JP-ik Pop Up Futures Experiences Indicators and evidences from JP-ik ICT Integrative Projects in educational contexts in Portugal
Index The Portuguese Project ................................................................................................................... 1 First steps in the Portuguese Project .............................................................................................. 1 Exploring the reality and the impact of the Portuguese Project ................................................... 1 • Social Impact of the Project ................................................................................................ 2 • Educational use of the Devices ........................................................................................... 2 • Usage Strategy .................................................................................................................... 4 • Expectations and Results .................................................................................................... 4 • Professional Development and Teachers Training ............................................................ 6 A new methodology with a focus on Pedagogy: Pop Up Futures experience ................................ 9 The ik-Model for ICT Meaningful Integration in Learning Ecosystems ...................................... 11 The ik-Model and the learning ecosystems .................................................................................. 13 Project gains and evidences: An ik-Model vision .......................................................................... 16 • Content Domain ................................................................................................................ 17 Curricular infusion of generative skills development goals ........................................... 18 Goals-oriented, not content-oriented ........................................................................... 18 Interdisciplinary approach and focus beyond Math and Portuguese curricula.............. 19 Guidance for action: Learning Sequences...................................................................... 19 • Affective-Cognitive Learning Processes Domain ............................................................ 20 Resources diversification to achieve student’s different interests .............................. 20 Interactivity, motivation and concentration .................................................................. 22 Pedagogical differentiation: respect for students ......................................................... 22 Encouraging learning autonomy..................................................................................... 23 Collaborative and experiential learning to motivate effective behaviour and communication ............................................................................................................... 24 Learning transfer and orientation towards knowledge.................................................. 25 throughout life ................................................................................................................ 25 Transformation of evaluation means and criteria .......................................................... 26 Interests and skills exploration and diversification: artistic and creative, research and scientific, humanities and culture ................................................................................... 27 Expectation for the future, vocational competence and social participation ............... 28 • Technological Domain ....................................................................................................... 30 Media Literacy ................................................................................................................. 31 Information Literacy ....................................................................................................... 31 Digital Literacy ................................................................................................................ 32 • Relational Domain.............................................................................................................. 33 Relationship among teachers: Communities of Practices ............................................. 33 Relationship between students: individual and group ethics......................................... 33 Relationship between students and teachers: ............................................................... 34 Intergenerational Learning ............................................................................................. 34 Relationship between students and their families: Empowerment ............................... 35 • Signification ....................................................................................................................... 36 References ..................................................................................................................................... 37
The Portuguese Project First steps in the Portuguese Project In 2008, the Portuguese Government developed a project for schools enhancement and technological equipping, creating favourable physical conditions to the academic success of students and consolidating ICT skills as basic and essential skills to continuously create and learn in this new era. Through the "Technological Plan for Education" (TPE), between 2008 and 2010, the Portuguese Government has focused its action on improving the technological conditions of the schools - providing access to the Internet to all - and allowed access, by many teachers, students and their families, to the first personal computer. For financial viability reasons, the project was suspended in 2011/12. Magalh達es, the computer designed by JP-ik based on Intel's Classmate PC, equipped with educational resources, was chosen for this project at the primary school level (named Projeto e-escolinhas), and was extended to almost all students of this educational level (about 600.000, according to TPE statistics in 2010) and their families. Teachers training was part of the project, and was developed under an agreement between the Ministry of Education and Intel, which also involved Microsoft and JP-ik. A cascade training methodology was adopted, involving Master Trainers from all over the country, who were then responsible for training peers in their schools. Altogether and throughout the country, about 7.500 teachers were involved in this training program.
Exploring the reality and the impact of the Portuguese Project The interest in the Portuguese Project turned it in a Case Study and the research (cf. Intel, 2011 e CoSN 2013) systematized a set of evidences on how the project was implemented and its major impacts. JP-ik and Intel, along with the University of Porto in 2012 (cf. Paiva, Moreira Teixeira, Mouta, Paulino, Ascens達o & Gonzaga, 2012) also explored the Educational, Social and Economic Impact
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of the Project, in a qualitative study with six schools across different Portuguese regions (Vila Nova de Famalicão, Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, Coimbra, Palmela e Alandroal). The research involved interviews with 1 element from the Ministry of Education, 6 Municipality stakeholders, 7 School Principals, 6 School Coordinators, 29 Teachers, 37 Parents and 76 Students, guided by interview procedures developed by Intel for this kind of research and adapted by the research team to the Portuguese reality and to specific needs and goals of this research. The collected data were analysed through qualitative procedures and supported a systematic reflection on the fundamental dimensions and conditions for structuring and implementing projects in this field of study. Based on these studies, it became possible to identify critical dimensions of an ICT integration project in Education that allowed for a continuous improvement of our practices and approaches. Below we present a summary of the most relevant points checked in this study:
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SOCIAL IMPACT OF THE PROJECT
This project had an important social impact in Portugal, once for many students and parents it was the first opportunity to contact with computers and to have internet access. In many cases, it was also an opportunity for cross-generational learning and meaningful family interaction, with children acting as disseminators of ICT use within their families, while also supporting the preservation of cultural heritage. This social impact must be intentionally considered and incorporated into any ICT integration project in education, while designing and implementing, both educational policies around it and pedagogical practices to take place in learning ecosystems.
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EDUCATIONAL USE OF THE DEVICES
The evidences of the integration process of Magalhães in teachers’ pedagogical practices show different intensities of use over time and a greater focus on working with their students to develop their technological skills.
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The Intel study (2011) states that 98% of the surveyed teachers used the computer Magalhães in their classrooms at least once a week and about 50% used it more than once a week, to perform several activities, but mostly focused on the goal of training children for computers use (9 out of 10 teachers reported it as a purpose). Among the most common activities, we can find internet access (79%), reading (71%), making presentations (74%), listening to music and watching videos (60%) and accessing digital libraries (59%). The implementation of security activities about internet use, along with the development and correction of homework assignments and tests are among the least mentioned activities by the surveyed teachers. Concerning the subjects for the primary school, and also according to the Intel report (idem), the Magalhães are mostly used to work Portuguese (95%) and Social Sciences (90%) contents and goals, followed by the ones related to Mathematics (67%), Arts and Physical Activities (37%).
The study developed in 2012 showed a lowest percentage of teachers actually using the Magalhães in their classes. However, many of the interviewed teachers reported that their students use the computers mostly to do the homework assignments, whether they explicitly or implicitly require it, for internet access and research. When they speak about the use of the Magalhães in their classes, they rarely mention Mythware – the Classroom Management Software – as a tool; and many are even unaware that this tool is available and what it allows for. Other technological resources for learning (including the ones from the Intel Software Stack) seem also not to be so widespread in teacher’s practices, as it would be expected. The focus is still in the use of the computers for internet searches, games and digital writing learning purposes.
