Teacher training for introducing ICT in education: open and distance learning in a regional program

8/9/2019 Teacher training for introducing ICT in education: open and distance learning in a regional program

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Certificate in Online Education and Training, November '00 - May '01, Institute of Education,

University of London

Teacher training for introducing ICT in education: open and

distance learning in a regional program

Eleonora Pant

[email protected]@csp.it

Introduction

The two defining features of the New Economy are its universal scope and its rapidity of change.Over the last decade, individuals, corporations, and nations have been linked by the constantlyevolving technologies of computers and communications. In increasing numbers, workers of todaymust be technologically competent, adaptable, willing to pursue lifelong learning, and creative.

In the new economy education in anymore something you pursued before your first time job, but alifelong appointment.

There is much hype around e-learning at this moment (new economy is not so cool, after the latest Nasdaqperfomance), so we can easily read phrases like these:

E-Learning is changing the way teachers educate, and changing the way students learn.E-Learning, means faster learning at reduced costs, increased access to learning, and clearaccountability for all participants in the learning process

In this essay, first I will try to exploring the hype in the e-learning market, outline the differencesamong distance, open and collaborative learning and then describe a program for teacher training inwith Im concerned.Since 1994 Ive been involved in initiative promoted by local government (in Piedmont) related toInternet and schools: today Im working at the Regional School Network Program.At the end of the paper you will find a specific glossary related to distance education.


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Hope and hype in education

Distance education comes from far: the first correspondence course started at the end of the 19 thcentury. Today, thanks to the digital media and the network, distance education took off: there are5000 companies offering e-training technology, services and contents: their revenues is about $2

billion for this year and are expected to increase to $11 billion in 2003.

Different survey shows that E-learning courses have reduced the overall cost of employee training,but the number of companies that measure the return of investment of training budgets is very little:so we dont have today figure about real impact of these new methodology of teaching and learning.

The crowded e-learning industry are asking in which direction the market will turn and who willsurvive. Challenges for this companies regarding branding, content adapting to the changingtechnology and achieving profitability for themselves and their clients, but the key factors will be

based on blended solution because e-learning will not cope all learning needs. The distancelearning experience will have to be much more engaging: put content online is not an adequatesolution.

The next generation of Learning Management System will see more integration of streaming media,interactive technologies and classroom reinforcement.

The market offer today many learning package but the real challenge, at the time of one to onemarketing is customisation, that is adapt content and graphics that take account of the processesof individual companies and their corporate look and feel.

Education Service Providers offer this kind of solution including services like education design,

community design, marketing, technical support and contents as reusable learning object, tutoringand so on.

Distance, Open or Collaborative?

As we have seen e-learning potentially includes everything is related to electronic network andeducation, or better, training. E-learning appears as the newest term for online education:

E-learning is training that takes place through a network, usually over the Internet or a companyintranet. (DistanceEducator Definition)

eLearning : "Training that is delivered over the Internet, Corporate Intranets or Extranets,

either Synchronously or Asynchronously". (IDC Definition)

About e-learning, there is much confusion about terms: distance education, open learning,collaborative learning, online learning. Lets make some clarity.

In the paperFrom Distance Education to Open and Distance Learning(Tella, 97), Tella collectssome definitions and difference between Distance learning and Open Learning.

"Open learning is defined as a student-centered approach to education that removes all barriers toaccess while providing a high degree of learner autonomy. Distance education refers to a mode of

delivering a course of study in which the majority of communication between teachers and students

occurs noncontiguously, and the two-way communication between teacher and student necessary


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for the educational process is technologically mediated. Distance education may or may not be

based on open-learning ideals." (Maxwell 1995, 43)

Following to him, open learning is a philosophy of education, otherwise distance education is amode of delivery, in fact:

An open learning course could be offered on campus or at a distance." (Maxwell 1995, 46)

Also if open learning sometimes is used like a synonym of flexible learning, this could not becorrect: we may assume that if open learning is related to give more easily access to participate,flexibility enhance adaptability and versatility of learning.

Figure 1. Some Changes from Distance Education to Open and Distance Learning. (Tella, 97)

Increasing access to education and training opportunities is a matter of technology: for this reasonwe talk about generation of distance education. This is a concept who see distance education

focused on delivery of didactical units, and about the way these units could be distributed from the producers and used by the students, reducing costs for the producer and giving students moreflexibility in time, place and pace.

Some of the characteristics of the various models of distance education that are relevant to thequality of teaching and learning (Taylor, 1995) are summarized in Table 1, along with an indicatorof institutional variable costs (Taylor, Kemp and Burgess, 1993).


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Characteristics of Delivery TechnologiesFlexibility

Models of DistanceEducation and

Associated Delivery

Technologies

Time Place Pace

Highly

Refined

Materials

Advanced

Interactive

Delivery

Institutional

Variable Costs

Approaching

Zero

FIRST GENERATION -

The Correspondence Model Print Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

SECOND GENERATION -

The Multi-media Model Print Audiotape Videotape Computer-based learning (eg

CML/CAL/IMM) Interactive video (disk and tape)

YesYesYesYes

Yes

YesYesYesYes

Yes

YesYesYesYes

Yes

YesYesYesYes

Yes

NoNoNoYes

Yes

NoNoNoNo

No

THIRD GENERATION -The Telelearning Model Audioteleconferencing Videoconferencing Audiographic Communication Broadcast TV/Radio and

