An Experience With Collaborative Work Environments

Adriana Gewerc Barujel Nuria Abalde Rosario Belda José María Aguilera

Teaching with ICT: What does it mean? ”From e-mail to super web tools!”


     



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Index

Introduction ................................................................................. 3 1. Proposals for the use of online tools ................................... 7 a) Levels of use of online tools ................................................. 8 b) Teacher’s abilities................................................................. 9 c) Analysis and examples of the use of online tools ................ 12 I. Information search................................................... 13 II. Interpersonal exchanges ......................................... 17 III. Problem solving projects ........................................ 30 d) Experiences using online tools ........................................... 32 e) An experience in collaborative working environments ........ 33 f) Using an eJournal................................................................. 36 g) Videoconferencing .............................................................. 39 h) Using WebQuest ................................................................ 41 2. Conclusions. ........................................................................ 43 3. Bibliography ......................................................................... 44

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Introduction José María Aguilera Training and Research Centre, A Coruña This document is conceived with the aim of being a support for teachers interested in education and in the world of ICT. It originated from conversations and work developed during the development of the Comenius Project IPM tools (Finding Innovative Pedagogical Methods to Integrate Web-Based Tools Into Teaching And Learning). Nº: 94248-CP-1-2001-1-FI-COMENIUS-C21(http://ipmtools.eduprojects.net/). It is dedicated to the pre-school, primary and secondary school teachers who took part in innovative projects using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In this document framework for analysis is included, as well as examples and commentaries of experiences carried out by a group of Spanish teachers which believe that this effort can help us to continue to go deeper into what we do, how we do it, and what are we working for in particular educational projects. Our efforts were focussed on those kinds of educational project proposals that use Internet tools; referring to search tools, communication tools, and information support tools. Each of them enables, strengthens and complements the development of a platform such as e-Journal, thereby demonstrating its convenience in a project with these features. The underlying concept that informs this work assumes that ICTs cannot be understood simply as an add-on resource, but that they assume a new vision educational activity that has to be analysed. The reasons why ICTs require a change of mindset arise from the modifications that are taking place in social and economic environments that can be summarized as having ten basic features: 1. Hyperinformation. A crushing amount of data

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2. Omnipresence. They are everywhere 3. Irradiation. Geographic barriers vanish 4. Speed. Communication has become immediate 5. Multilateralness and centrality: Worldwide web and networks fed only by servers. Connections are made inside and outside of the computer classroom 6. Interactivity and unilateralness: Two complementary procedures 7. Inequality. Techno-rich vs. Techno-poor. 8. Heterogeneity. We are so many users as persons. 9. Disorientation. We have lost stable points of reference. 10. Passiveness. Passive citizens consumed by a culture of spectacle.

From an educational approach these social conditions have the affect that: x

Educational institutions are not a preferential place for learning anymore.

x

Knowledge has been multiplied.

x

Learning to learn has become the main value of the academic institution

x

We are not in front of an alternative possibility, but in front of an unquestionable reality. However, we have to be aware that innovation of pedagogic practices and the

adjustment of academic systems into an academic pattern supported by digital technologies is, and will be, a slow process, up and down, with forward and backward movements. The proper execution of this means, amongst other measures, to carry out enormous economic investments towards the endowment of technological resources for schools and the foundation of an electronic education network; to develop training plans for teachers and advice plans for schools referring to the use of ICTs with educational aims; envisage educational institutions as cultural instances integrated in the community where they belong, and to provide the community with available technologic resources; design and develop projects and experiences of virtual learning supported by the use of electronic networks and foment the building of learning virtual

4

communities; the foundation of websites and online materials, so they can be used and shared by different institutions and classrooms. The challenge of the future is the need for academic centres not only to innovate their technology but also their ideologies and pedagogic practices. This will mean modifying the structures for learning entirely: changes in the role of teachers, changes of learning procedure and activities of pupils, changes in the organization of the classroom, changes in the possibilities of guardianship. Nowadays, twenty years later, we have are certain about one thing: ICTs in teaching do not perform magical results. Any teacher, just by introducing PCs into his/her teaching, cannot consider that automatically they will have the outcome that his/her pupils will learn more, or better, nor can they be considered incentives to learning. These are merely utopian visions or blind pedagogic faith about the ability of digital machines and they have no a rational foundation. Today, we know that PCs are objects or tools that have pedagogic possibilities depending on the kind of methodological activities or decisions carried out by teachers. What is outstanding for pedagogic innovation of teaching practice, thus, are the developed learning exposition and method, and the learning process fomented by that method in the pupils, not the features of the technology that has been used. In this work, we have included an analysis of the possibilities of using the kinds of

tools

we

find

in

online

environments. There, we have theoretical

and

practical

argumentations about such tools from a didactic point of view, that is to say, from the perspective of guiding the learning practice. Finally, we would like to point out that we have added

5

reports of experiences carried out personally by different teachers of Spain. Experiences that are in continuous process of development, that result in the recognition of the problems and the conflicts of the practice with using these tools. We feel that they provide a valuable source of material that can be considered as a "case study" in training proposals in the sense that they emerge from actual schools realities. The knowledge and analysis of other professionals are always invaluable and clears the way for reflecting and solving the problems we could face. This report can be considered like a "mirror" in which we look at ourselves and visualize which are our possibilities, which questions that I find there can be useful for my practice, which ones have I can dismiss, and finally, an opportunity for professional development. We would like to express our gratitude to the teaching staff that has enabled this learning possibility. We hope that this project can be useful for work in schools and can also contribute to their improvement.

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Proposals for the use of online tools Adriana Gewerc Barujel University of Santiago de Compostela When we talk about learning environments and online learning or web instruction, the characteristics and use of resources of the “WWW” are alluded to in order to create a framework whereby students feel they are being helped in their process using all the teaching and learning tools available on the net. We are talking about information searching tools (search engines), collaborative communication tools (chats, e-mails, discussion forums, distribution tables, videoconferences and tools that enable the support of information through hypermedia websites (electronic magazines, weblogs, webquest, simulations, webcams, etc…). Perhaps, the most interesting thing is the possibility of integrating them in a proposal aimed at constructivist learning by pupils. More and more Internet is a context where there are interactions which combine and join inquiry, communication, building and expression activities. More and more, the network is defined as a public space, a place where people meet for discussing as it was done in the Agora of former Greece or like the councils of contemporary municipalities. It is described as a cooperative environment where researchers and inventors share ideas, co-build new concepts and explanations and design new products; and it is also like one of the main motors of global context growing which are only possible in this environment, not as a substitute of face to face real interaction but as something different with singular features and evident advantages (and disadvantages) of that interaction (Burbules y Torres, 2001)

