Keywords: Digital classroom, Innovation, technology, research projects, 21st skills. 1 INTRODUCTION .... can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/ ...
DIGITAL CLASSROOM AND EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION Floriana Falcinelli, Cristina Gaggioli University of Perugia (ITALY)
Abstract Millennium @EDU is a multi-stakeholder initiative which brings together some of the largest technology companies from around the world (Intel®, Microsoft, Pasco, SanDisk, e-Xample) and others. These companies have enabled the Millennium project @EDU to provide schools with packages of information technology solutions for educational purposes, in order to implement st innovative strategies for education, fostering the development of skills necessary in the 21 century. In Italy, this challenge has been taken up by Converge, a Rome-based company working in the computer industry, which has entrusted the University of Perugia with the task of monitoring the educational aspects of the project. This has the dual purpose of accompanying teachers involved with coaching actions on the one hand and starting research in the field able to understand if and how technology can enter schools and produce a process of educational innovation. The trial involved 200 students divided into 12 classes at primary and secondary school levels based in Umbria and Lazio, along with 47 teachers. The aim of monitoring was to observe all processes involving schools, from the inception of the project, with the installation of technology in selected classes, until such time as the technology became part of the teachers’ everyday teaching practices. The analysis of these processes was structured by adopting qualitative and quantitative survey instruments, aimed at understanding the elements of complexity that arise in the classroom situation. The activities of teachers and students were monitored through direct observation and videotaping carried out in all classes. This in turn was guided by protocols specifically built and supported by the formation of discussion groups with teachers, as well as questionnaires for pupils. The data have been underwent lexicometric analysis using the NVivo software. The analysis of the data shows that the introduction of technology changes the character of the class, gradually transforming the traditional space and expanding classroom possibilities based on grade level. In the early years of primary school, where the use of technology is still sporadic, recreational use prevails, while as the level increases, so daily use of various technological tools in the classroom tends to become mainly educational. The detection of processes on the one hand and conscious reflection on the other have revealed that the use of technology offers pupils the opportunity to increase their citizenship skills. st
Keywords: Digital classroom, Innovation, technology, research projects, 21 skills.
1
INTRODUCTION
Modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is making a profound impact on two fundamental aspects of teaching: the access to knowledge and culture and communication. ICT is placing pupils at the centre of education because, with digital devices, each student can now construct his/her own pathway to knowledge. The guidance of a teacher creates a flexible, environment that is rich in resources and open to active research and constant monitoring of the teaching/learning experience [1]. ICT is a fundamental part of the younger generations’ world. They use the WEB, which has by now become a great shared social space, to access information and communicate directly with the world [2]. Indeed, according to O’Really’s definition, WEB.2 is a virtual space where everybody can interact with everyone else and share in content production. Today the resources of the WEB, like blogs, social networks, podcasting, social bookmarking, Web Feed/RSS and file-sharing mean that every individual can generate content, share it, select and comment on it, catalogue it, download and modify it. Wiki facilitates collective authorship of a written text and collaboration in knowledge production. The issue is not just the new opportunities that XML offers. It is a new culture: “to harness collective intelligence”, wrote O’Really. “to harness, gather and gain advantage from collective intelligence” [3].
Proceedings of INTED2016 Conference 7th-9th March 2016, Valencia, Spain
ISBN: 978-84-608-5617-7 5900
1.1
The need for digital competence
Consequently, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) declared that ICT skills [4] were one of the key competencies to ensure that schools offered a meaningful education to prepare pupils for effective integration into a knowledge-based Europe. Students are required not only to be able to use ICT but to be skilled in its various forms. They need to know how to select, analyze and assess the information they receive. They need to know how to use ICT for problemsolving, decision-making, expression of their own creativity, communication and collaboration on developing original meaningful products so that they become responsible, informed and active citizens. EU organizations share this attitude. In the European Parliament and Council Recommendations dated 18 December 2006 [5] digital competency is one of the key skills in life-long learning.
