Introducting ICT in Education

Source material for this presentation to be found in this UNESCO study. Needs to be actualised with more recent research data.

Ict in education

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How to reach a significant portion of Faculty

Taken from the same Open Education Resource (OER) Commons as an earlier post on dealing with resisters.

1. Involve all stakeholders in the dialogue and discussion, including teachers, parents, students, board members, business partners. Focus on and stress that "the ends (curricula goals and objectives) must guide the means (technology) and not the other way around".
2. Focus on curriculum benefits rather than the technical 'bells and whistles' (even though the latter can sometimes appeal, and help generate interest).
3. Ensure sufficient teacher education (vs. training) in the integration of technology into the curriculum; i.e. spend sufficient time on awareness building and interest generation, so that they're actively asking to know more, wanting to try it out.

Other blogs about Web2.0 uses in Education

This blog contains a good few tips & tricks, including on how to use certain gadgets.

And here you can find suggestions about how to integrate several Web2.0 tools in your classrooms; (perhaps for the somewhat more advanced users ?)

Dealing with Resistant Teachers

Another great module in the Open Educational Resources (OER) Commons. And this one is right on the money, describing 5 archetypes during change: trailblazers, pioneers, settlers, resisters (I often call these the "yes-but!ers"), and saboteurs. The names may vary from theory to theory, but the basic principles remain the same. 

A major lesson comes already in the introduction: "Resisters (...) are simply satisfied with the status quo and see no reason to change their thinking or strategies for doing things. (...) the principal must provide opportunities for resisters to see the advantages of technology implementation (...). The danger of course, is to neglect resisters for fear they join the forces of the fifth group of actors, the saboteurs."

Key reasons for resistance:

1. don't have the adequate skills to use Web2.0 technology --> feeling of inadequacy; fear of being shown to be incompetent
2. not yet convinced of the value or benefits of technology --> lack of awareness of the need to change; doubt
3. concerns about technology replacing faculty --> fear of becoming redundant (loss of job, status, ...)

See also this post on causes of resistance to change, and this one on how to avoid resistance.

Learning to Teach Online

Another great module from the Open Educational Resources (OER) Commons/

Perhaps going beyond the purpose of this blog - which focuses on the integration of Web2.0 tools in (classroom) education - since this one treats how to teach in an online environment or context. But still, good practices to integrate into one's curriculum, making it web-ready.

Using Blogs for peer feedback and discussion

Another great case in the Open Education Resources (OER) Commons, describing "how a blog was used in a particular teaching context to promote peer-to-peer interaction, feedback and discussion", but which can easily be applied to any other teaching context.

Voting time

Please go to the following link and make your vote: bit.ly/q9I2ey.

Or make your vote online:

We used Google docs (option Form) to make this questionnaire. The outcome of the survey is either a spreadsheet you will find in your documents or you can have graphics (here) as well.

Building Awareness and Generating Interest in using Web2.0

The first steps in the process of changing attitudes and behaviours (eg. among colleague teachers) with regard to for instance the use of Web2.0 technologies in educational contexts, are 

1. building awareness ... of the need for using Web2.0 technologies. The reason is that unless your colleagues are indeed aware of its need, they will not be interested to listen to you explain the benefits !
2. generating interest ... in what Web2.0 can offer to alleviate that need, and in its benefits as an inspiring and enriching part of the learning experience, rather than as a mere gimmick. 

Only when these two essential steps have been taken will your colleagues be ready to try it out (trial phase), before finally being convinced and becoming regular users (adoption phase). 


Our objective in this blog is to provide you with some strategies and materials for doing exactly that.

Practice: what we should look for in e-learning system?

Practice: What is one of the important roles of using e-learning system?

Structuring the Blog

We will investigate the various gadgets in Blogger (and there's many!), and post our experiences on the Home Page, as individual posts.

Initially, following Bart's suggestion, we thought that perhaps we could post our comments on the various gadgets on a different tab (page) behind the Home Page. The Home Page could then show only the headlines of new posts, to allow people to select which posts to read - according to their interests. The alternative being that the home page lists a great many posts in sequence, which after time becomes too long, not very user-friendly.


Unfortunately, as far as we could see, it is not possible to make posts on such a second page: the page itself is a post, on which you can comment (or not, depending on page settings). This is confirmed by looking at some other blogs using such different pages. 


Therefore, we decided to leave separate pages (tabs) as single posts, as a way to clarify certain thoughts (such as: our plan of action).