Audioteleconferencing

NoNoNoNo

NoNoNoNo

NoNoNoNo

NoNoYesYes

YesYesYesYes

NoNoNoNo

FOURTH GENERATION -

The Flexible Learning Model

Interactive multimedia (IMM) online

Internet-based access to WWWresources

Computer mediated communication

Yes

YesYes

Yes

YesYes

Yes

YesYes

Yes

YesYes

Yes

YesYes

Yes

Yes

No

FIFTH GENERATION -

The Intelligent Flexible Learning Model

Interactive multimedia (IMM) online

Internet-based access to WWWresources

Computer mediated communication,using automated response systems

Campus portal access to institutionalprocesses and resources

YesYes

Yes

Yes

YesYes

Yes

Yes

YesYes

Yes

Yes

YesYes

Yes

Yes

YesYes

Yes

Yes

YesYes

Yes

Yes

Table 1: Models of Distance Education - A Conceptual Framework (Taylor, 2001)

Taylor assumes that fifth generation of distance education could have the potential to decrease costthrough the development of automated courseware production systems, automated pedagogicaladvice systems and automated business systems. Nevertheless he state that:

Fundamental to online pedagogy is the effective use of asynchronous CMC for ensuring effective

interactivity, which is generally regarded as en essential feature of effective pedagogy.

Following to Taylor the fifth generation of distance education: structure, tag and store in a databasethe thoughtful interactions, for generate automated response systems.

This approach seems to me not so student centred, but otherwise organisation centred, to grant costeffectiveness of the learning system: Taylor point his attention to provide effective and efficient


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service to students all over the world at minimal variable cost, but he dont give us any informationabout pedagogical model or satisfaction of the students.

Distance education centre at USQ (University of Southern Queensland where professor JimTaylor is Vice Chancellor) is surely one of the best all over the world but students frustrations is a

problem to take in account.

Following to Hara and Kling (Hara, 99) that inspect problems with web distance-education,students frustrations were due to: lack of prompt feedback, ambiguous instructions and technical

problems.

In 1996 Schutte (Schutte, 97) made an experiment to assess the merits of a traditional, versusvirtual, classroom environment on student test performance and student affect toward the

experience. It was hypothesized that face-to-face professor-student interaction is crucial to test

performance. However, the data indicate the reverse, that virtual interaction produces betterresults. These better results are due to the augmented interaction among the students: this lead

paradoxically to student compensation evidenced by more involvement between and among peers[] That this collaboration manifests itself in better test scores is consistent with the findings of the

collaborative learning literature.

These were the early days of web based training but collaborative learning is not a new learningmethodology. Many educators have applied form of this teaching technique to their classes. Incollaborative learning each member contributes with personal experience, skill, insight to improvethe learning accomplish of others. Students are actively engaged in collaborative learning: theyhave to organise, summarise, explain and defend. These activities stimulate the higher level oflearning, the critical thinking and can be flexible enough to be adapted to a number of differentlearning styles.

Using collaborative learning in distance environment, i.e. through computer conferencing, has someadvantage over face-to-face: there is more time for research and study, the written format of thecontributes makes them clearer and deeper; then interactions among the participants aredocumented and its possible to give credit where is due. Otherwise people who are not so confidentwith using computers can disappear in the group: so we assist at the well known phenomena ofCMC, like lurking or of free riding, intended as opportunistic behavior (Rocco, 1996).

Computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) originate from the research into computercollaborative supported work (CSCW): the idea is that computer support systems can facilitate

group process, in a way that are not achievable by face-to face. From the theory of Zone ofProximal Development of Vygotsky, the constructivism theory, Problem Based Learning andothers, CSCL inherit the assumptions that individuals are active agents that constructs theirknowledge better in a meaningful context.

The first European conference about CSCL was held in Maastricht on March 2001 and wasattended almost exclusively by academic people; its not easy summarising the state-of-the-art butmost interesting presentations were about evaluation and frameworks for analyses, also if the lackof evaluation standard makes difficult to exchange and compare findings between experiments1.

Among the contributes, I want to point out the work of Canan Tosunoglu Blake and Lucia

Rapanotti from Open University, Mapping interactions in a Computer Conferencing

1 More information about the conference: http://www.mmi.unimaas.nl/euro-cscl/


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Environment that discuss some preliminary findings from evaluation on online interactions, usingcontent analysis to identify the nature of contributions in a Computer conference environments.The course analysed has no tutor participation, only monitoring: the students messages were almostfocused on the task they were asked to do and they feel more comfortable if they are aware of whatis expected of them; also the nature of the task has an effect on the results of collaboration. The

assessment of the group working is a strong incentive for students participation, also if they canpass the course even if they dont carry out every activity.

Monitoring several aspects of collaboration is the challenge of the new generation of e-learningenvironments. About this I want to point out again, the ITCOLE software, a project focuses ondesigning and developing a modular knowledge building environment. It was developed under thetitle of Future Learning 2.. The pedagogical ideas behind the design of the Fle2, are devoted tohelp students and teachers to engage in co-ordinated efforts to solve problems and build knowledgetogether, using this progressive schema: Setting up the Context, Presenting Research Problems,Creating Working Theories, Critical Evaluation, Searching Deepening Knowledge, Developing

Deepening Problems, New Theory, Distributed Expertise (Mukkonen, 2000). In order to facilitatescaling up of good pedagogical practises of using innovative learning technology, the software will

become available free of charge and mostly under open source terms for educational institutions.

After analysing e-learning market all over the world and different methodology, now I will focus onEuropean situation.

ICT and education in Europe

Europe has passed three different stages in the past twenty years, relating to the adoption of ICT ineducation: stage 1, from late 1970s to early 180s, saw the first computers in the some school, oftenwith the aim to teach computer as a subject, stage 2 saw pilot project for introducing multimedia inthe curriculum and finally stage 3 who see all European countries declaring a key objective toconnect computers in the schools locally and to international network via Internet.