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a. Levels of use of online tools Harmon and Jones1 explain different levels of useof Internet in academic institutions, from level 0, which implies not to use it, never, under any circumstance, to the complete use through online teaching, where all curriculum content is developed through this means. Based in his work, we have incorporated elements that are considered relevant to our environment in primary and secondary schools. A synthesis of his proposal can be viewed in the following table: Level 0 x

No web use

Level 1: Basic x

Information support about teaching

Level 2: Support x x x

Supplementary support for teaching Academic information Information searches

x x x x

Web is essential Information support Information search E-mail communication

Level 3: Essential

Level 4: Communal x x x x

Online contents Information searches Pupils producing contents Multidirectional communication: (chats, forums,…)

Level 5: Immersion x x x

Simulation software Communication tools Collaborative tools

It means not to use the web Teacher provides quite stable information to students. Inserts items in a website, like a glossary, the course programme or contact information. This kind of information is easily constructed by the teacher, demands little maintenance and a takes a short time. Teacher provides information about course contents to students. The classic example could be a power-point presentation saved as a HTML document made available on the web. It has pupils using the web as a source of information in order to develop some work in the classroom. Student cannot be a productive member of his/her classroom without regular access to the course web. E-mail is used for communicating with the teacher. The lessons are developed both in face to face and online learning environments. The course contents are available online or in the conventional lesson. The ideal thing would be that students produce the majority of the contents by themselves. Communications tools are used to share information about the whole student body (chats, forums, tables…) Cooperative work tools are used. All the course contents and the interactions are online. It is not different from the conventional idea of e-learning. But, in this level we can find sophisticated learning environments designed from a constructivist point of view.

Levels of use of WWW in teaching and learning.

1

8

Mentioned by (Lowther, Jones y Plants, 2000)

This classification of levels is arbitrary; we don’t in any way intend that it be read in a strict manner, on the contrary, we expect to encounter a combination of possibilities in its application. But it indicates a process that, to some extent, is present in the different experiences that we can examine. It appears it presents a logical process of approach on the part of teachers to use tools that entail: 1. A place where it is possible that pupils accede to some presented information, thus, we find a lot of teachers and schools that have their websites where they have put up data about the organization. This way, users can get them more easily. 2. A place to find information about curriculum contents, share experiences and ideas and discuss some topics, exchange any kind of information, etc.

It is a process that demands information about some basic questions, as we will see in the following section, until we achieve reliance and maturation with the tool that can be used to its fullest advantages.

b. Teacher´s abilities. Teachers need to develop specialized abilities to have effective management of Internet as a tool. It is not enough just to know how to access it. According to Harmon (1999), teacher should basically know what is HTML and some tools for creating information. It is very important to know how some sites are developed. This understanding is useful in the planning aimed to the proper use of PCs by the students. He/she needs to be familiar with the functions of the computer, and it demands the abilities exposed in the following table to get the technologic literacy for the information search (Lowther et al., 2000).

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Abilities and explanation Web history An approach to Internet and its beginning Reading a web address

How to identify a personal server and a domain.

Navigation abilities Knowledge about how to use your search engine

Foundations Internet has a particular history. Teachers need understand, not in a technical level, the Internet infrastructure and its culture. Being able to read a web address is a good tool for the understanding of the features of the site. To identify the names of the domains means knowledge of entities. This information is useful for research and also is useful when the websites are created. To know that “/” leads to a file can be very important in the development of materials carried out later on A browser has important tools; to know them gives the possibility of preparing the lessons much better when using them.

and which are its functions. Search abilities Finding and using search tools and knowing their possibilities and limits.

To evaluate the information Making estimated decisions about information

Compiling favourites Selecting interesting websites to get them whenever you want. To download information How to move a file from the server to the PC

Internet can simplify the search for information. According to its effective use it is important that teachers know, understand, and use Boolean operators in order to help in that search. Teachers have to understand how to search in Internet and how to help their students to initiate and end the searches. This is an ability complicated to teach. Teachers have to be aware of false information and they have to be prepared to carefully check the information before using it. The interesting thing is to help the pupils when they make decisions so that they check and select the information they consider suitable. Favourite’s file has to be organized and classified. To learn to classify and organize the different sites helps in further information searches. Teachers can classify their favourites by means of curriculum, level or specific needs of the students group. Technically it is not hard to download information from the web. But teachers need to know the dangers of downloading from unknown sites and also to know how to download images and texts that are not marked as such.

Abilities for the search of digitalized information

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Now the process can not conclude at this point, since the teachers need to understand curriculum contexts of those abilities, the contents in which it is suitable to use them, in which situations and which learning proposals are demanded by the pupil. Therefore, it is necessary to move forward from technologic literacy to a training that enables the teachers to make decisions of a curriculum design incorporating the proposals of new technologies. In that sense we have the following table, which proposes which are the most outstanding questions: Those in which teachers have to be trained to acquire the abilities in a technological context. Component Further on technologic literacy

To understand the connection between PC´s functions and pupil’s learning.

To understand when and how to develop environments for an effective technologic use.

Description x Technologic literacy (how to operate with a PC) x Technologic ability (how to use the PC as a learning and teaching tool) x Identification of the main functions of the PC (organization, computation, building of tables, graphics, images, searches, etc.) x Connection of functions with the objectives pursued for the pupils x Use of the function to process the information and, this way, to increase the learning. x To establish when it is suitable to integrate technology. x To establish the proper methods for integration. x To establish how to produce a culture in the classroom which is positive in the achievement of the attitude and cognitive objectives.

Technologic abilities for learning (Lowther et al., 2000)

It means, going beyond technologic literacy, implies that teachers have some criteria in deciding when it is suitable to use technology and which technology is proper at every moment, knowing deeply the abilities and weaknesses of each one and, therefore, integrating different resources. This demands a deep analysis according to the proposed aims, the present contents, and the methodologies that will enable pupils to interact with those contents.

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In order to build environments where learning is being developed, where the most important thing is the purpose of learning above the purpose of getting approval, it is necessary to get a sensible understanding of the meaning of current knowledge in regard to the social reality where we live and take charge of generation gaps.

c. Analysis and examples of the use of online tools. Bitter and Pierson (2002) suggest a range of questions that teacher must consider when they design their teaching with Internet; we provide their proposal:

1

Which is the suggested educational objective for my pupils?

2

Considering the exposed objectives and contents, is it advisable to use text or electronic resources?

3

Am I trying to carry out my educational objectives according to an accepted technology or am I using those tools to achieve more effectiveness in my objectives?

4

Comparing with other tools, is the electronic tool more useful to achieve the objectives?

5

Can objectives be improved using Internet more than if we use conventional tools?

6

Is Internet an effective way to achieve wide educational goals or is it a way to develop activities for the use of this concrete tool?

Questions to be considered when learning is designed with Internet resources.

