The school of tomorrow: A school open to the world – Examples of elements of good practice. Open...

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 innovationsIn 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 evaluatedThe 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 (pre- and 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

• 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.

StudentsTeachers

Group

StudentsTeachers

Group StudentsTeachers

Group

StudentsTeachers

Group

StudentsTeachers

Groupe-Tool

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:

• 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 projectsThe 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 projectThe 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.