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It is therefore important to create opportunities for the exploration of the available tools and their articulation with learning goals, both in terms of academic objectives and the development of generative skills, in order to ensure a more systematic and meaningful ICT use over time. This obviously influences the design and implementation of different project stakeholders training, and that has stimulated the development of a whole new JP-ik training approach, oriented to teachers, pedagogical coordinators and elements from the Ministries.
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USAGE STRATEGY
Among the interviewed teachers there was a widespread idea that ICT is synonym of innovation per se, and it’s obvious that teachers who have this perception tend to use technology in their classrooms, regardless of how and what for, seeking to be recognized as updated and innovative teachers. In this perspective, ICT appear in the classrooms replacing other tools and resources, and teachers use them, in order to develop their students’ technological skills, without significantly changing their pedagogical practices. Most of the interviewed teachers precisely adopted substitution strategies – presenting information in PowerPoint, using the interactive whiteboard and proposing students to write texts on the computer. In fact, teachers may be favourable to ICT integration and still don’t use 1:1 solutions effectively. It is therefore essential to develop and share with different stakeholders a meaningful and intuitive framework for ICT integration in education that reinforces the importance of pedagogical change and innovation, going beyond the current focus on technical and technological skills.
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EXPECTATIONS AND RESULTS
This has obviously consequences in terms of what can be achieved with this integration, what sometimes means a divergence between expectations and results that leads to teachers’ discouragement and disbelief in relation to the project. This was something clear in many interviews. Although Intel (2011) reports that 55% of the surveyed teachers classify the Magalhães project as "good" and only 2% classify it as "bad", the 2012 interviews pointed to some
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disappointment with the project, especially related to the discrepancy between teachers’ initial expectations and actual results. According to the Intel report (2011), many teachers mentioned the importance of this project for the promotion of equal opportunities (79%), learning improvement (70%), academic interest increasing (59%) and the reinforcement of parents’ motivation and involvement in the learning process (68%).
The 2012 study emphasizes the importance of setting these goals while designing meaningful learning activities that integrate ICT resources, as well as the importance of having greater control or delegate it to those who might effectively be able to lead and monitor the process.
Motivation is an equally important issue for teachers that influences their decision to integrate ICT in their pedagogical practices, but it might also be a problematic one. As motivation is often a consequence of novelty, teachers are likely to find that it disappears over time and if they continuously use the same tools, the same ways. Therefore, computers might become less effective in terms of students’ engagement in learning tasks and less attractive to students and teachers who can even withdraw the project. Further work is needed to support teachers and decision makers in defining realistic goals and strategies to achieve them, in order to create quality integration scenarios and to foster communities of practices that support ongoing training and resources sharing.
Another important evidence from the 2012 study is the impact of these representations about the computer and children’s digital skills in the investment and the results that can be achieved in this kind of projects. In many of the teachers, parents and students’ interviews there is a recurrent idea that computers are "toys" and, therefore, they have a questionable value to the learning process. There is, indeed, a common idea that children mainly use the computer for entertainment – even when they have the opportunity to work with it at school and when they appreciate the skills they develop in these activities –, that often emerges as a strong argument against ICT integration in school activities. However, there is a different perspective among the teachers who effectively use Magalhães in their classrooms; they emphasize the progressive transformation of the representations on the use of these devices – starting from a purely recreational use to a well-adjusted one (which combines the entertainment and the
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academic/professional, also focused by the parents) –, and relate this to another important achievement, regarding to the preservation of the laptops by the students.
On the other hand, there is also a prevailing idea that children are 'digital natives', and this perception seems to compromise parents and teachers’ involvement in this kind of projects, either because they consider unnecessary or irrelevant to work in order to develop these skills, or because they feel less skilled to do so. However, it is also important to emphasize that, in the 2012 study, teachers and parents state the generative transfer of digital skills for academic tasks doesn’t really happen, even if the children already hold a relevant set of technical skills, unless there is a systematic work with computers in different learning tasks designed by teachers. Therefore, it is important to create opportunities and strategies for the discussion and effective transformation of these perceptions among teachers and parents, encouraging their investment in the project and the real empowerment of students in ICT use.
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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TEACHERS TRAINING
Training was another key point in the teacher’s arguments regarding the project. Despite the intensive training program that was implemented, many teachers said they did not feel able to use Magalhães in the classroom context. They refer they didn’t have enough training, but the biggest problem seems to be related to the conception of this training program. It is really
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important to recognize that the systematic and intentional use of the computer by each student in the classroom is an important educational challenge. Therefore, regardless the specific technological skills (even if teachers already have some level of technological literacy), training should also focus on innovating teaching methodologies for ICT meaningful integration, preserving and valuing teachers’ knowledge and skills and integrating the use of new technologies for learning with the more traditional ones. Consultancy and the continuous monitoring of the projects are two other crucial elements, not only in terms of reinforcing teachers’ confidence about the support they can get during the project implementation, but also in order to enhance the quality of ICT integration (consolidating and transforming pedagogical practices). The participation in Communities of Practices that assist the process of self-training, throughout the project, might also be relevant. The design of an ICT integration project in education should consider all these issues, ensuring teachers’ involvement, parents' confidence, students’ interest and, consequently, the overall investment in the initiative. The design of a project based on a holistic approach that comprises the different issues covered is a key aspect to achieve the expected goals.
“The educational process does not work without the teacher: it is necessary to train for the use of technology and help develop programs that use ICT. (…) Without innovation we cannot improve the process.”
Heitor Gurgulino de Souza, ex-Secretary General of the International Association of University Presidents
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Vision
Planning
Implementation
Monitoring & Evaluation
Political Climate
Geographical Scale
Rollout of Elements
Progress to Success Indicators
• The Educational Technological Plan was a government initiative; ICT was highly valued by the previous Government.
• All national primary school students, from both public and private schools. In 2011/2012 the distribution has been interrupted.
• Magalhães were delivered at a zero cost, 20 or 50 euros to primary students from 2008 to 2011 (gaps in the delivery rollout); • Parents requested the computers through the schools/teachers.
• Access to computers at school and home for the primary school students and their parents – children played the role of ICT gatekeepers at home; • Asymmetries on the technological modernization of schools and on the Magalhães use as an educational tool.
Educational Policy Context • The educational priority of the current Government is “back to basics”; facing the effects of the European crisis, the Portuguese Government canceled the funding for the Magellan project.
