environment
eLearning progress in higher education: The voice of experience. Interview with Tony Bates
New technologies involve new methods of teaching, learning and training. However, the universities lack well-defined structures to accomplish it. Who should teach/train e-teachers?
Good question. The normal practice is to establish a Teaching and Learning or Professional Development centre with experts on pedagogy and educational technology. However attendance at workshops organized by these centers is usually voluntary, and often the professors who need it most don't come. Some faculties/academic departments delegate a 'respected' academic within the department to be responsible for professional development of their colleagues, particularly newly appointed young professors. These are both what I would call weak approaches, although better than nothing.
What is really needed (and won't happen) is for professors to be formally accredited following training in teaching. This would best be done by radically reforming the post-graduate training to include training in teaching as well as research as part of the Ph.D. process.
Is the scientific research now a hybrid process (in terms of using the informational resources)?
I believe that in knowledge-based societies, all teaching and research needs to include the use of information technology, because this is how knowledge is now being created, stored and organized.
What is the role of learning paradigms and how have they been modified by elearning environment?
I believe that instructional design (I prefer the term: design of learning environments) is an absolute requirement for quality teaching with technology. Technology raises the skill level for teaching, because to use technology well, you need to know its strengths and weaknesses with respect to face-to-face teaching, and this requires an understanding of how people learn as well as the potential of technology for teaching. Unfortunately in most applications of e-learning, there is no change to the learning paradigm. The technology is added on to the existing classroom paradigm. 'True' blended learning requires a re-design, to ensure that the unique benefits of the classroom/campus are combined with the unique benefits of asynchronous learning. Students can spend much more time ‘on task’ with well-designed digital learning materials, thus freeing up professors’ time for direct or online interaction with students.
What is the role of didactic discourse in e learning environment?
Again, this is important in most subjects, although it does reflect a particular view on education – that learning is socially constructed – that not all professors share. Again, in an online environment, to ensure that discussion is focused and academic, rather than incoherent and shallow, the instructor/teacher has an important role to play, ensuring that the discussion stays on topic, that content/learning materials are drawn on to support the discussion, and the discussion operates at an academic level. There are several good books on this (e.g. Paloff and Pratt, Salmon, Harasim, etc.)
All the education systems raised around libraries from oldest times to the present. The library had the mission to form to inform and now we can say that it is a real provider of electronic resources for users on and off campus. They have to up to date with the new learning curricula and provide information resources according to it. What is in your opinion the role of the university library for e learning?
University libraries are critical for successful e learning, but their roles and ways of working are changing. I believe that all courses should have a librarian as part of the course team, both to help with identifying and organizing online resources, and for providing student help in locating information digitally. Education in information literacy and especially on evaluating the quality of source material, as well as how to find, analyze, organize and apply digital information linked to subject area needs should be a joint activity of teacher and librarian.
Does the course presence and virtual teaching change the type of education (distance or e learning)?
Every teacher now has to make a choice: where on the continuum of e learning should this course or program be? Just supplementing my classroom teaching; true blended learning; or fully online? The answer to the question depends on two factors: what kinds of student am I trying to reach? What is the nature of the subject material? Full-time students coming out of high school probably need more face-to-face teaching than full-time, mature working graduates who want updating or post-graduate courses. Some things are quicker and easier to do face-to-face; others are better done online, depending on the subject matter. However, it should be possible to design a course that meets all these needs.
We can not study medicine or arts in e-learning environment;one need practice and skills and the other talent. Is this a forbidden territory for elearning or elearning “fits” better to training for this fields?
No. In fact, medicine is one of the areas where e learning is used most in my university (UBC). A lot of medicine is digitally based and it is essential then that this is built into the curriculum and integrated within an e-learning environment. E learning is a critical component especially of the clinical placement of students in their third year, as they and their proctors (local doctors) are linked back to the university through the Internet.
What are in your opinion the great barriers in elearning set up?
In order of importance:
- Fear and loathing on the part of more senior professors due to their lack of understanding of technology and pedagogy.
- Senior management of universities who do not understand the changing requirements of knowledge-based societies and the importance of ICTs within all professions, and when they do recognize this, their failure to set and implement strategies to support the integration of ICTs within teaching throughout the university, which usually requires finding new or reallocating existing resources to make this happen. Too often it is left to individual professors to innovate without organizational help and support.