12

The proposal claims for the meditation about the tools´ use examining what it means and its possibilities, not as an aim in itself. According to Adell (1998), teaching that use Internet tools can be classified by: x

Information search

x

Interpersonal exchanges

x

Projects that solve problems

That is to say, a classification developed according to the possibilities of the environment (as an information bank and as a means of communication). Though for the analysis we will attend to each one individually, it is important to remark that the real value lies in their complementariness, the ability of communication and, at the same time, work with information that could be handled to carry out work in a collaborative way.

I. Information search

The information search process is part of the basic abilities needed for the work with problem solving projects. We have referred to the wide possibilities of Internet in that respect and the abilities needed to take advantage of this service. To this effect it is very interesting to have access to information sources that are not locally available or is considered under constant change.

Information is obtained by means of distant

databases, through e-mail or conferencing. That means the possibility of giving a more extended curriculum, not a single and lineal one. Insofar as no one pupil will have access to the same information, it will be possible to develop complementary and contrastive work. Anyway, it is important to explain that students have access to materials that, otherwise, wouldn’t be available. Libraries of Congress or another public institutions or experts can provide firsthand information. Pupils can pose questions directly to scientists

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or search in their database in order to find answers for these questions. Moreover, we find information often difficult to encounter in a book or an encyclopaedia. In interactive audio, video and web components they find a range of information suitable to different learning styles. Not only they can read about the information but, at the same time, they can watch a video that exemplifies or explains some version of it. It is important to be aware of the objectives that are pursued in order that the use of Internet as an information search resource does not result in being just a complement of what we have done until now and, thus, it does not replace the textbook without more ado. It is important that it really implies an integration of pupils in the knowledge society. If we are thinking about a school where people learn to gather data, Internet can be an innovation taking into account that children would be enthusiastic using the PCs the first day but, in a short time, the amount of information becomse such a breadth that it becomes exhausting and, so, it is not suitable for the achievement of learning. Teaching with the foundation of a textbook is different from teaching with an electronic library. The concept of learning also changes; let’s see some differences in the following table.

Textbook To manage the content of the textbook

They learn the themes of the exam Resources are previously analysed and evaluated by teachers.

Electronic library To understand how it is found, to retrieve and understand the material found there and the matters that each one considers relevant. To deal with different sources to get conclusions looking for materials which lead to the understanding of the subject matter. Resources are equally up to teachers and pupils.

Comparison between teaching with textbook and electronic library.

In the same way that it is important that pupils learn to search information in a wordbook or encyclopaedia, it is important that they learn how to search information in

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Internet, which are the main abilities demanded for managing the navigation context. Therefore, it is important that pupils develop abilities for: o Navigation in the web using the web navigator tools and the links between portals. o To join and express both orally and written form the discoveries through navigation and the concepts we are searching. o To read the content of a website in order to make decisions about the search of information in the site. o To detect who is the author of a site and who promotes it. o To explain orally and in writing the how a site is constructed for us o To know the difference between a website and a web page o To detect the differences between information found in a web and that of a textbook and evaluate the terms where it is advisable to use one or another resource. o To evaluate a website according to different criteria. o To evaluate different textbooks and compare them with the evaluation of the websites o To join search resources with concepts and strategies o Knowledge of key concepts for the development of searches Pupils will be able to learn about and analyse their search strategies. One of the most important abilities concerning Internet is the design of the search process, it means, to consider which is the best way to find the information or how can we get the information that we need in an extended way. When students are working with lesson content it is important to remind them of the need to consider how to present the search themes and the search tools in order to

15

find the best results. We have also to remind them of the need to analyse the search results in order to find resources that meet their research requirements. All this demands a school that supports research and investigation where memorizing and repetition are not essential aspects: A school that looks for new ways for helping pupils in the search for knowledge, a school that considers information as a means, not as an end in itself. To be able to search properly, it is necessary that students know which concepts are fundamental and which are secondary in regard to the subject that is being developed. For example: x

Making graphics of where the websites were found and the details of searches are shown.

x

Comparing the graphics done by each group.

x

Establishing selection criteria for the sites

x

Detecting the differences among the search tools and knowing how to use Boolean operators to develop the most effective search strategies.

In order to succeed in searches students have to obtain abilities for the development of search strategies and understand how the different tools work. Since they already work with Boolean search methods they have to work with a wider range of possibilities (with images, texts and sound) and they have better opportunities to understand the logic in relation to techniques. The main goal is to understand the logic of searching tools and the differences between them. It is obvious than the use of the WWW has had a prevalent change in primary schools. However, though the effect is evident, it is still not included in the classroom and our educational system needs to embrace different approaches to acquire the benefits. Due to the amount of information that Internet users encounter, we know that users who cannot make differences between useful, credible and interesting things will become exhausted. Therefore we can deduce that the development of a critical ability to

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read information in a selective way, evaluate and question it is one of the main educational challenges caused by these new technologies. Burbules and Torres (2001) have called it hyperreading, it is not just a question of finding and reading what we find, but it is a question of learning to connect findings, questioning the links provided and questioning about silences or absences, that is to say, which things or persons are not there. This leads us to the problem of credibility in the information we find. To evaluate credibility has an internal and an external face. The internal one, consists in considering inherent elements, the external one consists in judging (indirectly) the elements around, including associations or references to them, which implies to have knowledge about the subject theme. Another dimension of credibility has to do with links from and towards a resource: when someone provides a link to another or even he/she mentions it, there we have a reciprocal transfer of credibility. This network is called distributed credibility. The analysis and the obtaining of credibility shows that referring to access there is a continual exchange of activity and passivity. Some just navigate, looking, nosing around, or exploring at random. The critical reader of information, a hyperreader, has more active questions about what he finds and what he does not find; he makes comparisons continuously and he has opinions about credibility; he goes beyond what he finds out casually, and he gets to what is hidden or implicit behind appearances.