These objectives can be summed up as:

Providing equipment infrastructure for connecting schools to Internet

Training teacher for ensuring they use ICT in an effective way with their classes

Reviewing curricula to increase impact of ICT

Producing electronic educational content

Monitoring and evaluating these measures.

On March, 2001 European Commission adopted "eLearning Action Plan", $13.3-billion ofinvestment in three years to promote the development of online education by European universities.

The E-Europe initiative on education advocates Internet connectivity for all schools across Europeby the end of 2001 and all pupils with Internet access by the end of 2002. Within the same date (endof 2002). E-Europe has also these ambitious objectives:

Connect schools to research networks

Support services, e- learning platforms etc


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Training of all teachers Adapt school curricula to enable e- learning

Also if broadband connections and technology equipment are important, in Europe, as well as in every

school national system is becoming more and more evident that for designing tomorrow education,technology is not the key issue, but there we must consider these areas for intervention:

Teacher Training

Curriculum Development

Technical support

In the E-learning action plan, of march 2001, the European Commission states:

Lack of appropriate training for teachers and trainers is a major obstacle to the use of new

technologies in education. [] Mere training in use of the tools and technical know-how is not

enough. It is also important to apply the new technologies to innovative practical teaching methodsand incorporate them into different disciplines to promote an interdisciplinary approach [..]

Teacher training

Teacher training is the core: ICT skills its very important for every teacher, just as for every knowledgeworker today.

Teacher are not mere users of IT, they have to learn using all generic software packages and subject specificsoftware, multimedia, finding resources on the Internet and judge when this is appropriate with school work.

The role of teacher is changing in some way, but they have to guide and coach pupils and assist them inlearning process.

The teacher training should include core modules such as: applications of ICT in Education, newtechnologies and their uses in educational settings, training in the area of children with special needs (either

physical, sensory or slow learners), evaluation of educational software IT.

Training could be oriented to give basic functional ICT competence first, and then to give the pedagogicalskill for using ICT in the classroom. The in-service training is provided in a different range of methods:through traditional courses, open and distance learning. Many different national program are carried out:Sweden, Norway and UK noted the effect played by the teacher attendance at these events.

Effectiveness of training is improved in providing teacher with personal equipment, but few countries hasadopted measure for this.

Teachers are not ICT specialist, such as Network managers, Systems Analysts, Softwareprogrammers: for these reasons schools require profession IT technical support. Few countries areestablishing ICT specialist: in Spain, one teacher in each school is responsible for ICT. Itsnecessary that also these specialists could be supported in their professional development

Electronic networks are an extraordinary way for teachers to sharing best practices, all over theworld: extra European links should be established to facilitate teacher training packages. In factsome problems are the same overseas: look at this email, from an US teacher:

I don't know...sometimes I think that we need to stop wasting time and money trying to reachevery educator in terms of integrating technology. I always think of the music teacher...what


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if we thought every teacher should be able to sing and we spent all this time and money

trying to prepare every teacher to sing adequately enough to teach music to their students?Believe me...I would do as little singing in my classroom as I could possibly get away with

(and my students would thank me).Maybe the best route is to set up more labs...have more

technology specialists...set up some technology standards(start with keyboarding!!!)...and

prepare the STUDENTS...the teachers who want it will get it anyway. Why continue beatingour heads against the wall hoping classroom teachers are going to come 'round?

(from ednet list: Darlene Jones-Owens , 8 may 2001)

Distance Learning

Europe is looking at an enormous growth of people interested in distance learning: 2.5 million

people are studying at distance for a vocational purpose in the European Union2 and the distanceeducation market is valued one billion ECU.

But distance learning includes also classroom based education: many courses offered in traditionalface-to-face mode, integrate elements of learning web based or, more generally, new media based.

Distance education technologies can help rural schools overcome the disadvantage or geographicisolation by expanding course offering and learning opportunities and by connecting teachers (andstudents) with access to a broader range of resource material.

The possibility of accessing multimedia content in an affordable way is the challenge of interactive

distance learning via satellite, especially for rural areas.

ICT and education in Italy

Now lets have a look to Italian situation, related to school system and teacher training.

The Education System

The Italian education system is divided into the following levels:

infant school (3-5 years) primary school (6-10 years) lower secondary school (11 to 13 years) upper secondary school (14to 18 years)

Compulsory schooling ends with completion of lower secondary school, at which point students arecalled upon to decide whether they wish to continue their studies. Upper secondary schoolscomprise both lyce (classical, scientific, artistic, linguistic) and technical schools. As of September2001 a reform package will come into effect that will change this cycle and introduce two new oneslasting seven and five years respectively: completion of infant school will be followed by the

primary school cycle, from 6 to 12 years, and the secondary school cycle, lasting until 18 years. The

2 http://www.shu.ax.uk/virtual_campus/ligis/11/lead.htm


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latter will be divided into a two-year compulsory orientation period, followed by three years ofspecialisation.

TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS: 13,500

TOTAL NUMBER OF CLASSES: 370,260

TOTAL NUMBER OF TEACHERS: (in public schools) 741,437

TOTAL NUMBER OF STUDENTS: (in public schools) 7,590,892

Table 2: Figure about school system in Italy (source Eenet observatory)

ICT and Education

Education and ICT in a key issue in Italy as well as in all European countries. The Italian EducationMinistry has promoted and founded The Educational Technology Development Programme 1997-2000, a widespread project that have brought computers and the Internet in each of the over 13500

Italian schools.