1.2
The Italian Ministry of Schools, University and Research commitment to technological innovation in schools
The Italian Ministry of Schools, University and Research (MIUR) has decided to promote and support technological innovation in schools. Of particular importance is the national plan for a computerized school which was approved in Ministerial Decree n° 851 dated 27/10/2015 [6], which marks the start of what was contained in a Law dated 13 July 2015 n.107 [7]. Article 1, paragraph 56, provided for the development of a plan to develop ICT skills in students, more online instruments and laboratories, use of technological and organizing tools, teacher training for innovative teaching methods, training for all school staff to develop an ICT culture, enlarging web infra-structure, incentivizing best schools, defining criteria and aims for the use of online school textbooks. In launching this complex strategy for computerizing Italian schools it was hoped to achieve a new place for the educational system in the ICT era. The national plan comprises several objectives: to increase technological tools in schools; to bring innovations into the classroom by discarding the ICT laboratory in favour of focusing on the need to create a learning environment where students, together with teachers, researchers and assistants, are co-authors of knowledge acquisition processes; and to train teachers by means of dedicated upskilling courses. The Millennium Project, as part of the national plan, offered the opportunity to determine whether, and how, daily class activities using ICT changed the traditional classroom in its organization of spaces, time and activities into an active and collaborative learning centre. The classroom became a multimedia environment with e-boards, tablets and notebooks to facilitate the teaching/learning process. Monitored classes were equipped technologically by Converge. Hardware included a teacher’s computer, multi-functional devices for each student, an e-board, an Internet connection and software. All instruments were equipped with Classroom Management and Lab War software that were developed by Intel, in a package with Microsoft Office, Art Rage and other didactic applications. Teachers who were involved with the project underwent an Intel technical training course at their Milan office, a Converge training course in Rome, and in various schools and a special teacher training course at the University of Perugia. The course programme focused on the teacher’s ability to be creative and to formulate an innovative teaching project rather than on technological devices. Technology was therefore viewed as a resource within an innovative teaching project that only the teacher’s intelligence and experience in pedagogy and teaching methods could employ efficaciously. The rationale for the project was to develop the potentialities of implementing diverse innovative teaching experiences in the classroom so that they specifically might interest classes that were not involved in the project, and then their families and the general population, maybe by extending innovation to all the classrooms in the school. Thanks to their autonomy, schools are stimulated to adopt flexible, new, open solutions to organization and teaching. The rather naïve view that introducing technology into the classroom was all that was needed to ensure an almost automatic innovation in teaching has now been superseded by the full realization that authentic transformation is achieved only by integrating teaching experience, innovative processes, flexible management of time, space, class work modalities, and technology. Consequently investing in technology does not mean investing in devices but rather investing in a cultural training process to facilitate access to instruments in a networking perspective of web 2.0, Open Educational Resources, editors of efficacious e-books and their content, online security, and
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computer proficient citizens who appreciate ethical and social behaviour that respects individuals and their dignity.
2
METHODOLOGY
What changes when technology is inserted into school classrooms? How do the classroom patterns and organisation of didactic activities change? What effect does it have on learning? Seeking answers to these questions, the main objective of monitoring the Millennium School was to examine how primary and secondary school teachers used technology in the classroom and in their teaching strategies. The research objective was to analyze if, and how, a multi-media classroom influenced teaching methods and the learning process. This mixed-method experimental research used quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis in a sample of 12 digital classrooms in Italian primary and secondary schools. Teaching activity was monitored by observation and video recordings in all classrooms. In stage 2 of the project teachers read the researcher’s report and held a discussion group in each school. The aims of the discussion groups, which were chaired by the authors of this paper, were to use the comments on the video recordings of the lessons as a teacher-training tool [8] and to stimulate in-depth discussion of some topics which were the subject of this research project by analyzing the points of view of teachers who were involved. Finally questionnaires about classroom 1 activities with the support of ICT were administered online to all student participants in the project . The student questionnaire, which was to be answered anonymously, included open and closed questions. Answers to closed questions were analyzed quantitatively, while responses to open questions were analyzed qualitatively by means of lexical analysis of high frequency terms, using NVivo10 software. 2