II. Interpersonal exchanges

The communication possibilities provided by Internet can be classified as being synchronous (chats, videoconferences), and asynchronous (forums, e-mails, distribution lists). In this work it is interesting to move to a more concrete level of intention to see how it is possible to use resources in the context of learning situations, for the learning of concepts, procedures and attitudes. In this sense, meetings can be established on a one to one, one to many, or many to many, basis, as we see further in the following table:

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e-mail

Distribution table

Chat

Discussion forum

Level

interpersonal

group

group

hybrid

Conversation

general dialogue

monologuediscussion

multilogue

monologue, discussion

Remittent

one

many or just one

many (or one)

many

Receivers

one-many

many

many or one

many

Distribution

one to one one to many

one to one/many

server (channel)

mail server

Time

asynchronous

asynchronous

asynchronous

asynchronous

Sociability

dialogue

multiple reception

multiple reception

multiple reception

Visibility

private

private

private/public

public

Interaction

reactive (in general)

------

reactive

-----

Metaphor

mail

mail

room/conversation discussion/conversation

Different kinds of electronic communication (Patterson, 1996)

E-mail, discussion forums and chats provide teachers with the possibility of communicating to face common problems, breaking with the isolation that has typically defined the profession. Thorough these tools it is possible to design as teamwork or to send, at the same time, a program to every teacher of the school. Meetings, publications and research can be arranged by means of e-mail and there is no need for face-to-face meetings. Thus, somehow, the kind of work developed until that moment is modified. It is amazing, and maybe it will change the isolation paradigm, the active presence of teachers in specialized discussion forums where they give their opinions, problems and solutions. In teaching proposals the means of communication provided by Internet enables pupils to take part in projects where partners are instructors, come into contact with experts and pose questions firsthand. Students, experts and teachers can work altogether designing a project, for example the work carried out by NASA experts with several schools of The United States, (Bitter and Pierson, 2002). The Electronic

18

Emissary Project uses online facilitators which act as mediators between classrooms and experts, working as a team to develop work suitable to curriculum objectives, offering bridges between experts and younger pupils. Many of the collaborative projects carried out by pupils in schools that have email, use it tool to for problem solving. Students can interact with other students of different courses. Thereby, communication between students of other schools, other communities or countries, can be achieved in order to acquire and exchange information about topics relevant to those communities or other specific problems. There are a lot of interchange projects between schools, especially for the learning of foreign languages. Let’s see now, which possibilities of use and features, has each tool when they are to be used in a learning context.

x

E-mail

E-mail is, as we have referred before, an asynchronous form of electronic communication that connects people almost with the velocity of telephone and at a low cost. Its use in an educational environment is based on communication theory and in every possibility that this resource can give in the language area in order to analyse an epistolary discourse with these features. E-mail is considered a medium of communication that makes communication easier to accomplish and allows for the expression of senses, since it is not so forced like face-to-face communication. There is abundant of research that demonstrates that people develop relationships more easily and with more frequency than in conventional communication and, at the same time, they show a greater range of connexion between them, with different levels of profoundness. Therefore, we cannot demean either the input of this use tool or its use in educative contexts.

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x

Chat

Chat opens the door to a new way of communication in real time with people that take part in a community. This gives us the opportunity to construct learning, sharing it with people that can be at that moment in different parts of the world. This means that we must take advantage of time and organize it so that it can be a useful tool in the training process of a classroom setting. Most of our pupils (children or adolescents) use chat as a way of communication. To know its features will allow us to know them a little more. However, it is a tool that is not very often used in conventional educational contexts, maybe it is influenced by its ludic feature or by what has said about it, but it is important to defence the argument that it allows to build and maintain interactive social links presented as a virtual community, and before discarding it, we must know its features, limits and possibilities to think about its potential in the educational context.

Chats features: x

Users make themselves known with ‘nicks’ or nicknames.

x

Interaction is carried out in a textual form

x

It is anonymous, most information can be manipulated

x

Interaction occurs in areas called channels and rooms in channels.

x

Users can be dispersed with regard to their geographic allocation but they can converge through dialogue

x

Paragraphs are limited to four text lines in each entry.

x

Messages can be stored or archived, in the e-mail are filed automatically.

x

Messages, which are created automatically by the system, are inserted in the messages sent by users, building, thus, a common area where the text from different interaction is generated.

x

Due to problems in the Net, a time lapse, more or less wide between the sending of a message and the reception of its answer, could exist.

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x

Everybody can read messages sent by the rest of users, unless a private interaction area has been built.

x

Users can participate in a lot of public interaction

Why users connect more and more to chats? Limits

Possibilities

Reduction of contextual wealth in front of Feeling of being in a protected space where you conversation interchanges (absence of hearing and can express your emotions visual channel in the written text) Possibility of disconnecting of the, so often tedious, Absence of indicators of intention in the real world communication. Ability for playing with different identities Time gap between speaking and writing. To get in contact with people from another geographic place at a low cost. Absence of references in users Absence of information about the converser activity To meet people with common hobbies. Profusion of useless texts (abundance of greetings, Interchange information in real time corrections and explanations), To discuss in real time with people interested in the Absence of a historical record in the conversation same theme or problem

Use in the educational context

Due to its spontaneity, it is a proper space for the flow of ideas and the beginning of a common project to solve certain questions or to explain a question that demands the input of different examples, or a game of questions and answers. It is a proper place for the approach to diverse themes that later are discussed in other communicating areas or in the same materials. The diversity of chat depends on the way it is proposed, the nature of the person who is leading it, the organization, the number of members, the length, etc…

21

It is a tool that supplies face-to-face contact, some people miss corporal input of the oral language, since it is based just in textual features. However, with the use of chats by means of onomatopoeias or “emoticons” that show the purpose of the speaker or the possibilities for expressing gestures and emotions, we can express the affections and form a closer communication. We consider that expressiveness is essential in the message, to remark aspects of affection in order to build a link in the group, a closer treatment to give a human dimension to conversations. Due to the features of the chat in the school context, it is important that teachers make a detailed design of it and, even though its main feature is spontaneity in the conversation, this must be used with well-defined goals, like any teaching project. Thus, in the first place, and taking into account the design with electronic tools, it is important to decide whether the use of chat is pertinent or we must choose another communication tool. Amongst other possibilities, synchronous conversation is important when: x

Activity demands the conversation of the members of a group to get agreements and it is not possible because of geographic distances.

x

When the group is not very large (6 or 8 persons could be the right number of persons to take part in a chat easily)

x

When it is about getting in contact with experts and chat provides conversation at a lower cost

x

To analyse some group conflict (and the group is geographic distant)

x

To work with attitude contents which demand the spontaneity of answers.

Anyway, it is important that the teacher think about which is his/her task (before, during and when the chat finishes) once the need of use is defined. Like any proposal, it needs a definition of objectives that sustain the reason of using a tool and, at the same time, the conduct required by pupil during the process. For example:

22

x

To break the isolation allowing the group sense

x

To build knowledge starting from choices, ideas, representations of another people

x

To compare points of view about a topic

x

To form a group for virtual learning

x

To establish an information exchange in real time

x

To develop abilities in order to make questions about a theme

x

To compare oral and written language

The planning of the chat implies that it be a necessary tool in a project, moreover, that pupils must know clearly its function and what is required of them with regard to the abilities that are at play. This includes the need that both pupils and teachers know deeply the tool and all its technical possibilities (to use files, to use microphones and webcams, to record conversations, to converse in private with some members of the group, etc.) Thus, at the planning moment, it will be decided just what kind of chat is going to take place, the number of participants, the necessary prior conditions (reading a text before discussing about it, preparing questions when it is an interview to an expert, etc.) and the possibility of using a group method in the course of the chat, like Phillips 66 or Brainstorming, for example. It is also important to prepare various alternative proposals for the session. During the chat, teacher takes on the role of group coordinator. Coordination is associated with: dynamism, moderation, organization, communication, timing, motivation, spontaneity, and observation of the group process. But, sometimes, it is also associated with chaos, lack of control, waste of time, crossing of themes. To coordinate means in order to put things in common it is necessary to develop a control of the tool, follow the course of the theme, listen to everyone and write with fluency and speed. It also means to acknowledge that every input is important for the group.