This had the result to pass from a ratio of 500 pupils per PC in primary schools in 1997, to a ratio of35 pupils per a PC today, and from a ratio of 50 students per PC to 15 in secondary schools.

For 2001-2003 period these results are expected:

Objective 2001 2001 +2002 Costs 2001 Costs2002

PC/students in primary schools 1/25 1/15 100 Millions of 125 Millions of

PC/students in secondary 1/10 1/10 2 Millions of 4 Millions of

Schools connected to Internet every every 2 Millions of 4 Millions of

Cabling School Buildings 2.000 5.000 100 Millions of 125 Millions of

Table 3: Techonoloy at school: PC ratio and connection (source: Government web site)

Objective 2001 2001 +2002 Total Costs 2001 Total Costs2002

Total training hours 900.000 1.800.000

Total teacher involved 45.000 90.000

Regional government involved every every

4,5 Millions of 90 Millions of

Table 4: Training Program in ICT for school Teacher (local public administration) (source: Government web site)

Every teacher will have 20 hours of training. In every school will have a technology teacher able tomanage multimedia equipped library or labs.

The Piedmont Region: from global to local

In Italy, the national financial resources assigned by organisations such as Universities andenterprises to research and development are less important than in other countries. In Italy, only


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1,2% of the GDP is assigned to the research, although an increase has been registered since 1980(0,8%). By contrast, in France, 2,2% of the GDP is assigned to the R&D; in the UK, 2% and inGermany 2,4%.

As far as Italy is concerned, the situation changes when considering Piedmont. Hosting 7,6% of the

national population and producing 8,9% of the incomes, this region invests 3,3% of its GDP inResearch & Development, more than Japan (2,8%), USA (2,4%) and almost three times more thanthe Italian average. More specifically, the Piedmont enterprises' expenditure in R&D amounts to28,9% of the national one.

Public schools Pupils

TOTAL NUMBER OF Kindergarden 993 58.939

TOTAL NUMBER OF Primary 1.431 161.750

TOTAL NUMBER OF Secondary (I grade) 586 100.311

TOTAL NUMBER OF Secondary (II grade) 462 143.400

Total 3472 464.400

Table 5: Number of public schools in Piedmont in 2000/2001 (source Regional Government)

Since 1994 Local Public Governments or the Piedmont Region have has put additional effort andmoney in education, in order to apply new educational models that deal with technology in primaryand secondary schools, especially for ICT in the school. The first project was promoted by the Cityof Turin in 1994 for giving free Internet access to ten secondary schools, than the ProvincialGovernment of Turin started a program to give free Internet access to every secondary school.

In 1998 the project called Growing up in Torino was one of the forerunner projects whocontribute to the signature of a protocol among the Education Board, the local Public GovernmentAgencies, the University and the Polytechnic or Turin for starting and supporting the regionalPiedmont School Network.

Growing up in Torino3

The project started in 1998 has the aim to support educational system with TIC and broadbandconnection to bring out the cultural heritage of the City.More than 70 entities in city were connected to the experimental ADSL network (it was three yearsago!): teachers and pupils in nursery, primary and secondary school, museums, hospitals cancommunicate through good quality video-conference sessions, exchange huge quantities ofmultimedia data and learn to share activities with real time software.

The vision behind the project was testing network technology as a medium that could help with co-operative tasks; technology innovation in learning was considered as placement of the technicalasset (the Solution) in the educational framework starting from an attentive analysis of its specificneeds (the Problem). The technical support was given by CSP.The Learning Committee proposed the learning patterns to schools in order to give some guidelinesto help teachers to teach in new effective ways. There were two primary assumptions underlying the

patterns:

The Computer-Mediate Communication with partners far away in this case throughvideoconference and resource sharing may allow a better interaction than in a classroom,where behaviour are highly self-referenced. The videoconferences involved the wholeclassroom, not the single pupils.

3 This paragraph is based on the paper Growing up in Torino: Knowledge Technology for Education,Inguaggiato, Claudio; CSP scrl Guastavigna, Marco; Casulli, Laura; CSP scrl; Italy presented at the 20th Worldconfererence on Open learning and Distance education, Dusseldorf, Germany, 01-05 april 2001


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Working on hypermedia applications in a shared and co-operative way between various schoolsallows each partner to alternatively be Author as link producer and critical Reader, whoevaluates the knowledge effectiveness of the links when he clicks them. The reader-partner,who is aware of his role as knowledge warrantee in the framework of an untold co-operationagreement, is urged to be attentive both to the meaning and coherence of the links both to the

flow of the story in order to suggest to the Author-Partner when the result is not clear. TheAuthor-Partner, on his side, will be more conscious of the consequences of his choices, whichhe can negotiate, clarify and correct in progress.

The activity related to making digital video with introducing hyper comments released a prototype of user-friendly multimedia tool, which enables to enrich digital videos with contentreferences. Any author, either skilled or non-skilled in video editing, can produce high-qualityhyper-video based on reticular structure and on innovative communication techniques. SinceSeptember 2000, the prototype is also a project called Hyperfilm co-financed by the EuropeanCommission project within the IST Program (IST-1999-20306)4.

The project Growing up in Torino will end in June, 2001 but we (at CSP) noticed already anincrease and an improvements of the works produced by the schools using ICT.

PC in the schools connected by Growing up in Torino 554

Total number of e-mail exchanged for a period of two months ( february may 2000) 25.500

Table 6: Some figures about Growing up in Torino (source CSP)

The Regional School Network

"The new network configuration of the Public Education National System - the government plan forthe experimentation in the Piedmont Region" was the name of the proposal of Agreement Protocolsignet in July 2000th between the Piedmont Local Public Administration and the Ministry ofEducation. This protocol takes in account the projects mentioned before.