For in-class observation the researcher used a specially designed instrument. The following details were recorded: name of school, class, date and time of observation, subject being taught, spatial employment modalities i.e. how students accessed instruments, what was used, who used what, how new technology was integrated with traditional teaching strategies, use of technology in class tests, the teacher’s work organization, teacher’s and students’ attitudes towards the technology that was used timings, use of technology by students with Special Educational Needs (SEN). Table 1 reports the researcher’s description of classes on the basis of brief interviews with the teacher before the innd class observation started. As table 1 shows, no pupils with SEN were present in 2 year primary school classes. Tab. 1 _ The description of classes. SCHOOL
CITY
CLASSES STUDENTS
STUDENTS WITH STUDENTS WITH SEN DISABILITY
IC De Filis
Terni
1
23
14
1
IC Foligno 2
Foligno (Perugia)
4
66
17
5
Dir.Did. 1°Circolo Marsciano (Perugia)
1
15
0
0
IC Alto Orvietano Fabro (Terni)
1
22
4
0
IC Birago
2
18
0
0
Ist. Bambin Gesù Gualdo Tadino (Perugia)
1
17
1
0
IC Regina Elena
Roma
1
18
3
0
IC Pirandello
Fonte Nuova (Roma)
Total
Passignano (Perugia)
1
21
3
1
12
200
42
7
1
The questionnaires can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1tA0NzVAuuJX17mdj0gYaquWFU4dqcMNDiZ54ObnEWPw/viewform?c=0&w=1 (ver. 20/01/16)
2
The observation chart can be seen here: https://cmapscloud.ihmc.us/rid=1NYFBK421-8J6CKNBX/scheda%20osservazione%20in%20classe.pdf (ver. 20/01/16)
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3
RESULTS
Table 2 summarizes the results of the lexical analysis of the discussion group contents and the students’ replies to the online questionnaire. Tab. 2 _ Comparison of the analysis’s results. FOLIGNO
TERNI
ROMA
FABRO
4th primary .. school
2nd secondary school
2nd secondary school
Limited uses of photo
Scholastic uses and music
Scholastic uses
Individuals Individuals Individuals with tablet/ with tablet/ Individuals work / pear collective with collective with and in team tutoring e-board e-board
Cooperativ e learning
Cooperativ e learning
PASSIGNANO MARSCIANO
Purpose of using tools (according to the students). Organisation of didactic work.
2nd primary.. school
2nd primary. school
3 A
Photo/video
Video and music
Games and photo
Individuals work
th
th
3 B
th
4 A
th
4 B
Games and photo
Positive results Pupils with SEN.
N.R.
N.R.
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Who manages the technological instruments in the class?
Teacher
One acting student
Teacher
Teacher
All students
All students
All students
Use of the technlogy in the class.
Sporadic
Sporadic
Sporadic
Sporadic
Quotidian
Quotidian
Quotidian
Frustration while using the technological instrument.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Existence of an educational course for the use of the computer.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
What pupils like.
Everything
Games
Research
Cooperative learning
What pupils dislike.
Nothing
Write
Ache for eyes
Technical problems
In-class observations revealed that activity organization is characterized by an alternating system of teacher-guided discovery and supporting group activities. The teacher used technology in the guise of a researcher and facilitator. Spatial classroom organization changed in accordance with the activity. Traditional tools like books, copybooks and charts continued to be used alongside the new technological devices. Students, however, performed tasks as assigned by the teacher alone or in small groups. Student use of technology was, in the majority of cases, proposed and mediated by the teacher, particularly when device use in the classroom was still sporadic. The multi-functional devices that were entrusted to students could be adjusted to suit the teacher’s didactic strategy, as they could be used in both lean forward and lean back modalities [9]. Combined use of devices and e-board was widespread. It served for sharing activities, comparing experiences, reflecting on, and self-correcting errors, stimulating personal efficiency, reproducing what the teacher had proposed, (in accordance with the guided modelling strategy), sending relevant material to the teacher. Student answers to the questionnaire showed that enjoyment of computer activity in class scored a mean of 4.4 on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being maximum enjoyment (Fig. 1).
