Information and Communication Technologies to Support New Ways of Lifelong Learning
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Lifelong Learning Programme INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES TO SUPPORT NEW WAYS OF LIFELONG LEARNING LLP-LdV-TOI-10-IT-488 Lifelong Learning Programme INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES TO SUPPORT NEW WAYS OF LIFELONG LEARNING Leonardo Da Vinci - Transfer of innovation LLP-LdV-TOI-10-IT-488 Book curators Francesco Macrì, Pietro Miraglia, Giuseppe Maffeo Authors Elsa Zoffi, Massimilano Andreoletti, Giuseppina Scarciglia, Giuseppe Maffeo Traslation and text revision Anny Ballardini, Sylvie Humbert Droz, Rachel Dixon, Paula Hubbort, Isabelle Rohmer Cd-Rom development team Pierluigi Losapio, Massimo Zunino, Elsa Zoffi, Laura Belisari, Francesco Graziani, Giuseppina Scarciglia Editing Laura Belisari, Francesco Graziani, Simona Molari Leonardo Da Vinci - Transfer of innovation TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD 7 Which school, which teacher in the digital era F r a n c e s c o M a c r ì 19 The French catholic schools in the digital age Françoise Maine 23 English & Northern Irish catholic schools in the digital age Timothy Gardner, Gregory Pope 27 INTRODUCTION Pietro Miraglia CHAPTER 1 The project: reason, aims, consortium, target groups, phases, outcomes 37 Web 2.0 technologies in teaching and learning 39 How can Web 2.0 resources be useful in schools? 42 Aims of the project 45 Consortium 52 Project target groups 52 The phases of the project 57 Results / Products CHAPTER 2 Training activities, learning paths and ICT tools 63 Analysis of needs and structure of the course 66 Structure of the course 70 Contents and on-line activities 71 Questions and resources of the digital: digital natives, Web 2.0, Google Docs 74 Research on the internet: new modes of working 77 The analytical sitography (website): a new way to access information on the net 78 The phases of the research on the net 79 The interactive white board: a school resource 80 On-lin training: the didactic activity beyond the classroom 83 The research: the media and the students CHAPTER 3 Project Monitoring & Evaluation: Quality Plan 89 The monitoring and evaluation model and the project phases 90 The monitoring and evaluation tools 92 Key outcome data analysis 92 Initial questionnaire 98 Intermediate questionnaire 104 Final questionnaire on the contents of the course 111 Final questionnaire for teachers who have followed the training activities 117 CONCLUSION APPENDIX 121 Bibliography 131 Sitography FOREWORD Foreword WHICH SCHOOL, WHICH TEACHER IN THE DIGITAL ERA Francesco Macrì President of the FIDAE The challenge of didactic technologies In the face of the explosion of new didactic technologies, FIDAE (Federazione delle scuole cattoliche primarie e secondarie d’Italia) thought it was indispensable to become the promoter of such a distinguished European Project that aimed to involve Catholic schools of different nationalities and of different traditions. The objective had to embrace two main points: the “didactic” aspect for its inevitable spin-off in the daily practice of educational activity and the organisation of school life; and the “cultural” aspect since it modifies the mental processes, the contents of consciousness, interpersonal relationships, interaction with the surrounding world, and self-understanding, that is, the intimate fibres of the humanity of each one of us. An initiative led in the full consciousness that it is our responsibility, as an institution representative of schools and of Catholic educators, to predispose students to actively embrace live IT phenomena. As a matter of fact, they are and will always be faced and conditioned by them. We thus have to help them to avoid being passive when faced with this powerful influence. It is our duty to support them; we must teach them to actively seize all their positive potential; help them to transform their immense bank of information and data in “knowledge” and “culture”; train them in how to surf and move around in the net of the cybernetic universe whilst keeping their freedom and autonomy untouched. This is an essential task for each school and each teacher1. 