Causes of Resistance to Change - and how to deal with these

Major causes for resistance to change are related to Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (F-U-D):

• Fear of the unknown, of being shown to be incompetent, or of losing alliances (friends and colleagues: one's social community).
• Uncertainty (i.e. lack of clarity) about implications or about where one is going; ultimately also the related risks (considering everyone has a certain level of risk acceptance/avoidance).
• Doubt in the stated intentions of the change.

Avoiding or minimising resistance to change therefore depends on the extent to which one deals with 

• clearly/transparently communicating the intentions,
• involving all stakeholders in discussing the implications of the proposed changes
• providing the required training, so as to build the necessary competences and ultimately confidence in using the new tools

In respect of the latter, the MERLOT site provides discipline-specific tips on how to best teach using technology.

Practice: Custom e-learning solution from Belgium

The E-Learning platform TOLEDO involves now more than 25.000 students, more than 4.500 on-line courses on a system with a projected 24/hours a day uptime ... more information

Teaching Plan: proposed structure

Goal/objective: EDUCATING other/colleague teachers in how to start integrate and use Web2.0 technologies in their curricula.

Purpose of this blog: to compose a teaching plan to guide/facilitate the achievement of the above goal.

Target Audience (of the training): (colleague) teachers, at all levels

Structure of this blog: This blog contains a number of individual posts, authored by the members of this group, on specific topics related to the main headings of the teaching plan:

• Managing Change: what is the process of convincing others to change (their attitudes and behaviours); corollary: how to avoid and/or deal with resistance to change ?
• Web2.0 Skills/Tools that add value - or Gimmick ? What are arguments in favour of integrating and using Web2.0 in modern day curricula ?
• Discussion of specific Web2.0 Tools to be used in education: what are pros and cons, and best practices examples ?
• Implementation Strategies : what are tips and best practices related to different target groups (eg. according to Teachers' or Students' maturity/experience in respect of Web2.0 tools)
• Online Safety and Ethics: how can you ensure a safe online experience for both teachers and students,  including legal implications (eg. copyright) ?
• Blended Learning: how to start building or revising one's curriculum to be internet-ready; what can/should and what cannot/should not be done online?

How to use this document: A separate Page is made within this blog corresponding to each heading (see above), by using Labels (tags) that are shown in the Label gadget on the right sidebar. Each page (heading) will contain a number of learning points, which are individually discussed in the various blog posts (as learning objects).

Note for authors: Please add your comments, remarks, amendments.

Safety:10 big Miths about copyright explained

http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

'Digital learning skills'
The Center for Communication and Civic Engagement has just released a new report that catalogs and describes many of the most prominent youth civic engagement resources on the web.

http://www.engagedyouth.org/category/digital-learning-skills/

Safety:Safe internet browsing

http://www.antivirusworld.com/articles/safe-internet-browsing.php

Five Changes that can Improve Schools

http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/professional_development/five_changes_can_improve_schools

Education paradgms? Any comments on it?

about wikis

a very interesting collaborative tool..
what is this? :

Cyprus 2011

Cyprus 2011 by tombola, made at DoInk.com

Gadget - Video

On the bottom of this blog you'll find the YouTube 'Video' gadget. I found that this does not allow you to select specific videos to post on the blog. Rather, as a widget, it automatically searches available clips that match the selection criteria (eg. 'most popular', or according to the tags you specified). In this instance, I selected as tags: Web2.0, Knowledge, Creativity.

Do have a look at Ken Robinson's talk at TED.

Did you know ...?

Several versions of this clip have already been made. Always nice to remind oneself ...

Web 1.0 - 2.0 - 3.0 - ...

Understanding Web2.0 requires understanding Web1.0, and what the next step(s) could be. Have a look at this little YouTube clip !

 

Gadget - Share It

Easy to add, and pretty straightforward - but limited to twitter and facebook !!?

Also, I would have liked to change the background (eg. to transparent) since this gadget's white background now stands out against our blog's green background.

Unless someone can point in the right direction?

Welcome students from Erasmus program

Program

18.00 h Reception

18.30 h Visit to laboratories

19.30 h Visit to the Hercules Towel

20.00 h Dinner

Slideshow

I just added a slideshow widget. I think there are many good opportunities to use this application in education.


Students can use this gadget to present themselves on their blog, there can be pictures of a school trip etc.