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Fig. 1 _ Pie-chart illustrating student replies. Tablet activities were enjoyed a lot / very, very much by 89% of 106 students who responded to the questionnaire (Fig.2). To investigate emotional responses to the technological innovation of the classroom, students were asked how they felt about it. This open question invited children and adolescents to use one word to express their mood when working in class with the computers. All responded positively, referring to happiness and well-being. In reply to the question “What did you like most?” pupils stated they very much appreciated the play aspect, the cooperative learning work modality, as well as activities like drawing, writing, exercises etc. In reply to the question “What did you like least?” pupils wrote they enjoyed everything and there were no activities that did not interest them. To determine future perspectives with a view towards improving the experience pupils were asked what they would have liked to have done with the devices. The majority replied they would have like to have had more time to play with them. Significantly, some pupils would have liked to bring the computers home.
Fig. 2 _ Histogram of mean enjoyment scores as expressed by students in the classes that were analyzed.
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When the results of the quantitative analysis and in-class observations were compared it became clear that digital technology was introduced into classrooms in a step-by-step manner, which varied with age group. Use of technology by the youngest primary school pupils was sporadic and the children mostly tended to play with the instrument they were accessing. As the children got older, the inclination to play declined and indeed the device became an every day tool for schoolwork. All age groups in primary and secondary schools needed some training in use of digital technology. The youngest primary school children were taught how to switch it on and off, while secondary school pupils accessed ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) courses. In the intervening years pupils were taught how to manage files and folders. Another interesting finding was that as the children grew up their sense of frustration with the computer, because of its failure to work correctly or their own inability to use it correctly, tended to disappear. More than once during in-class observations the pupils’ frustration was clearly seen when they lost a piece of work because they hadn’t saved it and then burst into tears. When digital devices were routinely used the pupils no longer manifested signs of frustration when the device did not function, as it should have or as they wanted it to. Greater familiarity with the devices also meant the teacher could leave pupils to work independently in small groups, which was a widespread learning modality in classes that used digital technology on a daily basis.
3.1 The advantages of computer technology for students with Special Educational Need All SEN pupils in whatever classes they were present benefitted greatly from the introduction of computer technology [10]. Of particular note: • The opportunity to assign individualized tasks was most marked when students with SEN were present in the class. While classmates worked on teacher assigned tasks, disabled students were able to access different, simplified tasks with personalized content for each individual. • Enhanced motivation: In the in-depth discussions teachers of all age-groups remarked that SEN students were more motivated to learn after technology was introduced into the classroom. • Provision of an active learning environment: All pupils with learning disabilities actively engaged with the computer, and persisted with it until they produced a piece of work. • Capacity to monitor the pupil’s performance in real time: The teacher’s position and role in each class changed radically. S/he became a tutor, a mediator who accompanied, guided and supported pupils as they carried out their assignments. S/he moved around the desks focusing on pupils who most needed attention. • Delivery of immediate informative feedback: With the Classroom Management software feedback was immediately visible as it provided for constant interactions between teacher and pupils. By sharing the e-board with the class, performance of a task or the results of a test were visible in real-time and teacher or class could intervene as needed to modify work that was completed or still being done.
3.2
Digital classroom and key competencies for 21st century citizens
Present data clearly showed that the use of digital technology in the classroom not only improved teaching methods for pupils with SEN but also increased their key competences [11]. • Communication in the mother tongue and in foreign languages. Communicating to understand diverse types of messages (daily, literary, technical, scientific) which are easily sourced on the Internet and available in the languages of words, mathematical figures, scientific formulas, symbols, on diverse means of transmission (paper, informatics and multi-media), and to depict: events, phenomena, principles, concepts, regulations, procedures, attitudes, moods, emotions etc. using knowledge of diverse disciplines and the languages of words, mathematical figures, scientific formulas, symbols, and so forth. They used several means of transmission (paper, informatics, multi-media) and employed appropriate software to the task in hand (Excel for calculations, Publisher and Power Point for various forms of expression, Word for written documents, Software to design maps and e-board). • Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology: Digital technology visualizes (reveals) the steps that enable pupils to deal with difficult situations.