- In some countries lack of access to and/or high cost of technology.
Should the specialists analyze deeper the importance of independent learning?
There should be a progression from dependent to independent to inter-dependent or collaborative learning. This should be built into the design of whole programs, so that students progress through these stages in a supported manner
Is media literacy teaching and learning a serious condition of the elearning pedagogy?
Depends what you mean by media literacy. Most youngsters have enough media literacy when they come to university (the professors often don't). Students’ ability to use technology needs to be built on and modified to meet academic requirements.
What is the e-teacher status comparing to the “old/traditional” one?
Still poor, I guess, because without re-design, they have to spend more time teaching and hence less time on research (or family). Also there are no rewards (appointment, promotion, etc.) for doing elearning.
Une communauté d’apprentissage pour les adolescents sur une île virtuelle : le projet pilote Second Life de Schome Park
Les données sur la participation ont montré qu’environ un quart des élèves, seulement, représentait presque tout le temps passé à Schome Park. La fréquence était associée à de hauts niveaux d’utilisation du wiki et du forum. Les preuves tirées des rapports personnels et de la documentation figurant sur le wiki ont démontré des niveaux très avancés de compétences dans Second Life.
Les compétences propres à l’ère de la connaissance étaient évaluées dans un cadre comprenant quatre niveaux pour quatre dimensions. En ce qui concerne la dimension Communication, tous les élèves participants ont atteint le premier niveau et une minorité non négligeable a lancé et modéré des discussions ou organisé des événements. Pour ce qui est de la dimension Travail d’équipe, les tensions ont fait leur apparition très tôt ; toutefois, un nombre important d’élèves ont démontré leur capacité à s’impliquer au plus haut niveau en participant activement à la résolution des problèmes de gouvernance. Avec un peu d’aide, les élèves sont passés d’approches hiérarchiques à la formation de groupes de gouvernance, comprenant chacun des agents de gestion, témoignant ainsi d’un leadership bien réparti au premier niveau. La richesse et la diversité du programme des événements illustrent une atmosphère qui favorise la créativité, permettant des explorations et des collaborations et encourageant les élèves à prendre le risque de faire des erreurs.
Notre expérience montre à quel point il est important de comprendre le rôle des enseignants dans ce type d’environnement innovant, non en tant que détenteurs d’une connaissance pertinente, mais en tant que facilitateurs et promoteurs d’une philosophie coopérative. Nous en concluons que, malgré les multiples difficultés, il existe des preuves étayant les nouvelles possibilités spectaculaires de reconceptions pédagogiques. Les élèves qui ont participé à l’île virtuelle, au wiki et au forum ont fait preuve d’un niveau plus élevé de compétences propres à l’ère de la connaissance, à savoir la communication, le leadership, l’esprit d’équipe et la créativité.
The full text of this article is available in English and Spanish. The Spanish version is made possible our partner, the Organisation of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI). // El texto integro de este artículo está disponible en inglés y castellano. La versión castellana ha sido posible gracias a nuestro socio, la Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (OEI).
Communautés de pratique et communautés d’apprentissage virtuelles : avantages, obstacles et facteurs de réussite
Les communautés de pratique virtuelles (CdP) et les communautés d’apprentissage virtuelles se répandent de plus en plus largement au sein des établissements d’enseignement supérieur grâce aux progrès technologiques, qui permettent une communication accrue, une interactivité entre les participants et l’intégration de modèles pédagogiques collaboratifs, en particulier par le biais des technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC). En effet, les TIC ont le potentiel nécessaire pour permettre la combinaison de modes de communication synchrones et asynchrones, l’accès à (et depuis) des communautés géographiquement isolées et le partage d’informations à l’échelle internationale.
Il ne fait aucun doute que l’apprentissage et le partage à l’intérieur comme à l’extérieur des établissements d’enseignement supérieur comportent des avantages. En effet, cette interaction permanente fait naître un sentiment de connexion, de passion partagée, tout en permettant un approfondissement des connaissances. Le développement du savoir peut ainsi se faire de façon continue, cyclique et fluide. Néanmoins, les communautés de pratique virtuelles se heurtent à des obstacles, qui sont définis par les auteures de l’article et illustrés par les propos d’universitaires ayant participé à ces communautés.