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At this point the following proposals can be analysed. - To organize the contribution according to the objective - To connect with readings made with other tools - To help and stimulate along the lines of the contributions. - To analyse continuously the assumed roles of the group members. - To evaluate the group contribution process according to the use of these tools. - To contribute continuously incentives. To establish activities that help to solve the problems proposed by the group, to be aware and to listen every contribution. To help to consider the themes which are being developed. After the chat, the teacher will be able to analyse the conversation by evaluating group contributions and the overall results of the chat activity in terms of content. Furthermore, it would be useful to attempt a synthesis of the activity and to make take that up with the pupils using selections from the chat archives, or better, to propose that pupils make their own synthesis, diagrams, conceptual maps, etc of the process that took place.

Suggestions to facilitate the use x

To write little and concisely

x

Not to write ‘beating about the bush’.

x

To read the intervention of colleagues so that we do not loose the thread of the conversation

x

Not to mix themes so that confusion results

x

To make every effort not to delay your intervention since that causes further delays

x

If you are occupied with another matter during the conversation, please convey it so that your colleagues know the reason for your absence

24

Many chats propose norms of use, it would be important to share them with students, for example: x

To greet the rest of users before starting the session helps to create a more empathic climate between the members.

x

To take part in the conversation that is being developed. In a means such as this, that is the only way to indicate that one is paying attention.

x

Let the conversation flow and to not answer bitterly.

x

To be collaborative in any expressed proposal

x

Not to insult or to be disrespectful

x

To keep a friendly tone

x

To avoid unpleasant incidents or any kind of xenophobe, violent or offensive expression which could affect the rest of participants.

Examples of use Chats provide a lot of possibilities for language learning, its grammar and orthography. Though there is a lot of criticism of the language uses in electronic means (chats mobile messages, e-mails) it is possible to transform them into a pretext to write properly and express by mean of ideas or images with a communicative intention. An interesting resource for the use of chat in teaching is the possibility that pupils have for conversations in real time with the author of a book, about the reading of the reference text, making questions for an interview, etc. Another interesting experience is carried out in the NASA web, where teachers, students and parents are invited to register so that they participate in conversations with NASA employees in order to talk about various aspects of their job. Students chat with engineers, pilots, astronauts and researchers. One of the main criticisms of chats points to the inherent difficulties of written expression that demands the need for speed writing with and so pupils will tend to write with shorten words or with more orthographic mistakes than they would normally.

25

Students must admit that chat is a communication means that is not suitable for all the situations. Just in the moment when we have more communication possibilities, it is necessary to discern when it is fitting to use one or the other means depending on the context and the situation. They can also use chats transcriptions, as a tool to discuss about communication, writing styles, grammar or language. In http://:www.yahooligans.com we can find registers of chat sessions that had been made by celebrities from different fields, for example The Backstreet Boys. To read conversations of these personalities can be an interesting tool to talk about communication, the proper way of communication or writing, etc. It is possible to work with students, read transcriptions and analyse with them the differences between a chat and the same conversation in person, by telephone or in a letter. Students can be asked to repeat the same conversation using different media. Once the chat session has taken place by the students, it can be recorded or printed so that we can analyse together the expression or orthographic mistakes they have had.

x

Discussion Forums

The forum is the place where our contributions are most readily exposed: ideas, doubts, problems, suggestions, material, innovations, so that our partners can see them. It is a space and a moment for genuine discussion. It is a sort of “notice board” where messages with news or request of information are set and where answers are also placed. The messages that have already been published are read as a normal web and contributions and answers are sent through a form inserted in the web. But that is not all, it is not just a static warehouse but it is a dynamic forum, a continuous discussion where ideas are exchanged and discussed and, thus, the subject matter is improved. The great opportunity encouraged by the discussion forum is the possibility of making contributions in a more gentle way than making them in other synchronous tools such as chats.

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A forum demands a shared knowledge of the users about the topic under discuss and the stage of the discussion or the interrelation of crafty discussions of the forum. Therefore, a forum is given the name of multilogue, a kind of dialogue in which a person starts the conversational plot. Starting from here, the transmitter looses control over the subsequent development of the interaction, since there is not a pre-defined turntaking sequence. It is like an oral conversation, in that anyone interested in speaking could do that at the same time and, though its simultaneousness, all the voices can be heard clearly. We can even say that its use is not common in the first and second level of instruction; we think that it is a powerful tool for the development of some abilities in the students: x

To make questions

x

To develop the critical spirit.

x

To develop abilities in order to argue the points of view.

x

To learn to “listen” and respect the different opinions about the same topic

In the academic scope, asynchronous practice, which is typical in virtual forums, a forum allows the students to articulate their ideas and opinions, placed in different spaces and times, promoting different discussion sources, and thus, learning through different means of intervention. The interchange of works, the observation and the commentaries about the work of partners, facilitates the cooperation and improves the learning procedures. Groups can actively participate throughout the lifespan of the forum, share documents and other resources, in order to get ready for collaborative and team based presentations. At the same time, everybody can observe the behaviour of pupils, which will represent a pattern for further interventions. The work cadence in forums invites us to inspect documents in order to argue the ideas and read continuously the input of our interlocutors, which implies a huge commitment with the knowledge they acquire and also implies a large amount of time and dedication on the part of pupils. In this way, asynchronous communication tools

27

imply intellectual challenges for students, in addition to those challenges referred to through use of the tool itself. Like any proposal, and the way we have previously discussed with chat, working with forums also requires some degree of planning on part of the teacher and continuous coordination during its development. This is so because participation does not occur by magic, but must be stimulated, and we must build the proper conditions for it. It is also necessary that, from the coordination-moderation, some guidelines and criteria be established and that inputs according to forum objectives are maintained. When planning a forum it is important to clear up the context of the theme and the objectives in order to best facilitate their achievement. It is also important to define the starting and ending time and the rules and roles assumed by each participant. Who is the coordinator, the pupil or the possibility of the participation of some expert in the specific content? Since they are academic forums, it means, with learning goals. Furthermore, they must admit and promote the expressions of concerns which permit one to identify and propose discussion categories estimating or accrediting different proposals in order to strengthen and develop the argument and reflexive ability of the participants. The coordinator-moderator of the forum has to organize ideas previously that his/her intervention provides the elements that guide the discussion towards main issues. At the same time, his/her mission is about invigorating the discussion with contradictory questions or providing the foundation for some kind of conflict with other lines of argumentation in such a way that a real discussion about the topics is produced. His/her mission is also to stimulate the participation of everybody avoiding that the forum be frequented by ”passive” participants that only read the posts of others and but do not feel it necessary to reveal their own arguments. Every so often, the moderator must accomplish some kind of synthesis of the input from discussion of the members in order to be aware of the questions that have been analysed and the subsequent argumentations that have arisen. At this point it is