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Students can formulate and test hypotheses, identify sources and appropriate resources, gather and assess data, and propose solutions according to the type of problem under investigation, contents and methods of different disciplines. For example, maps, tables, flow charts, can all be created on the computer or on the e-board. • Digital competence: The digital classroom facilitates the process of information acquisition from multiple sources and its critical interpretation through use of several means of communication. Reliability and usefulness can be assessed and facts distinguished from opinions. Indeed, the digital classroom changes the methods of conducting research, finding and processing information, thus obliging researchers to reflect on an educational process that will generate awareness of, and critical views on, the use of the media in the classroom. • Learning to learn: With digital technology in the classroom pupils were able to organize their own learning pathways by identifying, selecting and using diverse sources and modalities of information and education (formal, non-formal and informal) according to the time available to them and their own learning strategies, work and study methods. • Social and civic competences: cooperative learning and peer tutoring modalities, which are used in digital classrooms, encourage group interactions and promote the ability to understand different points of view. They help develop personal abilities and those of others, improve conflict management, foster group learning and the performance of collective tasks, all the while recognizing the fundamental rights of others. The computer supports individual work and sometimes even personalized work which helps pupils learn how to participate with active awareness in social life. Within the group pupils can assert their own rights and needs as well as those of others, and share opportunities, limits, rules and responsibilities. Take for example the flipper classroom. When one pupil is called upon to present a new topic to his/her classmates, s/he feels responsible for “having to do well”. • Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship: To create a multi-media product students had to think out and complete projects. They had to develop their own work and study activities, using what they had learnt to establish realistic and significant objectives and their relative priorities. They had to assess links and existing possibilities as well as define strategies for actions and check the results they had achieved. • Cultural awareness and expression: Class work in a digitalized classroom cannot but be crosssectional and multi-disciplinary. Technology enables students to identify, depict and draw up coherent arguments demonstrating links and relationships between diverse phenomena, events and concepts which may belong to different disciplines and be far flung in time and space. Pupils are encouraged to recognize their systemic nature and identify analogies and differences, consistencies and inconsistencies, causes, effects and probabilities.
4
CONCLUSIONS
The Millennium study results showed we need to change our approach to technology-based education. As Calvani wrote [12] to date schools have taught about technology in specific courses designed to instruct in the a,b,c’s of ICT. They were based on informatics and taught about software for writing or calculations etc. Alternatively schools taught with technology, considering it useful for strengthening motivation to study and making teaching more efficient and efficacious. Today we need to move beyond these approaches and start teaching within technology since technology itself forces us to compare its contrapositive teaching model with the traditional transfer system. ICT forces the focus of education to change from the teacher transmitting knowledge to the pupil who learns in a linear, static and repetitive manner to the student learning through networking and developing hypertext which becomes the product of social engagement. Emphasis shifts to what students do and the processes they use as they perform individual and collective tasks under the supervision of the teacher who, in turn, becomes a researcher alongside students. In any case schools will soon have to deal with the issue of e-books which are prevalently available on portable devices like IPads and IPhones. Schools will have to evaluate the impact of this new way of reading text-books on the processes of understanding, managing and organizing knowledge.
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Thus, digital education needs to become a fundamental and essential part of education in schools. It is part of citizen education, not as a tool to be used occasionally but, since it is congruent with educational objectives, it is an integral part of the educational project. Education in technology means developing didactic pathways that, by working with, and within, the new technology, enable pupils to get to know it through exploration and creative process facilitation. ICT should be considered a valuable resource for accessing information and communication systems that serve to increase awareness and reflections on their multiple uses. This last point could become the subject of a shared education project to be conducted by the diverse agencies that are involved in education, particularly families and local education authorities. As critical experts on the meaning of texts and how they are understood, teachers try to ascribe significance to their didactic method and to the complex system in which it operates. In the perspective of a technological classroom they need to look upon the innovations as an educational resource in a new teaching/learning context and environment [13]. They need to accept the diversity it introduces into the traditional teaching process. As learning incorporates multi-dimensional experiences it becomes more and more a socially shared, constructive and networking process that includes play, imagination, emotions, which is sustained by informal communication events [14].
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