Goals • Approach the national educational policies to the European best practices; • Technological modernization of schools to create the “physical conditions that enable the students’ academic success”; • Promote the access to the information society, info-inclusion and equal opportunities, consolidating ICT’s role as a basic skill to learn and teach since the primary school level; • Assure one computer with learning contents per student starting at the primary school level; • Develop basic ICT skills in the Portuguese citizens, generalizing computer and internet use; • Enhance competitiveness.
Indicators of Success • • • • •
International benchmarking; Size of distribution; ICT national use, e.g., accessing Internet; Academic results in national examinations; Assure one computer with learning contents per student starting at the primary school level; • Develop basic ICT skills in the Portuguese citizens, generalizing computer and Internet use; • Enhance competitiveness.
Technological Setting • E-escolinhas was part of a major national Technological Plan; • Schools were provided with internet connection and one desk computer per classroom within the framework of other initiatives; • Some local stakeholders equipped classrooms with video projectors and interactive boards; • Many school procedures are now technologically mediated.
Program Operations and Oversight • Top-down political decision and instruction; • Training was not specifically target designed and follow up was not planned; • The initiative was not planned in the long term.
Strategies for Stakeholders Engagement
Ownership • Students and parents were the owners of Magalhães, and schools and teachers had no responsibility over them; • Students kept their computers at home and only sometimes they’ve used them in the classroom.
Training and Support • Teachers training was provided by several stakeholders (Intel, Microsoft, JPSáCouto, MoE, Municipalities and other local ones); there was a general feeling of lack of support and follow-up; • ICT coordinators played their roles and assisted the primary schools in different ways (different kind and intensity of support); the time credit determined to the task has been reduced.
• Stakeholders (e.g., local MoE structures, Municipalities) and field actors had a minimal participation in the process.
Monitoring • A heterogeneous panorama: different levelstages of integration; • Education as a natural set for ICT; • Teachers and parents as ICT integration interlocutors; • Magalhães: from a technological to an ecological vision.
Technical Problems • Life-span of the battery; • Maintenance, virus infection, internet connectivity, charging facilities.
Distal Stakeholders Recommendations
Communication Mechanism among Stakeholders • Operational gaps in the articulation among stakeholders, as the responsibility for the primary schools is shared by different intervenient.
Overview of the Portuguese Technological Plan Project (Paiva et al., 2012)
• Vendors: to redesign the national marketing strategy; Software development; Strategic alliance through practice; Reuse resources. • MoE: to value ICT skilled and innovative teachers in career progression; to inform curricula with ICT integrated activities; to promote digital content. • Municipalities: to include ICT in Municipality Educational Charter, defining specific goals towards community digital literacy; to design training that articulates the different available school resources (e.g., a training on interactive board should include Magalhães); to consider laptop trolleys when planning school technological equipment to promote a low-cost mobility resource; to establish insurance protocols, noticing Principals and School Coordinators.
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A new methodology with a focus on Pedagogy: Pop Up Futures experience
“The child from the digital generation remembers the child that goes to the children's theater, wants to go on the stage and to interfere in the scene. This less passive attitude brings new challenges and demands to the classroom.� Silva, 2003
JP-ik experience and vision for ICT integration projects in Education have been developed along with several national and international digital pilots (in Colombia, in Peru and in East Timor, for example). At a national level, in the 2012-2013 school year, a systematic and intentional investigation was developed in the six primary public schools that were involved in the first study (one class per school) and in a private primary school – from different Portuguese regions. During three months, each teacher has worked together with a JP-ik consultant-researcher who supported him/her in the development, implementation and critical evaluation of several learning sessions, based on a curricular infusion of digital skills assumption. Each classroom/school was equipped with a teacher's computer, a classmate per student, an interactive whiteboard and internet connection. Learning activities with ICT have been systematically and intentionally developed, implemented and evaluated, and teachers increased their autonomy in that process. All the participants, especially teachers and students, were committed to the project and it was
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possible to establish a shared framework for meaning making about it, giving support to the ecological, constructivist and developmental approach adopted. By the end of these three months project, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 School Coordinators, 6 teachers involved in the project, 38 students and 36 parents/guardians. The project was extended till the end of the school year, in two of those public schools (Cerco of Porto and Devesas, in Vila Nova de Gaia) and in the private school mentioned, in a collaborative model that included a less regular presence of the JP-ik consultants in schools and a greater autonomy of teachers in designing and promoting curricular infusion activities. By the end of the school year a new balance of the project was carried out in the public schools (involving the 2 school coordinators and the 2 teachers who have implemented the project in their classrooms), using some parts of the semi-structured interview protocols previously used. Based on these interviews and all the work done with the teachers, it was possible to identify different gains from the project, as well as to organize and systematize critical dimensions for the implementation of ICT integration projects in education with a pedagogical methodology – the ik-Model – that guides different stages of that process. Below, the ik-Model will be presented, as well as a synthesis of the research work previously described and some of the results achieved.
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The ik-Model for ICT Meaningful Integration in Learning Ecosystems The ik-Model was developed in those JP-ik digital pilots in learning ecosystems, bringing together many of the perspectives and dimensions that structure the TPACK Framework (Content, Pedagogical and Technological Knowledge), proposed by Mishra and Koehler (2006) as a systematization of the knowledge domains that are essential for teachers to successfully integrate new technologies in learning spaces and activities. The ik-Model considers not the knowledge itself, but the domains that need to be considered and integrated into any meaningful digital project in education. Some reformulations to the TPACK dimensions are proposed in the ik-Model – specifically in terms of the “Processes Domain” that replaces the Pedagogical one, as we consider that Pedagogy describes not an isolated section, but the overall framework and the intersection between the different areas –, also adding two new axis – the “Relational Domain” and “Signification” – we consider fundamental for a holistic understanding of the learning experience and of any project in this field.
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As previously mentioned, the ik-Model is a proper framework that guides different stages of the technological integration process in formal education, as it is differently used in order to support each one of them. The ik-Model acts as a reference to the i) design, development and implementation of a project, either at a macro level, or in the design of learning activities for specific learning environments; the ii) training of different stakeholders, including elements from the Ministry of Education, Pedagogical Coordinators, Teachers, Parents or Students, considering the specificity of their roles and responsibilities; and the iii) monitoring and evaluation of the project implementation conditions and features, giving us an accurate feedback regarding their structural dimensions. Going through the different areas that comprise the ik-Model:
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The Content Domain includes the learning goals, knowledge and skills that need to be developed or that can be considered in different learning activities or projects. These should be intentionally considered in the design of these kind of projects and activities, oriented to the development of generative and transferable skills.