28

important to supervise that pupils really record their participation and help them to advance with “common sense” towards more theoretic knowledge about the issues expounded. As a synthesis, we evaluate some questions that must be taken into account in the moderation. x

To be focused in contributive features for the discussion

x

To point out possible concepts that have been approached in the dialogue

x

To identify conceptual areas that demand consideration.

x

To evaluate the social and argumentative content of the discussion.

x

To classify ideas according to its relevance valuing every message.

x

To mention key comments of the participants underlining essential concepts

x

To identify the interest, motivation and general features of contemplation.

x

To find potential meanings and to suggest the direction of dialogue.

x

To interweave and integrate ideas that appears at first to be irrelevant.

x

To recover coherent and contradictory items.

x

To point out potential concepts that has been approached in the dialogue.

x

To use narrations in order to point out lines for further contemplation.

Some examples about the use of these tools may be the following: x

Discussions about cases that are interesting for the course.

x

Role-plays where every student or group defends positions according to the roles that have been previously appointed.

x

Teamwork production of schemes

x

To propose hypothesis in order to make conjectures

x

Brainstorm for the approach of themes

x

Discussion group, moderated by an student, about a polemical and specific item

x

Teamwork building of cases, stories, situations and hypothesis.

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III. Problem solving projects This refers to the use of Internet as a main resource for tackling or solving problems. In this sense, it is possible to combine information search and communication resources with proposals that have been especially constructed for use in Internet and offers the possibility of conducting group work tasks between pupils and teachers from different places that can build their learning together. Projects of collaborative learning of this kind include those where students exchange information with one another or with professionals from different places throughout the world, either for the observation of a particular topic with an interactive web-site, taking part in that activity, or for the information about commercial sites where pupils can examine prices of different things in order to compare, analyse and evaluate developing mathematical abilities. One clear example this type of collaborative work is formed by the WebQuests. WebQuests are modular proposals created by a group operating out of the University of Virginia. They are online curriculum freely available to be used by teachers. They are aimed at problem-solving tasks that pupils have to investigate in order to achieve a solution. They intend that pupils learn about real topics and problems. Generally, they propose cooperative activities where students assume different roles. For this, the main tool is Internet, although it is possible to use another kind of multimedia or textual resource. A WebQuest provides the structure of research and proposes that pupils can properly operate in such a disorganized environment like Internet. Students must develop their product and show how they have gone about solving the problem. Every WebQuest has the following parts: 1.

Introduction: provides the main information about its content.

2.

Questions that have to be solved

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3.

All the information that has to be searched in order to solve the problem. Some information can be included in the WebQuest or can be found by means of the contact with experts’ online, research in databases, books or other documents. Since the searching items are included in the document, the student is not confused in his/her search.

4.

The description of the procedure made by pupils in order to complete the problem that has to be solved. They can be described in different stages.

5.

Some reference about how to organize the information that has been found. This implies include forms, the addresses to make an arranged framework of the search and a timetable of the work, schemes, cause and effect diagrams, etc.

6.

Deductions: it is the end of the WebQuest, it stimulates the pupil to identify what has he/she learnt and extend his/her experience to another matters or situations.

On the other hand, as well as the WebQuest, the use of simulations has shown significant development, most recently being supported by international projects that are financed by the European Union via the Socrates project. The first experiences with international electronic simulations have occurred in the United States with the ICONS project of the University of Maryland and the IDEALS project of the University of Alabama. The experience of Finland lays the foundations for the international simulations developed in the framework of the SIMULAB project (Nielsen and Hever, 1998). Accomplished within the framework of the Socrates program it has been focused in the building and practising of simulations scripts in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and Spain. The first objective has been the building of the computer program TELSI, software based on the WWW, which integrates tools that allow designing real communicative activities in a simulation environment. An example of this is the “Los pueblos” (The villages), which has been designed in SIMULAB and later adapted in order

31

to be used in the project “Simulations via Telematics for the learning of languages” (Sánchez, 1998; Trench Parera 2001). In “Los pueblos” students of every participating classroom play the role of the habitants of a little village of a country where the target language is spoken. The first stage consists of the information search about the region in order to describe the village and its people. In the second stage students use the target language to communicate through Internet with the habitants of other “villages”, greet them, trade with them, conduct common projects, etc. In the beginning the PC is used to search information but later is an instrument that enables communication.

d.

Experiences using online tools. We include in this section, teachers stories that are developing projects which

incorporate online tools. We consider that it is relevant to know the thoughts made by these teachers in person and share them in order to be a learning source for others. It is not a pattern in any way but a mirror where we can observe and analyse what is occurring in daily situations when we develop projects which introduce ICTs. The first story mentions the use of collaborative software, the BSCW, which is based on CSCL technology. CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning) is an emerging paradigm of groupware applications in educational environments especially those focused in learning. It appears as an answer to the need of mediating the procedures directed to the cognitive development of the person who is learning (Pea, 1994) and it is, probably, one of the most improved areas in Computer supported instruction. (Koshmann,1996). This technology has been used in many educational environments considering the classroom as a social environment where the most common and unpredictable interactions of the persons who are learning are presented As an emerging paradigm, CSCL is in the middle or intersection of aspects of the educational practise (where social and individual nature emanates); the psychological

32

aspect (based on constructivism); and the facilities provided by New Technologies of Information and Communication (Vanderbilt, 1993). In this way, CSCL tries to connect internal and external variables between the social environment of learning and the person who learns. Besides, it intends to add the use of ICTs, which means an added value for the interrelation of the mentioned variables. As can be observed, even CSCL includes the use of PC nets; its vision goes beyond of the problem of time and space. CSCL enlarges its perspective in the applications through the PC. It means, it is deeply connected to the daily work procedures in the classroom (Crook, 1998). In this sense we can note an important difference of common electronic tools used in distance training, moreover, CSCL proposes places specialized in learning problems in the classroom, where time and space variables can exist.

e. An experience with collaborative work environments Carlos de Paz, IES A Sardiñeira, A Coruña Every year we are proposing new issues. The chance of using a collaborative environment as a complement of actual learning has been established in the first position of our task table in the moment in which we were conscious of its existence. We are searching the proper placement. As a result it is in the formal educational cycles, probably because availability and need have coincided. Availability? The insertion of new ways of doing things does not occur from morning to night. Curriculum programs impose a cadence and it is not easy to change the tempo. Computer resources are still a limited resource in many schools. Limited, badly attended and often without operating ability.

