing on a combination of social
networking technologies and ‘open pedagogy’
•
Co-production of knowledge and content that are beginning to change how the
educational enterprise operates
•
Teacher-leaner relationships have been replaced by more collaborative, and, it is
argued in some cases, more democratized interactions between teachers and
learners
•
These emerging institutional spaces are changing traditional boundaries
between school and other environments – particularly home and the family
•
Activities can take place at different times to allow students from different parts
of the world to interact and collaborate
•
Some Web 2.0 initiatives represent a radical form of constitutional cogovernance between ‘staff’ and ‘students’
•
There has been an increased policy emphasis of late on the notion of facilitating
‘learner voice’ – i.e., allowing learners to enter into dialogue and bring about
change with regards to the schools and learning
Web 2.0 in Education – Literature Review
Characteristics of the good practice examples
Three broad sets of objectives for implementing Web 2.0 were
identified:
•
To support exchange of learning contents, methods and
tools
•
To support collaborative learning and co-production of
knowledge and content
•
To support professional development and better teaching
practice, including increasing motivation of students to learn
Web 2.0 in Education – Parallel Workshops
•
Mobile learning and cooperation, practical work with iPod’s
Stasė Riškienė, eTwinning ambassador
•
Collaboration environment for learning resources and tools
(LeMill)
Gitana Kaupienė, English teacher, Kėdainiai Šviesioji
gymnasium
•
Web 2.0 tools: tags, ratings and comments for educational
use of learning resources (use of eQNet travelwell tag as an
example of hands-on)
Elena Shulman and Silvia Panzavolta, EUN
Web 2.0 in Education – Parallel Workshops
WS2: Collaboration environment for learning resources and tools (LeMill)
is interconnected with iTEC (Innovative Technologies for an Engaging
Classroom) – a four-year, pan-European R&D project focused on the
design of the future classroom funded by 7th FP http://itec.eun.org/
The main objectives of iTEC are:
•
to develop and refine a range of teaching and learning scenarios for the
future classroom, and to develop decision support criteria (technological,
pedagogical and policy-related) that facilitates the selection of scenarios
that can be mainstreamed and taken to scale
•
to develop specific teaching and learning activities, based on the
scenarios, to test these in a pre-pilot phase, and to carry out large-scale
pilots in up to 1,000 classrooms in at least 12 European countries
exploring both the integration of technologies and how these impact on
teaching and learning practices and the engagement of a wider group of
stakeholders outside the school
•
to evaluate the extent to which the iTEC scenarios have been successful
in
supporting
collaboration,
individualisation,
creativity
and
expressiveness and identify those with maximum potential to have a
transformative effect on the design of the future classroom
Web 2.0 in Education – Parallel Workshops
WS3: Web 2.0 tools: tags, ratings and comments for educational use of
learning resources
is interconnected with eQNet (Quality Network for a European Learning
Resource Exchange) – a three-year LLP project focused on quality and
reusability of learning resources http://www.eqnet.eun.org/
eQNet major results will include:
•
the development of “travel well” quality criteria to more easily identify
learning resources with the potential for cross-border use
•
the practical application by teachers of these criteria to >3,500 learning
resources in the LRE
•
‘showcases’ of the best of these learning resources in a “travel well”
section of the LRE portal
•
where necessary, the enrichment of selected learning resources with
new or better metadata
•
a Community of Practice for teachers around these learning resources
Thank you for your
attention !!!
Questions ?
Dr. Eugenijus Kurilovas
[email protected]