The network will serve the eight Piedmont provinces, more than 800 administrative structures and2000 school seats, 40.000 teachers and 450.000 students.

CSP, with CSI-Piemonte, are partner of the project will have the task to implement equalopportunity for every school in accessing the Internet at low cost for basic and advanced servicesfor didactics, to develop a stable relations system with and among all the schools subject.

CRT Bank Foundation, in order to contribute to overcome the limits conditioning a diffuse andeffective use of the ICT in the schools has funded the project of Piedmont School Network with 8

billions of ECU for August 2000 December 2001 period.

In particular the plan founded by CRT Bank Foundation, is intended:

to invest in the schools, in order to generate cultural attention to the new technologies

to involve students, teachers, families through the school

to accelerate and support the action related to the New-Economy.

4 For more information, see http://www.hyperfilm.it


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The plan aims to accelerate the process sketched in the Law of Reform of the Public Education andin the Strategic Programming Document of the Piedmont (DOCUP), in order to allow ameaningful number of schools to achieve an optimal participation to innovation (both in theorganisational and educational process, and in the "product" as effect on the students) due to theuse of ICT.

This plan supports:1. the services supply to all the schools of the Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta (Universal

Service),2. the realisation of innovative experiences for a limited number of schools (Call for the co-

financing of plans for ICT use in the schools),3. the creation of the Service, Animation and Experimentation Centres (CSAS), chosen

through the most innovative schools of the Region4. a series of initiatives supporting the promotion of informative, interactive and co-operative

services for the school system.

Objective of the Piedmont School Network

The Piedmont School Network have three objectives:

to promote among students new skills such as capacity of understanding and using newtools, capacity of adopting new cognitive styles for studying, seeking, projecting andcommunicating

to enhance teaching and administrative processes and to give to teachers and other schoolemployee new skills in multimedia fields

to simplify the bureaucratic procedures at local and central level.

For achieving these objectives, its necessary

to qualify school system in the national system through introducing ICT

to promote the local development and the valorisation of the territory through the integrationwith the social context

internationalisation for linking Piedmont Region to Europe, through co-operation andcultural exchange.

The project will address to two different partner: the school system that include students, teachers,

parents and the governmentthat include central and local education agencies and other (not school)government agencies.

TheService, Animation and Experimentation Centres (CSAS)

CSP has signed with CRT Bank Foundation a specific contract, who has the task to start up the 19high schools, appointed asService, Animation and Experimentation Centres (CSAS), located inthe different eight provinces of the Piedmont Region for making them the references for the otherschools of their local area.

CSAS are asked to:


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Organize training activity direct towards the attainment of ECDL (European ComputerDriving License) certification for teachers

Project and carry out workshop or other events about introducing ICT in education

Place their rooms and equipment at disposal of other schools for audio video streaming and

conference services Support other schools in ICT

Carry out specific experimentation in ICT or administrative services

CSP is helping defining the scenario for the development of ICT solutions through:

Project and develop a service centre for supporting experimentation and animation activityof the CSAS

Support CSAS, where its necessary, to set up a point for receiving streaming over satelliteand two way videoconference

Project and support the realisation of the broad band network infrastructure among theCSAS

Project and support an application platform for groupware and community services

Support the co-operative work of CSAS for set up and manage of the official web site of theproject

Project and experimentation of advanced services of helpdesk to support CSAS

Objective of CSP is create a community of excellence schools that could spread expertise to theother schools.

CSP establish with every CSAS specific contracts to determine reciprocal commitments: these

contracts have one year of life, and they will renewable for the following two years.An intermediate and a final report are expected from CSAS.

CSAS training, animation and experimentation activity is enhanced by using electronic broadbandnetworks and satellite:

enable to bring the best speakers to participate to the workshop, otherwise not available forall the students, especially who lives in remote areas.

enable an economy of scale: fixed cost of organising events or lessons could be dividedamong the listeners or the classes

the registration of events could be stored and it could be replied many times

provide interaction with students in other school

offer opportunities for staff development/ in service training

increase school/community linkages

In order to help teacher in using ICT at school in an effective way, CSP has defined a program forteacher training that uses different methodology and tools.

A plan for teacher training within the CSAS project

Open and distance learning for ECDL

As stated before CSAS are asked to manage teacher training in order to obtain ECDL certification.


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ECDL has some advantages, either for the organisation, such as schools, either for the individual

About advantages for the organisation, we can refer: the ability to measure training results,the provision of a computer skill inventory, thanks to the syllabus which is divided inspecific sections and modules, a benchmark for employee recruitment.

About advantages for the individual: people get an internationally recognised qualification,who can confirm to prospective employers that you have up-to-date IT skills and improve

job prospects

About advantages for the community: addresses the issue of IT skills shortages, closes theIT skills gap.

For these reasons European Commission sustain diffusion of ECDL Certification.

In Italy the Minister of Education signed a protocol with the local ECDL Agency (AICANET) for

adoption of ECDL for the students; following to this first protocol, the Minister of Educationsigned two further protocols with the Minister of Work and with the Conference of Chancellors foradopting ECDL certification as a credit in academic curricula and as accepted certification in opencompetition for gaining employment in public government organisation.

But, also if ECDL has many advantages, its not sufficient to cope with training needs of educationstructures: in some cases, the training for ECDL certification could be appear as purposeless andwithout content. For this reason, International and national agency are working for a specificECDL for Teacher, will include didactical use of technology (we hope!).