33

Necessity? Accessibility to the net on the part of many pupils is still reduced to the time they are actually in the secondary school. Technical obstacles and time distribution of the computer classroom obstruct the development of activities alternating hours and inserting others. Being aware of the contradictions, obstacles, uncertainties and even incredulity of pupils, we faced the introduction of this innovative support tool for learning in the academic course year 2001-2002. Since then, yearly, two new shared places have been created for the groups of educational cycles “Laboratory” and “Analysis and Control”, as well as another one for pupils of Biology (in the second academic year of high school) The use of BSCW space has been growing with the same cadence. Since the course of its introduction, we have passed from having a private space so that we can put interesting information for the members of each group, to the use of the space not only

like

a

data

container but also like an information vehicle and

even

for

an

evaluating one. Pupils not only receive but they

provide

information

to

the

space through reports and

entries

discussion

in

forums.

Besides, some of them began to use the system for creating their own collaboration groups with other users which they incorporate into BSCW. Nowadays, every place that has been created since 2001-2002 is still active, obviously with a declining number of entries, as is the case of the oldest. We continue using BSCW, for example, to inform our former pupils about the job offers, grants and 34

convocation notices of competitive examinations of which we are informed in the school. For the pupils the results help to keep them calm, knowing that they have an link with their education period, even more when it can cover, partially at least, that vacuum that is transformed into the main concern of people that end a training period which is comes prior to a work placement. For teachers, the observation of interest on the part of pupils means a reason for being satisfied. The shared space has served a clear rational also out of normal school hours, it has enabled the delivery of distance work, It has allowed the qualifications in the precise moment that the evaluation and correction was concluded to be placed privately online, it has enabled a way of staying in contact during holiday periods and it has distributed information to any person who was interested in obtaining it. Moreover, we keep on confirming the use of the system and it has mad an obvious improvement on abilities to use PCs of many users. The first obstacles have been worthwhile. As a remedy for the people who are still joining us and for those who are getting out of trouble we keep on …going out so that we can enter again.

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f. Using an eJournal. Jose Manuel Garcia CEIP Emilia Pardo Bazán, A Coruña The story began in the academic year 2002-2003 my school was introduced to the tools Magazine and eJournal and the project Comenius 2 “IPM tools”, in which CEFORE and several pilot schools of this province was involved. Due to the collaborative work developed in my school, the wish of participating was growing. The teachers that took part in a Training Project about ICTs in the school decided to learn more about these magazines and to work with them. During the sessions “Use of an electronic tool: the eJournal” organized by CEFORE, I learnt to operate with the electronic journal and I knew about the publishing opportunities and the advantages of the net in order to display the resulting works and activities of pupils and teachers. At the beginning of December 2004 we were in possession of a journal (http://ejournal.eduprojects.net/CEIPpardobazan and from then on we began to practice working on our magazine, firstly in a private way and later openly. The first article that was published dates from January 2004. Since that date until now we have a total of sixty articles published. In order to get organized with the building up of the journal we decided to make a writing team constituted by three editors, fourteen reliable writers and the participating pupils as editors. Editors-in-chief took charge of the design and the composition of the journal as well as the decisions about publishing articles written by reliable writers and editors.

36

In order to achieve the publishing deadlines I must say that, firstly, the time dedicated to the training about the operating of an electronic tool (eJournal) was about two or three hours per day, so that we could later control the build up of an article. Nowadays, we dedicate twenty or thirty minutes in every article, at the utmost, depending on the amount and kind of information that it includes (texts and images). The participation of pupils in the publication of the journal has changed according to their age stage (from 3 to 12 years old). The youngest took part making pictures or short written works that, after its computer process, were added to the different articles, both by reliable writers and editors. The eldest pupils took part writing texts with word processing machines that later would be processed according to the design and composition made by reliable editors. The use of the eJournal for our school meant the ability to make real the use of ICTs in our school by means of an outside opening and the worldwide divulgation of the activities of the school. The success of an eJournal rests basically in the promptness of the news, since an article can be released the same day in which the news occurs. This fact enables, with the use of the Internet and the information in an article, to reach the most remote places of the planet, allowing an interaction between different persons independently of their location. For the school it means a window for the activities of the pupils, teachers and pupils´ parents associations where they can show a piece of the school life of the school. Particularly, as a teacher of the physical training area, it has improved the work that I was developing, both in classroom and in the complementary activities field that pupils make in the leisure time of their break times. With the eJournal I can always get the information wherever I am (School, home, public library). The eJournal has a resources library where, distributed in different thematic files, every teacher can add texts, photographs or motion images without the need of transporting disks CD-Rom or printed documents. The possibility of publishing or modifying an article both in the school and at home makes the work easier for every participant of the journal.

37

The interest of teachers of my school emerged by putting into practice the phrase: “A picture is worth more than a thousand words”. The progressive appearance of different articles referred to environments of school and the facility of its elaboration increased the number of articles published. In our school’s journal we work

both

individually

and

collectively, since many of the articles published are works made by classroom groups and others belong to individual authors. The evaluation of the experience of using an eJournal is highly positive and, therefore, an increase in the number of teachers that have taken part in the project for the academic year 2004-05, at which point, moreover, our school reaches the age of 25 years. At of the moment of writing, the number of visits in the journal was 6737

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g. Videoconferencing Elisa Santamarina Instituto Adormireras. A Coruña The high school of Adormideras, in A Coruña, has taken part in the European project about new technologies SAELN (Students Across Europe Language Network) since 1995. The project lies in the establishing of periodic videoconferences, not only with pupils of high schools in Newcasttle, but also with Hamburg (Germany) for practising with English and German respectively, languages which are taught within the school. Even they find that this communication means can be a little cold and artificial, but when they meet their interlocutors the communication gets more fluid. It is a good chance to practise the language in a real context with young people who are of the same age, and have similar knowledge and interests about a foreign language. It is an outlet or window and a chance for proving that knowledge acquired in the classroom has a real and practical application. The original idea of participating emerged from a proposal made by a school in England (Monkseaton High School) and the interest of teachers of our high school in the use of new technologies in the classroom settings. The teams for the performance of the project and its financing were provided by the English school and in our high school a small classroom was dedicated to the installation of the required infrastructure. The technological endowment of the centre: telephone lines, Internet connection, PCs, projection tube, etc, has made possible the integration of these technologies in the classroom, not only with languages but also with drawing, arts, sciences, etc. In videoconferences that have been carried out during these years, pupils of every cycle and age have taken part and they have changed their way of participating: contacts in the leisure time of pupils, contacts in the classroom time with the help of supporting teachers, etc.