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The Processes Domain comprises the strategies and the meaningful methodologies that are structured in order to achieve specific goals, activating several processes that promote the involvement, investment and commitment of the stakeholders with the projects and the learning activities. While designing learning activities, it is particularly important that the pedagogic methodology is intentionally conceived to stimulate differentiated affectivecognitive learning processes.
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The Technological Domain considers the resources and technological tools that can be used to achieve specific goals that are expected to integrate meaningful activities. It is about integrating learning goals and skills development ones with the specificity and virtues of the available technologies in order to achieve productive results.
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The Relational Domain considers the structure and the features of the networks and communities where the projects and activities take place, and that should be reinforced through the effective and shared communication of goals, knowledge and meaningful data, encouraging the contextual meaning making process about these investments, as well as the commitment of several community stakeholders with the ongoing activities and projects.
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Signification is the result of the intentional intersection of the other four domains. It represents a fundamental dimension that support, through a clear definition of meaningful goals and the streamline of processes, content, technologies and relationships, the projects’ relevance and representativeness, fostering its continuity and development.
The ik-Model and the learning ecosystems One of the main goals for most educational systems is the continuous sharing and development of collective knowledge that enhances the improvement of living conditions and future perspectives for the citizens of an entire country. That is why the content is traditionally planned with great acuity in any educational project and assume such a key role, once it focus on the learning goals that are essential to create the systems and the humanity we want to achieve. Therefore, these systems should be meaningful and allow for a connection between distant realities and near and immediate contexts.
Due to the large amount of information and stimulus to which children are – or are expected to be – increasingly exposed outside the school environment, the spontaneous questioning and exploration of several issues and content beyond the curriculum become more and more recurrent. On the other hand, teachers cannot hold all the knowledge in a world of information as the one we live in; they also become learners along with their students, and knowledge becomes the centre of all the learning space. It is, therefore, expected that both curriculum content and emerging contextual knowledge promote specific skills, at the same time that create conditions
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for the development of generative skills – those that can effectively address the challenges, as they continuously produce personal resources that are essential to cope with them.
This paradigm shift requires a transformation of the traditional roles, and challenges teachers to engage in Communities of Practices (also online when possible) where they share, identify and develop new strategies for a technological integration that significantly benefit learning. In this context, students can also be creators of knowledge with their peers, solve problems related to the content of a task or to the technologies that are being used, and communicate in a more effective way, through explanation, understanding and tolerance, while preserving a sense of group ethics. Teachers and students can share information and participate in experiences of cross-generational learning – teachers feel they can also expand their technological knowledge with their students and deepen some information with them on research and investigation activities, while students feel their teachers are closer to them. The learning ecosystem may become more alive, as evidenced in the study that was carried out in the 2012-2013 academic year, which contradicts the reflections of those who reject technology in their learning environments. Family relationships can also be positively affected by an approach like this: the most motivated and engaged students are likely to report at home, more often, the activities they perform at school; doing so, they are spontaneously reviewing some relevant content, while talking about a particular activity, and in many instances, involving their families in the trial of those activities.
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It is possible to achieve these goals if we acknowledge that learning takes place in a relational ecosystem that is intentionally mobilized in the context of the teaching and learning processes, fostering particular learning dimensions, and enhancing communication as well as building social capacity. To achieve this kind of results with effective personal and social long-term impact, it is necessary that signification and the mobilization of other particular psychological and affective-cognitive processes become elements that structure the design of learning activities which stimulate the development of new vocational future perspectives and the desire to overcome the current living conditions. Our strategic axis proposes to enhance teachers’ role as independent professionals that are able to manage different aspects of the "Technological Domain", along with specific psychological learning processes that may be favoured by an effective integration.
This approach has been implemented and discussed by JP-ik in several educational pilots, training programs and educational forums worldwide. Through them, we could observe the students and learners using the technologies in a way that favours not only their ability to learn but also the literacy of their local contexts, reinforcing their role in preserving cultural and social development.
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This framework is a holistic system that respects global changes as well as particular challenges from each school environment, and a useful monitoring tool for decision-makers, board directors and teachers to assess the level of digital integration in their ecosystems. The different stakeholders of a project must effectively supervise the implementation process towards a meaningful empowerment of contexts and communities through education systems.
Project gains and evidences: An ik-Model vision The primacy of the "traditional" tools inside the classroom – books, exercise books, pens and pencils – has been threatened by the continuous development of the technological devices. How can we imagine that students engage in learning tasks that are aligned with that "traditional paradigm", when they are exposed to a continuous and profound transformation of the world around them?! Is it possible that the classroom remains without any changes?! These issues have aroused a set of efforts in terms of pedagogical innovation, regarding theoretical studies as well as field works. The technological upgrading of schools has been a cross-cutting theme in formal education. It is assumed that new technologies should be a reality in learning environments and some of the arguments that support this perspective are related to the presence of ICT in everyday life of most children and the need to prepare students for the realities and challenges they will find in their professional lives. However, when we talk about ICT integration in Education, the provision of the best technological solutions to schools and learning scenarios is clearly insufficient. It is essential to get together the conditions for an effective and a meaningful use of the technology; to achieve this it is necessary to challenge the methodology, since what is really at stake is to benefit pedagogy, favouring learning processes. If we do not respond to this challenge, which is at the centre of the contemporary educational systems, we will have well equipped classrooms, but no added value in terms of creating opportunities for learning and for the overall development.
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These assumptions guided the digital pilots developed by JP-ik: the classrooms were technologically equipped, and after an initial teacher training, a JP-ik consultant has been working every day with a teacher at each school, developing a meaningful ICT integration model, focused on the new pedagogical methodologies and teaching-learning practices. This consultant was not a teacher or a technical support; the consultant challenged and supported the ongoing tasks, as a proximity figure, focusing the psychological learning processes, regardless of the means that are being used. This methodological option allowed the teachers to feel confident about their role in the classroom, and all learners felt they were sharing a true commitment to several aspects of the complex learning process. In this collaborative work we found the affective foundations of investment and commitment. Teachers’ speeches about this collaborative model reveal its importance, as it becomes clear in a 3rd grade teacher interview: "When such a project is implemented in a new class, I believe it is important to have someone to support the teacher (...) because (...) at the beginning, everything seems difficult, but as we move on, everything becomes simpler (...); it is important to have someone who supports us and shows the new possibilities.” Following, some comments will be shared about the profits that were identified by the teachers, students and parents at the end of this first pilot experience, covering the different ik-Model domains.