As of many people interested in ECDL certification, schools and other test centres areoverwhelmed of requests so they are working in implementing distance learning solutions.

ECDL training on my opinion fits very well with distance and open learning: ECDL syllabus doesnot require particular creativity or methodology: its essentially drill and practise.

For this kind of training, many CSAS are setting distance education solution in order to cope withthe great number of requests from teachers.

Collaborative learning using a blended solution for a Project Management Course

The scholastic autonomy is redesigning the life of the school and the professional profiles of peopleworking in it: the Plan of the Formative Offer represents the instrument to put into effect thedidactic flexibility and organisational, through the descriptions of the plans that the school mean torealise, articulate in objectives, times and resources. At the same time the national and Europeancalls constitute meaningful opportunities in order to start the processes of innovation in the school.

These requirements, found also during the meetings at CSP with the Centres, have carried to the setup of the first course about the Planning, Ideation, Definition and Evaluation of project proposals"organized by CSP in collaboration with Co.R.E.P. - Consortium for Continuing Research andEducation of the Polytechnic of Torino, addressed to the Headmasters of the Centres of Animation,

Service and Experimentation.


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The first edition of the course, started on April 2001, was carried out in part in presence and partthrough methodologies of co-operative work at a distance, so the participants could experimentdirectly use of ICT in education. environments. At the end of the course, participants areexpected to get skills related to development, management and monitoring of projects.

Topics of the course are: the monitoring of the financing opportunities, the problem setting, thetranslation of problems in objectives, the instruments for the planning and the control of a plan,criteria of appraisal and self evaluation.

The face-to-face meetings took place at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of course: thismeetings marks the three most important phases of the project.

In the first day, groups were established and they have to define an objective for their project. Thanusing email message, in the week of work at distance, they collaborate in defining general phasesand tasks of the project.

In the second meeting, after the presentation of the outcomes of the distance work to the otherscolleagues, they have to start the work of planning time and resources of their projects using WBS,Gantt and other methodologies they learned the same day.

During the period of three weeks, before the conclusion of the courses, they should have to use theLearning Management System called PICO (Portal for Integrated On line Knowledge) owned ofRegional Government, but it was out of order. Students communicate only through email (groupsare about of 4-5 persons) and two face-to-face meetings in different location were organised (oneof this uses also videoconference equipment of the school to reach other students far away).

The collaborative work at distance was successful: the last day of the course (May 11 th) every grouppresented his project to the evaluation of the others. At the conclusion of the course, they declaredto be satisfied of the project management methodology they learned and asked for having a secondchance to use collaborative environment. Someone was disappointed because its not possible towork in the same group with colleagues that come from the same school: they stated that in this waywork made in the classroom would be reused immediately in real life. Tutors and teachers stronglydisagree because the course wanted to be something of astonishing for them, presenting new way ofworking.

This course is also the first activity in which Headmaster of different CSAS met each other inunusual context: they seems to be very engaged in the course and they worked hard. The task are

clear and modular, and technology seems not to be a barrier because this is a methodology centredcourse. In fact no attention has been given about the presentation of the project, also if in somecases they were of good quality.

In this course also CMC tools, used in the distance phases, seems to be a very natural way ofinteraction: I hope that things will go better in the next edition and that we could try PICO and hisfeatures of learning environment.5

5 More Information about PICO: http://www.pico.piemonte.it


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D-schola.it: a community of practise

The third tool of training teachers program of the CSAS, is the web site D-schola, which enablescommunity services like web forum and sharing file. The next version ready for September 2001,will implement a groupware platform, for completing the community services with the integration

of a shared calendars, a chat for synchronous communication and so on. The challenge is helping tocreate a community of practise engaging the most teacher of the Region.

Three characteristics are crucial for making a community, a community of practise: a domain ofshared interested, the willing in engaging in joint activities for pursuing interest in the domain, ashared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problemsin short a shared practice

Although most of us appreciate that we have learned as much through informal processes as

in classrooms, we are not sure how to combine informal and formal aspects of learning inour organizations Such communities do not take knowledge in their specialty to be an

object; it is a living part of their practice even when they document it. Knowing is an act ofparticipation.

Communities of practice may well represent the natural social structure for the ownership ofknowledge, but they have been around for a long time, and they are everywhere. (Wenger,2000).

Conclusion

The integration of different approach to distance education, including different methodology such ascollaborative learning or problem based learning is related to many factors, like contents and costs but above

all the student: solution must focus on providing individuals with the tools and the resources forachieves their specific learning outcomes.


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Reference

Hara, N, Kling, R, Students Frustration with a Web-based Distance Education Course: A Tabootopic in the Discourse, http://www.slis.indiana.edu/CSI/wp99_01.html

How learning is changing: information and communication technology across Europe ICT ineducational policy http://www.becta.org.uk/EEnet

Maxwell, L. 1995. Integrating Open Learning and Distance Education. Educational TechnologyNovember-December, 43-48.

