Patricia Wastiau welcomed the participants to the second session about the future of learning environments.
Connected learning - interactive classrooms and beyond, Chiristian Lortz, Smart
Christian Lortz presented SMART as one of the IWB industry leaders.
His delivery was upon how technology in classroom has changed very rapidly, going through different stages, from traditional class to technology based classrooms with IWB, and a further step: connected learning classes, with a laptop for every student, internet access and other tools.
The vision from SMART for the next classroom stage is to combine the use of IWB, multitouch screens, and laptops.
It is a challenge to make this vision a reality in the sense that many schools do already have computers in class; digital content, and growing number of VLEs and LMSs, but there is a need to go beyond this type classroom, and to enable the efficient usage, different components are needed:
• IWB,
• Software content (connected to the board) Content is the greatest challenge for Smart, it needs to be developed for IWB and needs to travel well, so it can be used in different schools, regions, countries.
• Student devices (having one laptop per student is not always possible, sometimes funding is not enough to get these devices for each student; an alternative to this is mobile software and or VLE and LMS)
• Infrastructure like web based systems but that are connected to IWB. One of the biggest challenges for new learning environments is how to connect IWB and learning platforms, Smarts solution examples for this are to combine IWB and interactive environments or IWB and remote learning, allowing real time connection.
It is all a question of integrating the technology, and from SMART’s point of view the best way of achieving this integration is to make the IWB the centre of these ICT learning tools, IWB as the door to interactive learning.
Lortz mentioned eTwinning as an example of projects where SMART has worked on using the software called “Brigit “ for real online collaboration, he pointed out that this experience has been working very successfully.
The design of future learning environments - Empowerment, Enactment, and Engagement, Dr. Cher Ping Lim, Director Asia-Pacific Centre of Excellence for teacher education & innovation and professor at Edith Cowan University, Australia
The Asia Pacific Centre of Excellence for Teacher Education & Innovations works engaging different partners at regional level like UNESCO and Microsoft to create teacher ICT education networks and engaging programmes.
The presentation of Dr Cher Ping Lim focused on the design of future learning environments:
For this purpose he stated that it was necessary to look at different components and considerations in order to design future learning environments. There is certainly a need to engage students to the achieve success, and it is important to take into account that learning environments are not limited to schools. He suggests that we take a further look in the community also, or even in online communities.
Globalisation is a phenomenon that obliges future generations to be aware of incidents everywhere, and therefore Dr Cher Ping acknowledges the need to provide kids with opportunities to be critical while examining local and global issues.
Dr Ping Lim focused on three considerations that are important to empower and engage students.
Developing Dispositions of Teachers and School Leaders to Support Technical and Pedagogical Competencies
For policy makers it is important to take into account the activities carried out by teachers and then see what can be done to enhance their teaching. Policy makers tend to focus on technical methodogical side, but it could be that it is better to focus on the disposition side.
From his experience the best wayof reaching teachers is to see their actual work environment and get some inspiration, see where the gaps are or what the teachers actual need is and then, with this information help these teachers get engaged and inspire them to want to learn more.
Engaging global and local communities
Students from different communities or cultures, working together in an online environment is a good teaching methodology, from Dr Lim’s experience, and easily motivates pupils. Showing kids different learning environments can give them many ideas and inspiration. They can learn anywhere, and then share their experience with other students, said Dr Lim.
Transforming Mode and Process of High Stake Examinations
The challenge Dr Lim underlines here is to find the effective use of digitally based representations of student work output on authentic tasks specially for courses with a substantial practical component.
An example presented by Dr Lim was having peer and individual assesment preparing a presentation in school and comparing online over different communities.
Building a knowledge Society for all: extending access to knowledge beyond classroom walls, Mary Hoocker, Gesci
Mary started her presentation by introducing us to GESCI, GESCI was established by UN ICT taskforce in 2003 and has operations from 2005 throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. The aim of GESCI’s work is to develop a knowledge society. And trying to face what she called the knowledge divide with developing countries.
She described the anxiety in the developing world facing the gap between the developing and the developed world. She pointed out that it is acknowledged that transitioning successfully to the knowledge society requires investment in education, innovation systems, ICT infrastructure and implementation of those policies that support such a transition and therefore needs coherence across policy (Education Ministries) and an empowerment of policy making and strategy capacity.
Mary affirmed that the challenge in developing countries is enormous in terms of access, quality, brain drain, management of systems and the increasing irrelevance of education systems. To start facing this challenge it is fundamental to have country and regional programmes, knowledge about products and research, and to promote partnerships.
She claimed there is an evidence of incapacity in the developing world of the institutional structures to deal with scaling Schools. Schools and teachers remain central to the concept of a quality education process.
Mary launched a question to the audience: What are we addressing? A technology problem? Or technology as a tool for education processes? If it is about processes, what are educators supposed to do?
She explained how schools are moving from given programmes to experimentation contexts and how this involves a deep and complex diagram of change and can also involve many different paths. There are many solutions, pilot schemes and experiments proposed. As an example she mentioned that in some regions of Africa up to 61 different initiatives can be taking place at the time. With this example she questions what sort of new practices can best support learning. Concluding that the reality is that we don’t quite know yet but telling us that the key is in the institutional and process level.
So what is needed acording to Mary Hoocker’s view is to bridge the gap between research, policy and practice, re-examination of assumptions, fundamental re-thinking of educational purpose and practice, creation of innovative approaches which are contextually relevant and sustainable capacities and capabilities in developing countries to develop own solutions.