39

If we have to evaluate a project we must say that, during this time, it has been working with different luck and from the miscalculation we have learnt that the following is very important: x

To have defined objectives and a previous training of the pupils for the tasks they are going to perform, like the approach to a conversation topic, the obtaining of data, inquiries, interchange of information about cultural information, festivities, etc. so that pupils can contrast them with their own information.

x

To have a proper coordination between the schools in order to establish a connection timetable that has to be complied.

This project has also strengthened the European dimension of education, it has put teachers into contact with the partner schools, not only those of the languages area, and it has shown the working and organization of these schools. It opens the door to further European projects like Comenius projects.

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h. Using WebQuest. Isabel Pérez Torres [email protected]

I teach English as a foreign language in a Secondary school in Málaga, a well-known town in the South of Spain. Since 1996 I have put into practice several activities using computers (word processor activities, electronic dictionaries, Hot Potatoes exercises, treasure hunts, projects, WebQuests, etc.). My approach has been mostly an eclectic one, that is, I have used the computer as a tutor and as a tool and also in a reproductive and a constructive way. For instance, I have used authentic material from the Web in combination with exercises using a word processor or Hot Potatoes exercises (as you can see in the following example http://www.isabelperez.com/lion3.htm). In sum, I have done everything that, in my opinion, was going to produce some improvement from the linguistic point of view. Among constructivist activities, my favourite ones are WebQuests and, since 1999 I have carried out a few of them with students in 4º of ESO. This experience has made me understand better the following two aspects: a) the process of designing the WebQuest and b) how to put it into practice in a normal classroom setting. The WebQuests I have carried out have normally lasted four or five sessions Part of the work took place in the computer room and part of it had to be done at home like any homework assignment. As an example I can analyse the WebQuest I did in spring 20022. The selection of the theme was easy because at that time there was great expectation about the Spanish singer Rosa, who was going to take part in Eurovision 2002. This was exactly the kind of motivation that students needed to carry out a language activity with interest and enthusiasm. The task consisted in organizing a party to celebrate Rosa’s participation in 2This

WebQuest can be seen on http://www.isabelperez.com/rosaparty.htm

41

Eurovision. It implied searching and evaluating a lot of information about people, places, food, etc., and then they had to design a tourist tour in the city of Barcelona for three days, before the final big party. My students had to decide as well about the guests, explaining why they had been invited and everything they were going to do during their stay. This WebQuest was inserted into the curriculum when we were revising the future tenses in English. At the same time, as WebQuests are good example of content based learning activities, I took advantage of this and planned Rosa’s WebQuest as an excuse to practise the description of people and places. The process of doing the task was faced enthusiastically by my students because they were very involved in the activity; in fact, this has been one of the most successful WebQuest I have ever carried out and, I think it was due in part to the students’ involvement in the theme. That time I learnt that motivation is a critical element in a WebQuest. So, deciding on the theme and the task is the most crucial part of the designing process. This is not always so easy, it depends on many factors: the students, the contents we want to teach, the availability of time and space, etc. Then, when it’s time to put it into practice, the WebQuest develops itself and in many occasions the process and the final product are quite different to what we planned originally. In our case, the final reports differed meaningfully, but all of them were well done. That is the magic of teaching and learning in a constructivist manner and the WebQuest model fits that well. Carrying out this WebQuest helped my students manage lots of information and become ready to a new way of learning and living. They surely enjoyed doing Rosa’s WebQuest. There were some problems, especially with the English language, but on the whole my students and I thought that it had been a good learning experience.

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Conclusions Even though we cannot talk about final conclusions it is necessary to synthesize, somehow, what we have developed in this work. To point out those questions which, from our point of view, are relevant for the integration of ICTs in school and, in particular, for web materials. We consider that it is not an easy task and schools and teachers must make a significant effort of recovery to face the challenges imposed by the XXI century society. In this work our objective proposed to give some signs, guides and work experiences referred to what we have mentioned before. We insist that they are not patterns or criteria that have to be carried to the letter, but some examples which get better and better every day and can help us to think about the didactic implications that comes with working with these kinds of tools. Therefore, we dedicated a section in order to leave space for the “voices” of the teachers, who have kindly offered to contribute with this text, giving their own experience in order to allow this be a starting point for the learning of others by means of criticism and reflection. The web and the communication tools that it introduces have not been conceived from or for the school but they can be transformed into powerful instruments for the learning of cooperative and critical training strategies. Our intention has been to give them the chance of thinking about it and analysing all its possibilities - moreover of e-mail, proving every tool called “supertool” in our sub-heading - referring to the possibilities that they offer and the world that is opened with them.

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INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGICAL METHODS to integrate web based tools into learning and teaching, a Comenius 2.1 project (Socrates action) in 1.10.2001–30.9.2004 in six participating countries: • Finland: Institute for Educational Research (University of Jyväskylä), Coordinating unit together with Vitikkala School and Oy UniServices Ltd • Estonia: Tiger Leap Foundation and Tallinn Pedagogical University/ Faculty of Educational Sciences • Lithuania: The Centre of Information Technology for Education • Norway: Sogn og Fjordane University College • Slovenia: Srednja ekonomska sola Maribor • Spain: The Training and Research Centre, A Coruña and Centro Público Integrado 'O Cruce' Cerceda. Project co-ordinators: Sonja Kurki and Pentti Pirhonen MAIN ACTIVITIES The three years activities focused to improve teachers' readiness and skills to adapt new technologies. This was done by organising national seminars to the pilot school teachers and supporting them in finding new and motivating teaching and learning methods with web-based tools. SHARING AND DEVELOPING The four international seminars gave an opportunity for participants to share innovations, good experiences and to learn from one another. According to the pilot school teachers' feedback their ICT skills improved during the project duration and they could expand teaching and learning methods. THE OUTCOMES INCLUDE: • homepage of the project and national websites • four international seminars and around 30 national events • eight new language versions of Peda.net Web Magazine • thousands of articles and teaching and learning material in web magazines • two CD-ROMs of examples of good practices • a booklet of guidelines to use web-based tools • a study report on the impact of a qualitative study of ICT and school culture • Comenius 2.2 in-service teacher training course, etc. http://ipmtools.eduprojects.net

ISSN 1239-4742 ISBN 951-39-2000-3 (printed version) ISBN 951-39-2003-8 (PDF)

THIS PUBLICATION CAN BE OBTAINED FROM Institute for Educational Research University of Jyväskylä P.O. Box 35 (Keskussairaalantie 2) 40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland Phone +358 14 260 3220 Fax +358 14 260 3241 [email protected] www.jyu.fi/ktl/