Muukkonen, H; Hakkarainen K.; Leinonen T. (2000) : 'Introduction to Fle2 Pedagogy',

published by the UIAH Media Lab, University of Art and Design Helsinki at:http://fle2.uiah.fi/pedagogy.html

Rocco, E., Warglien, M., Computer Mediated Communication and the Emergence of "ElectronicOpportunism, Department of Economics, University of Trento www-ceel.gelso.unitn.it/LabEcSper/PUBLICATIONS/papers/papero96_01.pdf

Schutte J., Virtual Teaching in Higher Education: The New Intellectual Superhighway or JustAnother Traffic Jam?, http://www.csun.edu/sociology/virexp.htm in E. Pant, Web Based Training,Apogeonline, http://www.apogeonline.com/webzine/1998/03/03/01/199803030108 , 1998

Tella, S. 1997. An 'Uneasy Alliance' of Media Education and Multiculturalism, with a View to Foreign Language Learning Methodology. Media Education Centre. University of Helsinki.Department of Teacher Education. OLE Publications 4, pp. 14-17

Taylor, J, Fifth Generation Distance Education, Keynote Address presented at the 20th ICDE WorldConference, Dsseldorf, Germany, 1-5 April 2001

Tosunoglu Blake,C, Rapanotti,L, Mapping interactions in a computer conferencing environment,Paper presented at Euro CSCL 2001, http://www.mmi.unimaas.nl/euro-cscl/Papers/163.pdf

Wenger, E., Supporting communities of practicea survey of community-oriented technologies,March 2001, http://www.ewenger.com


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Glossary

A

Application Service Provider (ASP) An organization that hosts software applications on its own serverswithin its own facilities. Customers access the application via private lines or the Internet. Also called a"commercial service provider." With the advent of the Web browser as the universal client interface, the ASPmarket is expected to grow rapidly.

Active Server Page (ASP) A Web server technology from Microsoft that allows for the creation of dynamic,interactive sessions with the user. An ASP is a Web page that contains HTML and embedded programmingcode written in VBScript or Jscript.

Andragogy. Andragogy is the art and science of helping adults learn (Knowles 1970). See pedagogy

Application sharing. A feature that allows two or more people in different locations to work together in a

single live software application. In application sharing, one user launches the application and it appears onall participants' computers simultaneously. Both users can input information and otherwise control theapplication using the keyboard and mouse. Although it appears that the application is running on both PCs, itactually is running on only one. The person who launched the application can lock out the other person frommaking changes, so the locked-out person sees the application running but cannot control it.

Assessment. The process used to evaluate a learners skill or knolewdge level compared to the expectedskill or knowledge for a person in the same job, position.

Assessment item. A question or measurable activity user to determine if the learner has mastered a learnerobjective.

Asynchronous. A type of communication that occurs with a time delay, allowing participants to respond attheir own convenience. Literally "not synchronous"; in other words, not at the same time.

Asynchronous Learning Any learning event where interaction is delayed over time. This allows learnersto participate according to their schedule, and be geographically separate from the instructor. Interactioncan take use various technologies like threaded discussion.

Authoring software/tools. High-level computer programs designed for creating computer-based training,interactive presentations, and multimedia. Commands are often presented as simple terms, concepts, andicons. Authoring software translates these commands into programming code.

B

Broadcast. Method of transferring contents to many people simultaneously. Variants are IP multicast andsatellite broadcast

C

Chat. A real-time, text-based conversation between two or more individuals connected online. As you type,everything you type is displayed to the other members of the chat group.

Certification. Program and process where a learner completes prescribed training and passes anassessment with a minimum acceptable score.

Class. Scheduled learning event that can take place at a traditional or a virtual classroom.


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Computer Based Training (CBT) Training or instruction where a computer program provides motivationand feedback in place on a live instructor. CBT can be delivered via CD-ROM, LAN or Internet. Creation isdone by teams of people including instructional designers, and often has high development costs.

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) The process by which people create, exchange, and perceiveinformation using networked telecommunications systems (or non-networked computers) that facilitate

encoding, transmitting, and decoding messages. The focus is on use of computer systems and networks fortransfer, storage, and retrieval of information among humans.

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)

Content item. A small piece of information that is stored in a database and is used to communicate skills orknowledge in support of reusability. It can be in any media format

Content on demand. Delivering and offering, packaged in a media format, anywhere, anytime via anetwork. Variant are audio on demand and video on demand

Correspondence course. A course completed from a distance using written correspondence for interaction

and to submit assignments. Correspondence classes became popular in the 1890s.

Course. An offering comprising a collection of learning events.

Curriculum. A predefined path of a course with an end goal such as certification or achieving required jobskills and knowledge.

D

Delivery. Any method of offering learning material to learners. Various ways are instructor-led training, web-based distance learning, online laboratory, CD-ROM, and books.

Desktop videoconferencing. Videoconferencing on a personal computer equipped with an Internetconnection (at least 28.8 Kbps modem), a microphone, and a video camera . There can be two-way or multi-way video and audio depending upon the hardware and software of participants. Most appropriate for smallgroups or individuals.

Distance education. See Distance learning. This term is often used synonymously with distance learning.However, distance education typically refers to academic settings.

Distance learning. A system and a process that connects learners and instructors who are in differentlocations. Distance learning has historically involved correspondence courses, video, or satellite broadcasts.With the connectivity of the Internet and a new generation of software applications, distance learning hasevolved into a new model, which provides higher quality and more flexibility and which is more appropriately

called "distributed learning."

Distance training. A reference to distance learning for the corporate or professional levels. More commonlyreferred to as distributed learning , WBT or e-Learning .

Distributed learning. A system and process that uses a variety of technologies, learning methodologies, on-line collaboration, and instructor facilitation to achieve applied learning results not possible from traditionaleducation in a truly flexible, anytime/anywhere fashion (very similar to e-Learning).

E

e-book. Offerings that organise text and graphics into lessons or chapters like traditional print book

E-commerce Service Provider (ESP) Application Service Provider specialised in offering services andcontents in e-commerce


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Education Service Provider (ESP) Application Service Provider specialised in offering services andcontents for e-learning,

e-Learning. Any learning that utilises a network (LAN, WAN or Internet) for delivery, interaction, orfacilitation. Can be synchronous , asynchronous , instructor-led or computer-based or a combination.

e-Learner. Any learner taking part in an e-Learning course or program.