1 L. Masterman, Teaching the Media, 1998 7 This is even more important for Catholic schools and teachers, inspired by the great evangelical values of liberty and responsibility, whose central value is to place their attention and educational practices on the “person”, “unwilling” to be manipulated, homologized, or abused, be it only in a symbolical and communicative way 2. In order to realise these desired objectives, we at Fidae, through the present project on didactic technologies, have demonstrated our wish to show continuing commitment to bring to a conclusion a project that began many years ago, that aims to redefine and refocus a school, possibly contrary to its traditional methods, on the acquisition of research, experimentation, innovation and new learning methods. We aspire to build: schools that know how to distinguish more clearly, the “instrumental” range of the “means,” including digital ones, and the acquisition of the goals and of the values on which its own vision of life (Weltanschauung) is based; schools that can embrace in a critical and wise way the enormous quantity of data available on-line via this meaningful and useful cultural project; schools that are able to go beyond the closed and restricted space of their walls to open themselves to the immense horizon of the world, that breaks up some of its rigid bureaucracies and hierarchies to take upon itself lighter, more flexible, personalised, democratic and dynamically innovative modalities; schools that abandon multi-directional methodologies that create dependence and at times, even alienation (Ct. the well-known drop-outs) to adopt other more inclusive methodologies, capable of inspiring initiative, creativity, autonomy and collaboration. The Project: “Information and Communication Technologies to Support New Ways of Lifelong Learning” (LLP-LdV-TOI-10-IT-488), which ended with a final meeting in Rome on September 29th 2012, has been promoted by FIDAE, and developed in a close and effective collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo Formazione and the General Secretari- ats of the Catholic Schools of England (CES- Catholic Education Service), and France (EC- Enseignement Catholique). 14 schools across three countries have taken part in this project and it has been an experience of great importance and significance for those who have directly participated. Thanks to the materials produced and published both as a book and electronically, the experience will be shared with other teachers, thus spreading excellent practice that has all the requirements to become ‘food for thought’ for other European schools. It goes without saying that, when facing the complex and ever changing subject of didactic technologies, the Project will surely fulfil the task of being a first, albeit important, step in a process that will continue to be developed. This is an inception of an analytical process that will have to explore in-depth, and case by case, new and emerging as aspects that will arise. This hopes to be a conscious interpretation of a didactic that progressively measures itself against the challenges of modernity with- out ever losing its own cultural roots and the fundamental values of Italian, French, and English pedagogical traditions. As reported in the Index, there have been various issues on which the participants have worked. I strongly suggest that you read the publication in its entirety focusing on each individual topic. I will just give some brief considerations of a general nature that give a flavour of the Project, giving the underlying philosophy from which the project took 2 Benedict XVI, Address to Rome Diocesan Convention on Educational Emergency, 2007 8 Leonardo da Vinci MP ‘Transfer of Innovation’ – ICT-Based Learning: LLP-LdV-TOI-10-IT-488 FOREWORD inspiration and the general objectives to which we aspired. Inevitably, the entire survey of problems is not exhaustive, but our aims certainly capture several urgent issues that a modern school has to face in order to find the best didactic and pedagogical solutions in order that its epistemological statute and educational mandate do not fail. This mandate was assigned by society and the families that have entrusted the education of their children to us. These are issues which challenge the school’s validity, authority, credibi- lity, effectiveness, and quality, and therefore its specific contribution as an educational institution leading to the creation of a new and better humanity. The reference scene Among the most meaningful traits that characterise our postmodern society, a particularly relevant place is occupied by the expansion of the service and manufacturing industries, the qualitative change in the work-force, the financialisation of the economy, the spreading adoption of increasingly swift and planetary decision-making tech-niques, but above all, the explosion of information and knowledge3. The tools of this revolution are mainly electronic devices, telecommunication systems, computer technology, and their infinite combinations. The raw material is made up of data, information, scientific knowledge, rational thought, and human resources. Information and communication technologies (ICTS) are transforming all aspects of our lives and of our civilisation4. The change we have been going through is global and profound. As a matter of fact, a different, quicker, more complex, more widespread use of information means the opening of new virtual frontiers to knowledge and thought, and thus, to civic, social,