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CONTENT DOMAIN
From teachers’ perspective, this domain comprises the dimension of the expected learning goals for each year. The design of the learning activities considers both the curriculum content
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from different subjects, as well as the aim of developing transferable skills through the curriculum. For most of the participants in this project, one of the main challenges that the schools face today is the need to coordinate different sources of knowledge, making it useful and transferable between contexts. The technology integration in these pilot schools emerged as a stimulus to this process and teachers felt the need to rethink their approach to work in the curriculum. Some of the assumptions in this field have become essential for the meaningful integration of technology in learning scenarios. Following, we present now some of these assumptions.
Curricular infusion of generative skills development goals
Curricular infusion is the methodology through which the transferable skills and the holistic and emerging learning goals (e.g., digital and media literacy) are integrated with the curriculum content. This reinforces a more comprehensive perspective of learning and draws attention to the inadequacy of a programmatic vision of the curriculum and the educational systems. In JP-ik pilot schools we did not develop ICT classes to assure the students learn how to use computers. Instead of this, there was an intention to create opportunities to use computers as learning tools that enhance the development of specific and non-specific curricular skills, also considering broader life goals.
Goals-oriented, not content-oriented
This way of integrating new technologies in learning environments in order to promote the development of different meaningful skills was valued by the teachers who recognized the importance of such an approach that doesn’t have curricular goals as the only ones to be considered in the learning process. This focus in generative personal skills usually reinforces students' motivation and their ability to acquire and to use curricular knowledge in context. The implemented methodology has promoted students involvement in different learning activities, as well as the spontaneous use of the acquired knowledge and skills in different moments and contexts. Teachers reported several important gains along the project, both in terms of
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academic achievements, and the development of life skills, such as autonomy and reasoning. Students didn’t need ICT classes to learn how to use their computers "properly" (both technologically and from an educational perspective); they have learned by doing and with their peers and teachers (e.g., they’ve learned with each other how to create files and customize the mouse). They started to use this new technology in an increasingly assertive way.
In a school located in a poor problematic neighbourhood (with social and housing problems) in northern Portugal, teachers developed a set of activities aligned with the curriculum and oriented to empower local community. In another school, the teacher has been concerned with using the curriculum and the new technologies to foster connections with her students’ daily lives; a good example for this is an activity that asked the students to search the internet in order to broad their knowledge about a local reality, with an obvious impact on their ability to recognize facts and symbols during a school visit to a local museum.
Interdisciplinary approach and focus beyond Math and Portuguese curricula The resources used in the digital classroom have facilitated the flow of information and the possibility to acquire curricular content integrated with other themes. Through this methodological approach, students have realized the complexity of the real world and the importance of interdisciplinarity to fully understand it. This way, students also recognized that all subjects are important and had more opportunities to explore their personal capabilities and interests. This might help to break some stereotypes about what it means to “be a good student”, favouring the acceptance of personal preferences and skills. So, we are bringing schools into the effective transformation of opportunities.
Guidance for action: Learning Sequences
All the teachers involved in this study focused the importance of having guidelines to plan learning activities that cover curricular and digital goals. These learning sequences included the identification of the school year, the curricular goals and transferable skills comprised, the materials/resources to be used and a brief description of the activity dynamic. These guidelines
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proved to be valuable tools, as they enabled the development of a portfolio of meaningful learning sequences, we can use as an evidence of all the work done by the teachers and makes it easy to share it with other teachers, fostering pedagogical innovation with new technologies. This database allowed us to create a “Showcase of learning activities focused on the meaningful educational integration of ICT” – a set of activities developed and implemented in our pilot classrooms, using ICT and covering all the curricular areas for the Primary School in Portugal, as well as the development of holistic goals.
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AFFECTIVE-COGNITIVE LEARNING PROCESSES DOMAIN
This domain is affected by the choices made in the methodological axis. Teachers are encouraged to use appropriate and significant methods for students to engage effectively in learning activities. The current speeches in the educational domain focus on pedagogical innovation as a requirement given nowadays challenges. Living and learning in an era full of information, new media and complex connections make us demand for a formal education space that is assertively thought to comprehend these questions. A world with so much to manage demands that formal education creates real opportunities for students to think critically, in order to be comfortable answering their new and demanding realities. Considering these assumptions, teachers and JP-ik consultants understood the need to mobilize certain strategies to significantly influence the processes of learning. This way it is expected to have people prepared to act in the complex and global scenario of the 21st century. In JP-ik pilot, some dimensions of pedagogical innovation that were considered meaningful in terms of ICT educational integration were mentioned as important by teachers. We explore them bellow:
Resources diversification to achieve student’s different interests
Blending traditional technological resources with new technologies in the classroom, teachers reported more opportunities to use different and relevant resources, being closer to students’ realities and creating meaningful, challenging and inclusive learning environments. One of the 3rd
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grade teachers said: “There are new features, classes become more interesting, and students more motivated.�
Teachers have focused on this resources diversification, developing and implementing a set of activities where books, paper notebooks and computers (internet, digital educational games and productivity tools) were integrated in order to support learning. One activity that was given as a good example of this situation was one of arithmetic, where students autonomously solved mathematical problems on their paper notebooks and verified the operation process using a digital online calculator. Another example has to do with culture, geography and stereotype: students used postcards of assorted cultures and the internet to hear music of the places represented there. Through these image content they explored their ideas of those geographical scenarios before exploring them in a more systematical manner. In the end, they have made some drawings where they found connections between these new ideas and their regular activities if they were living in those places. Although these two examples are clearly different in terms of dynamics and learning purposes, teachers identified students’ enthusiasm and commitment in all activities (identifying them as less monotonous) and their capacity to easily evoke this knowledge at different moments. This also motivated teachers, not only because their students improved their performance, but also because they felt comfortable as teachers creating better opportunities to really involve all learners. This way they felt a deeper sense of personal and professional achievement. Students were also challenged to try different and less traditional roles: they had the opportunity to evaluate themselves, to support other informally in a guided manner, to make decisions and to be more independent in their learning processes.
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Interactivity, motivation and concentration
Interactivity is an equally important aspect in this context, as it fosters a greater commitment in activities that challenge knowledge construction: students are no more treated as information receivers. This interaction has an impact on the psychological processes of retention
and
recall,
and
influences
students’
motivation, increasing their ability to acquire and use knowledge in different contexts. Teachers who participated in this project realised that new technologies can enhance learning opportunities insofar as they favour the development of richer real experiences. A 4th grade teacher said: "I really liked the set of maths sites we used in a more interesting way; with colours, images and movement ... I remember that graphics were always a problem for children ... because of the abstraction level involved (...), but with computers they learned faster how to make them".