Electronic classroom. A traditional classroom that has any number of active multimedia devices used toaugment the learning experience.

Easter egg. A hidden feature or novelty that the programmers have put in their software. This can beanything from a hidden list of developers' names, to hidden commands, to jokes, to funny animations.

Evaluation- Any method of gathering information about the impact or effectiveness of a learning event.Results of evaluation can be used to improve the course. Checks if the learning objectives have beenachieved.

F

Feedback A two-way communication between the instructor and the learner to increase the quality of thelearning experience.

G

Globalization. The tailoring of an offering to show clear, grammatically correct text, which is acceptableglobally

I

Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Instructional designer (ID). An individual who applies a systematic methodology based on instructionaldesign theory to create content for learning events.

Instructor-led training (ILT). Training in which learners are taught by an actual person, or instructor.Instructor-led training can occur synchronously or asynchronously. A scheduled event conducted by aninstructor, either in a classroom or through network delivery

J

Java. A programming language developed by Sun Microsystems that creates code for interactiveapplications that is executable on web pages by web browsers. These Java applications can execute on anyplatform: Macintosh, PC, and so on.

"Just in Time" (JIT). A term used to describe a system or information that is available for the user at theexact time the user needs it.

K

Killer app. An application that is exceptionally useful or exciting. When new operating systems are on thehorizon, people wish for one or two killer apps that run under the new system in order to justify the migration

effort and expense. For someone education is the next big killer application

L


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Lab. A physical or virtual hands-on learner interaction to meet skill-based learning objectives.

Learning Management System(LMS) integrate collection of technology services that may include contentdelivery, results monitoring and recording, classroom scheduling, competencies certification, etc

Learning Style the composite of characteristic cognitive, affective, and physiological factors that serve as

relatively stable indicators of how a learner perceives, interacts with, and responds to the learningenvironment. It is demonstrated in that pattern of behavior and performance by which an individualapproaches educational experiences. Its basis lies in the structure of neural organization and personalitywhich both molds and is molded by human development and the learning experiences of home, school, andsociety (Keefe & Languis, 1983 - National Association of Secondary School Principals (ASSP) task force)

Localization. The tailoring of an offering to meet the specific needs of a geographic area, products or targetaudience.

Lurker. A visitor to an online discussion who reads other people's postings but does not contribute. Lurkingis a good way for a beginner to get familiar with a newsgroup or forum.

M

Meta Data. Information about content that allows it to be stored in and retrieved from a database.

O

Online Learning e-Learning over the Internet (as opposed to a local or wide area network).

Online Training Same as online learning , only it implies the professional or corporate level.

P

Pedagogy. The art and science of educating children, it is often used synonymously with teaching. SeeAndragogy

Portal. A Web "supersite" that provides a variety of services including Web searching, news, white andyellow pages directories, free e-mail, discussion groups, online shopping and links to other sites. Webportals are the Web equivalent of the original online services such as CompuServe and AOL. Although theterm was initially used to refer to general purpose sites, it is increasingly being used to refer to verticalmarket sites that offer the same services, but only to a particular industry such as banking, learning orcomputers

Problem Based Learning (PBL) Problem-based learning is a form of teaching and learning that can be

used to satisfy the leaning needs of the self-directed, adult learner. Problem-based learning is driven by aneed to know and can be adapted to individualised learning situations or group learning activities

R

Real-time. The processing of information that returns a result so rapidly that the interaction appears to beinstantaneous. Telephone calls and videoconferencing are examples of real-time applications. These kindsof real-time information not only need to be processed almost instantaneously, but it needs to arrive in theexact order it's sent. A delay between parts of a word, or the transmission of video frames out of sequence,

makes the communication unintelligible. See also Synchronous.

Repurpose or Reutilize. To create new material from older material.


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Self-assessment .Process where the learner determines personal level of knowledge and skills.

Self-paced learning. An offering designed such that the learner determines the pace and timing of content

delivery.

Subject-matter expert (SME) .An individual who is recognized as having proficient knowledge and skillsabout a topic or subject area

Synchronous. A type of two-way communication that occurs with virtually no time delay, allowingparticipants to respond in real time. Also, a system in which regularly occurring events in timed intervals arekept in step using some form of electronic clocking mechanism. Synchronous capabilities add a living,breathing dimension to online learning.

Synchronous learning .Learning event delivered in real time to the learner that can include immediate, two-way communication between participants. This requires that learners attend class at its scheduled time.Could be held in a traditional classroom, or delivered via e-Learning technologies

V

Virtual classroom- An electronic meeting place of Learners and Educators for the purpose of learning andteaching an educational experience of real people in a virtual dimension.

W

Web-based training (WBT). A form of computer-based training in which the training material resides onpages accessible through the World Wide Web. Typical media elements used are text and graphics. Othermedia such as animation, audio, and video can be used, but require more bandwidth and in some cases

additional software. The terms "online courses" and "web-based instruction" are sometimes usedinterchangeably with WBT.

Webcast. To send live audio or video programming over the Web. It is the Internet counterpart to traditionalradio and TV broadcasting.

Whiteboarding. A term used to describe the placement of shared documents or material on an on-screen"shared notebook" or "whiteboard." Desktop videoconferencing software includes "snapshot" tools thatenable you to capture entire windows or portions of windows and place them on the whiteboard. You workwith familiar tools to mark up the electronic whiteboard much like you do with a traditional wall-mountedboard.

Documents

Teacher training for introducing ICT in education: open and distance learning in a regional program