Pedagogical differentiation: respect for students
Another important issue in current Education investigation is related to students’ differences (considering their interests, needs, skills and personal learning processes). This points out that a set of requirements for pedagogical differentiation are fundamental, in particular in what concerns learning goals and students’ learning pace. If people are different why do we assume that students must learn the same things the same way?! Even in more traditional school systems, teachers are expected to be attentive to students’ differences, particularly in the cases of children with exceptional abilities or identified as having "special educational needs". Nevertheless, teachers know that all children in their classes are different and that a single method to stimulate learning drives to higher pressure and easily creates anxiety to all.
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A 4th grade teacher stated: “This class has 23 students and a great disparity of levels between them. In mathematics, I have 7 or 8 students who are very good, average students and others that are very bad! (...) They had never worked with that tool and it was interesting to see how some students did everything, some did half of the task and others completed only three exercises”. Teachers involved in this pilot study explored the educational differentiation opportunities that naturally emerge from new technologies usage inside classrooms. They mentioned that technologies have created more opportunities for this differentiation because they offered more open and flexible resources than a book or a paper notebook and an easier way to manage different activities and learning rhythms.
Encouraging learning autonomy
Recognizing differences and each one’s potential inside a formal learning space, requests other systematic actions in terms of autonomy enhancement. Although those can be done working with more traditional educational technologies, new technological resources and productivity tools can substantially increase opportunities for autonomy and heterogeneity within a collective learning environment.
Many teachers from this pilot developed “Activity Guidelines for Students” to follow. On this topic, a teacher of the 4th grade said that "students were not always calling me; they knew the steps and performed the tasks autonomously.”
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In fact, teachers found that this was an important aspect, because students must use this same procedure when they are doing tests and examinations. This way they may explore their abilities on interpretation and time management; these were critical skills to successful performance before this pilot. While using educational resources’ platform, teachers have evolved in terms of strategies to promote autonomous learning. They could select and collect the best digital resources for learning and students could use this platform by themselves, choosing the most relevant and appealing activities for their learning anytime. This contributed to an increased sense of students’ responsibility, productivity and performance. It also had an impact on attitudes change, regarding the way kids think and use communication and information technology: they began to explore it with greater assertiveness. This became evident when students started to ask for permission to use the educational resources available instead the internet with entertainment purposes. At home, these differences were also noted. A mother of a 3rd grade child said: “I remember they did an activity with Google Maps and when he got home he told us: 'Mom, let's find our street' (...) I loved his enthusiasm; he wanted to try and show us what he had learned. (...) And about the internet searches ... he did not know how to do it - but he realized that it could be useful whenever he wanted to find something. The results may be relevant or not, but he already knows it. (...) Now he doesn’t depend so much on us, he is more autonomous.”
Collaborative and experiential learning to motivate effective behaviour and communication
Collaboration in learning activities inside the classroom is not usually a pedagogical option, unless teachers feel they still have plenty of time before examinations. Many teachers refer to group activities as problematic ones in terms of rising behaviour problems in the classroom. However, with the methodology implemented in JP-ik pilots we’ve noticed a huge number of collaborative activities being implemented with benefits for individual and group results. While students were doing specific academic exercises, they made some technological discoveries and shared with others.
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Teachers realized the benefits of working with collaborative dynamics, both in terms of the way students reveal their learning achievements and the new interactions they establish with each other, inside and outside the classroom. As they needed to share information on specific interests, students made efforts to become clearer in explaining themselves to others. This way, they trained their communication and listening skills, what had an evident impact on the improvement of the communication flow inside the classroom. At the end of the school year, a 3rd grade teacher said: "There is some noise inside the classroom, but it is not indiscipline, it is a working noise; they move, swap ideas and learn from each other".
Learning transfer and orientation towards knowledge throughout life Learning transfer is a crucial result of the learning process that ensures the possibility to use and change knowledge over time. This requires a focus on methodologies that allow the assimilation and transition from the abstract to the concrete and from the concrete to the abstract, promoting the integration of the concepts explored. In JP-ik pilot schools, teachers have always considered opportunities to explore and integrate.
A teacher of the 2nd grade mentioned: "Considering internalisation, there is a different assimilation process.�
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The main achievement seems to be related to how teachers use new technologies to approach students’ realities in a more diverse and proximal way. This seems to have an important impact on the quality and promptness of the assimilation process, but also in the spontaneous use of concepts and skills by students.
These skills were stimulated, for instance, when teachers suggested their students to use Paint to illustrate the concept of an “island” and “human body systems” they’ve previously studied. This challenged students to spontaneously evoke information, connect themes and use concepts in different realities. This made it possible for an autistic student to finally show and “communicate” what he really learned. A 3rd grade student shared: "We can learn better (...) and faster."
Transformation of evaluation means and criteria
Working with all these pedagogic assumptions also emphasizes the insufficiency of the traditional methods, means and criteria for evaluation. Teachers who participated in this pilot reviewed their pedagogic methodologies related to: i) the curricular learning content and the learning processes, and ii) the performance on tests and in other learning products. In JP-ik pilot schools, we were aware that some features of the Collaborative Classroom Software, such as Quiz, granted teachers the opportunity to continuously monitor their students’ difficulties and needs, beyond formal evaluation moments. This has challenged the teachers to review the methodologies they use to explore specific topics. Students also felt less threatened during evaluations; they became a routine in their daily lives and worked more as a feedback for themselves than as a mere grade. This has favoured the enhancement of different learning processes towards content exploration, both for teachers and students.
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Regarding this, a teacher of the 4th grade mentioned at the end of the quarter: “Students obviously improved their results, but it was not the most important thing.". And a 3rd grade teacher added: "I think there is also an impact on learning outcomes; if they search, and they find anything by themselves, it will probably be easier for them to remember it, than if they are simply listening to me."
Interests and skills exploration and diversification: artistic and creative, research and scientific, humanities and culture The activities teachers proposed were always planned in order to safeguard the value of different types of knowledge. Teachers tried to give students opportunities to explore these different universes, covering ever wider fields of knowledge, but also stimulating different skills in terms of interests’ circumscription.
The activities that encourage scientific and strategic thinking have been developed throughout the year in different small groups. The sense of belonging to a research group was such that students spontaneously began to use their laptop cameras to take pictures of their group working. Thereafter students used this content with a greater confidence and a 3rd grade teacher said: "They developed their research spirit." Likewise, students have been challenged to think about the world they live in, technological advances and changes, imagining and projecting themselves in other situations and in promising futures.
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In a specific task, students were challenged to analyse an enthusiastic stimulus – some appealing drawings. Afterwards opportunities were created for free discussions, critical thinking and emotional sharing. A 4th grade teacher shared an example of another assignment of this kind that was particularly meaningful for her and her students: "The social and multicultural skills were developed in activities such as those of the continents and the 50 different cultures cards". A 3rd grade teacher recalled another activity in terms of Expressions: "Even in Expressions, we had excellent works in Paint ... and that requires concentration and motor skills�.
These activities allowed the exploration of several content, leading to two relevant conclusions: i) we all do personal integrations of the same information that shall be explored and shared inside formal learning scenarios, ii) the richness of a learning scenario depends on its human heterogeneity and the capacity to use it towards understanding and knowledge expansion.
Expectation for the future, vocational competence and social participation In terms of learning success, professional integration is commonly accepted as one of the expected educational and schooling outcomes. We are not here discussing this subject as it would send us to the historical background of the school concept. What matters in this scope is to highlight the link between formal education, living conditions and existence. Therefore, the expected results of education and training in terms of job integration are not only an aspiration of vocational development, but an ethical commitment to education. Increasing the quality of life, promoting more equitable access to different opportunities and making existence possible should be the main educational focus.
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All the activities done throughout the project enabled students to explore a broad spectrum of information beyond the curriculum and to integrate all these data in personally and socially meaningful symbolic structures. Signification construction favours identity; this way vocational competence and social participation are positively affected, in particular in what concerns psychological processes of exploration, relationships enhancement and the capacity of thinking and planning the future.
At the End of Year Party, it was interesting to witness the performance of one of the groups we have worked with, where children were found to be clearly future-oriented. The content of their performance expressed professional expectations and focused their skills. This was quite different from another performance (same school, same grade; no ICT integration) where Kids sang and danced their favourite songs, without expressing any kind of wills.
The opportunity to close schools to their communities and their neighbour companies seems to have created a common sense of reciprocity. When companies and industries are open to schools, students have the opportunity to understand the applicability of many of the themes they discuss, as well as the relevance of networking. This may positively affect their levels of civic awareness and their will to participate in democracy. Several pilot classes received visits throughout the year, both from national (e.g., JP-ik) and international companies (e.g., Intel). A 4th grade teacher said in this regard: "When those foreign professionals came, students asked me how to make some questions in English. They were all in great expectation.� This clearly reveals how learners were engaged with these less typical activities and how they experienced them as relevant moments for discoveries beyond the curriculum.
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TECHNOLOGICAL DOMAIN
This domain comprises the devices and resources that are used for particular purposes. Students and teachers are engaged in activities that articulate several learning goals with the specificity and the potential offered by the tools and resources in order to achieve productive and differentiated results. The integration of new technologies in learning environments rises a set of questions that lead to the recognition of its value and importance in formal education.
As a 2nd grade teacher mentioned: “in the beginning, parents were concerned (...) but now, at the end of the year, they have a different opinion, because they realized their children have learned more; there was a range of different technologies and this will be important for their future". When these new technologies are a reality in children’s and youth’s daily lives, it is urgent to intentionally explore their role in formal learning contexts, fostering conditions for their assertive and meaningful use. When they are not a reality, then schools should play an important role in social transformation, enabling an equal access to the resources.
This is reflected in a 3rd grade student’s speech: "I have never worked with Word before; I could not use it until we started to work with Magalhães”. The new technologies used included not only laptops for students and teachers, but also educational software, free online content and a safe platform where students were able to find relevant virtual learning environments with several documents and a collection of digital learning games validated by teachers and JP-ik consultants. These secure digital environments were particularly relevant to offer students the opportunity to select activities at different times, especially when they’ve finished other tasks. This promoted a sense of responsibility for their own goals and a new perspective about ICT, what allowed teachers to be closer to the students, instead of simply playing an instructional role. A 4th grade student said: "We were used to have our teacher explaining things on the board, while we were doing our work. She didn’t come to our place, unless we raised the hand. When we work with Magalhães she comes to us more regularly."
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Media Literacy
When it comes to technology, media literacy is a particularly relevant dimension, as it focuses the new tools, as well as their integration with other resources. The ability to decide which resource is more suited to a specific purpose seems to be of great importance, since the large number of devices that facilitate access to a huge quantity of data contributes to a sense of diffusion in terms of goals and personal and social needs. Our challenge during these pilots was to encourage the recognition of each tool’s value regardless of usage trends. To achieve this, the schools developed a structured work focused on stimulating the development of affective-cognitive skills that favours the effectiveness of the selection and decision making processes. This perspective was the basis for a consistent work, where paper notebooks, books and laptops were seen as part of an entire learning system.
Information Literacy In a world where the access to information is becoming increasingly easier and faster, the ability to determine data relevance can be quite a challenge. Although understanding and interpretation skills are central points of any educational program, students usually don’t have many opportunities to practice judgment, reasoning and critical thinking skills during a school year.
A 3rd grade student reported how easy the access to everything seems to be while using the Internet: “Computers improve our abilities and everything. (...) We are able to know what is happening anywhere; for example, I can check the news and find out what is happening here or in China (...), we can look at a map and find a country and discover how to go there.” And a 4th grade student also said: “Computers are important because they have Internet that allows us to find things we've never seen before in our world... pictures, news, TV shows.”
But as a matter of fact it is common to see some students who are achieving excellent academic results, for instance in languages, showing difficulties when they are responding to a stimulus that is new and less usual.
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In one of the JP-ik pilot schools, a student who used to have high performances in all subjects made a substantial effort to react to a different challenge proposed in the Safer Internet Day. The task included an analysis of the consistency of some (false) news, having as main objectives: i) to distinguish “information” from "news" and ii) to identify evidences of stereotypes. This kind of activity resulted in a 3rd grade teacher comment: "Now they have a ‘deeper’ understanding and attitude about the world around them; some of them are more able to think critically about different subjects, because they’ve already heard about them and they’ve built their own opinion.”
Digital Literacy
In terms of digital literacy, the students were challenged to create meaning around common use rules and procedures. Considering the advantages of drawing to promote access to children’s contexts, students were asked to illustrate their preferential ways to use computers. These illustrations were a stimulus to a debate on several forms of using ICT, and the students extended this discussion at home with their parents.
A 3rd grade student reported: "My mother usually says that a computer is a secret ‘weapon’ (...), it is something we love and desire, but we should not use to do simple things (...), one should handle it as a baby, because it is fragile and can break easily”.
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•
RELATIONAL DOMAIN
The relational domain is considered a dimension that deals with the reinforcement of communication, enhancing the quality of the interaction among all the stakeholders.
Relationship among teachers: Communities of Practices
Pedagogical innovation carries an update of resources that teachers usually find or develop with satisfaction and share with each other. These resources can be collected in portfolios of activities and shared on social platforms. For instance, the opportunity to bring closer (e.g. through videoconferences) several JP-ik pilot classrooms with students from different social and economic backgrounds challenged students’ perceptions about themselves and the world, and allowed them to perspective other realities and other standards of evaluation for themselves. A student reported: “Computers are important because they enhance communication, even when people are far away”, and a 4th grade teacher added that students “loved the videoconference with the school of Coimbra”. This satisfaction is not only a consequence of the dynamic implemented; it is also due to the opportunity it represented for the students to try alternative ways of meaning their realities. The connection between the teachers engaged in the project, also using these virtual means, reinforced their feeling of involvement and compromise with the living organism that is education. This is clearly supported by the difference in teachers’ speeches between the beginning and the end of the school year.
Relationship between students: individual and group ethics
The reconfiguration of the digital classroom scenario for the 21st century is easy to understand. Students do not stay in their places all the time and do not bother when a colleague
enters
their
space,
as
usually
happens
in
a
“traditional”
classroom.
Competitiveness also changes: it is no longer oriented towards others, but much more focused on themselves and their personal achievements. Even when they are playing a
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digital educational game with other colleagues about a specific curricular theme, it is possible to realize a greater acceptance of others’ successes and failures, as well as their own. Because learners share all the learning process it is easier for them to recognize each other’s capabilities (those that are not necessarily clear in an examination or during a presentation). This favours an increased understanding and respect among all.
Relationship between students and teachers: Intergenerational Learning When new technologies are introduced in learning scenarios, teachers’ role is usually revaluated. ICT integration in formal learning environments raises questions to the educational system, as it challenges teachers’ role, as well as the curricular hegemony and the organization of education targeted for ratings and performance statistics. When students have interest in a particular topic and conditions to explore it deeper than the expected for their grade, it does not seem reasonable to contain this will within curricula or levels. This flow provides a flexible dynamic to classes and keeps teachers in different condition towards knowledge. The ability to recognize the limits of individual knowledge should increase the focus on central learning processes, once teachers still own a knowledge that cannot be replaced: they are the experts of the affective-cognitive
processes
that
can
enhance
learning
in
each
student.
This
challenge to the teacher’s role is leading to a transformation of the way they move in the learning space: they are the "facilitators" and more recently the "activators".
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In JP-ik pilots, no different nomination was proposed to the participant teachers. But the whole process has obviously stimulated new perspectives on teaching and learning. A 3rd grade student recognized: “Our teacher is happier now, because we learn more (...); previously we used to cheat. (...) With the computers we can search for answers and immediately correct what we are doing.” Another 3rd grade student stated: "I think this is a great project! Intelligence, capacity and a lot of activities that make us improve every day! Our teacher really helps us... she does a lot of activities with us.” In a 4th grade teacher’s words, one can realize how the participants of a learning environment become learners: “Some of them knew more than I did; they teach me a lot of things”.
Relationship between students and their families: Empowerment
Students spontaneously took home some of the digital activities performed in the classroom. They were not only enthusiastic about the content of the tasks, but also proud to show their parents the skills they’ve recently developed. On the other hand, children also took home new data and new ways of searching the Internet that could respond to their family needs.
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This was the case of a girl who was able to book a Christmas flight to her father; she and her mother received a flight ticket to visit their emigrant family in France; the mother was really surprised about the possibility of making an online reservation of a flight, and even more because her daughter knew how to do it: "So, she was looking for a flight to her father and she did everything. Then, my mom was here and I was cooking the dinner. (...) She found a plane ticket for Christmas – schedules, departure, arrival. She learned a lot! I was paying attention to what she was doing ‘Will you find it?’ - 'Yes, I found a ticket, with costs and everything,' and she said the cost of it...” (mother of a 4th grade student). In another school, parents had the opportunity to create an email account encouraged by the idea of receiving their children’s school work. It is also worth mentioning the examples of a kid who helped his father creating a curriculum that allowed him to finally get a job, and of a whole family (that has only completed the elementary school) who started to play online games related to Portuguese grammar, during the weekends.
All these examples illustrate the importance of purposefulness in learning sessions planning and how the systematic and goals-oriented use of technologies in education impacts the whole school community. It is not possible to end the “digital gap” just delivering devices. The systematic, intentional and meaningful pedagogical methodologies for a particular group are those that empower communities.
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SIGNIFICATION
When we create opportunities to mean curricular contents we are not using a traditional heuristic to learn and act; we are engaged in the collective construction of meanings. The significant moments created in these pilots were always exploration-based. After an initial stage of personal content exploration, students were encouraged to establish relevant connections between them and their own subjective realities. Through curricular infusion, students didn’t simply learn how to perform digital tasks, but also how to use relevant and appropriate tools to work the content they are interested in. This approach reinforced students’ ability to maintain their attention and persistence in the task, as well as to talk about curricular content, when they are telling us how they’ve enjoyed to play some digital educational games, for instance.
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Considering all the proposed activities – inside and outside classroom – and the opportunities that were created for the students to feel good about themselves and the others, while assessing their personal value regarding their own future goals, proved to be quite meaningful for them. In terms of parent-student and teacher-student interactions, the described examples also ilustrate how it is possible to improve the dialogue between parents/teachers and children/youth, only by giving students reasons to invoke their schoolwork at home. Sometimes, children also took home relevant information and knowledge that contributed to increase different levels of family literacy. Simultaneously, the participation of professional institutions in schools can improve the connections and mutual benefits between the two realities. Schools may become more conscious about labour needs in current industries and companies, reviewing their pedagogical curricula and strategies. Professional institutions’ interests might be better served, because of the greater alignment between education and economy sectors. Approaching new technologies integration in educational systems, a mixture of enthusiasm about modernization and scepticism about learning possibilities tends to describe the attitude of many educational agents. In this context, the capacity to take risks usually favours the emergence of new narratives and new patterns of action and thinking about the models that need to be developed. Hence, the search for innovation and the will to renew educational paradigms is only an expression of a global commitment from each generation to a more inclusive development for all.
References CoSN (2013). Reinventing Learning in Portugal: an Ecosystem Approach. Report of the 2013 CoSN Delegation to Portugal. Intel Education Portugal (2011). Portugal transforms Primary Education with 1:1 Technology Integration. Mishra, P. & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological, pedagogical, content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Paiva, J., Moreira, L., Teixeira, A., Mouta, A., Paulino, A., Ascenção, M. & Gonzaga, P. (2012). Information and Communication Technologies in Portuguese Primary Schools: a Study of the Educational, Social and Economic Impact. Porto: JP-ik, Universidade do Porto and Intel.
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