L’article aborde également les facteurs critiques de réussite pour une communauté de pratique. Ces facteurs incluent notamment : l’utilité de la technologie (applications technologiques), la confiance en l’efficacité des TIC pour la communication, un sentiment d’appartenance à un groupe, une attention particulière aux dimensions transnationales et transculturelles de la CdP, une compréhension mutuelle, une vision commune du but à atteindre, le respect de la netiquette, un langage convivial et un travail dans la durée.
Les auteures se disent persuadées que les CdP recèlent un énorme potentiel de développement, notamment grâce à leurs listes de diffusion électronique et à leurs forums de discussion, bien qu’elles aient elles-mêmes traversé les difficultés inhérentes à la création d’une telle communauté. Ces difficultés sont corroborées et illustrées par des citations extraites d’entretiens avec des universitaires. D’autre part, la plupart des ouvrages sur les CdP sont produits hors d’Europe, en dépit de la large diffusion des articles sur l’e-learning en Europe. Les auteures proposent d’approfondir ce sujet en identifiant et en étudiant les communautés de pratique et les communautés d’apprentissage virtuel dans tous les États-membres de l’UE.
Supporting collaborative or cooperative learning in the online learning environment using structured role-play activities
Recent articles by Maja Pivec and Olga Dziabenko have highlighted the role that structured game-based learning can play in supporting collaborative learning. This area is currently being explored within the European e-learning community through initiatives such as the UNI-GAME project. Similarly, recent action research conducted by CREATE as part of the Minerva-sponsored RAMIE project has examined the part that structured and scenario-based role-play activity can play in promoting collaboration and cooperation between geographically dispersed online learners. This recently completed project work also sought to demonstrate that, in some contexts, role-play, like forms of game-play, can support authentic learning and assessment within the online learning environment.
The RAMIE experience: The use of structured, scenario-based, role-play to develop mentoring skills in the online learning environment
CREATE’s pilot work within the RAMIE project centered on an existent online course, ‘Supporting Employee Development through Mentoring’ delivered through the Suffolk Institute of Technology. This course is delivered wholly online, via a virtual learning environment (WebCT) with tutorial and technical support provided online, or via telephone if necessary. The course seeks to introduce learners to all aspects of the theory and practice of workplace mentoring and is targeted at adult learners who wish to develop mentoring skills for application within the workplace. During the duration of the RAMIE project 62 students from across the eastern region of the United Kingdom were enrolled on the course.
The first section of the mentoring course focuses on the theory of mentoring. Thereafter the course culminates in a final formal assessment task based around the experience of participating in a mentoring role-play exercise, again conducted wholly online. The role-play exercise is designed to provide learners with an authentic experience of mentoring and an opportunity to demonstrate and practice recently acquired theoretical knowledge and skills.
The online role-play is organised by allocating two students, both at a similar point of progress in the course, the roles of mentor and mentee for each other. The role-play activity is conducted anonymously via email, with participants working within prescribed roles and scenarios (names, age, workplace, position, issues and responsibilities). Students assume the role of either a recently recruited or promoted employee, or an established manager (with roles of mentee and mentor respectively) and begin a staged mentoring process with the objective of supporting the new starter in the early stages of their new career.
The online role-play is facilitated and discreetly monitored by tutors and continues until the process of mentoring the newly recruited or promoted employee has achieved a series of specific aims. The principal task of the tutor through this process is to monitor correspondence to ensure authenticity and that learning objectives and outcomes are met. Most pairs of role-playing students conduct the exercise over several weeks, often exchanging considerable correspondence. Feedback from learners indicates that they enjoy and value the experience of online role-play, and feel that it provides an opportunity to develop and express newly acquired skills and knowledge in a realistic, but safe, context.
Findings and observations
Our experience suggests that structured, scenario-based, role-play activities can successfully support collaborative and cooperative learning in the online learning environment. If well designed, they can also support authentic learning and assessment. Furthermore, although some subjects clearly offer richer prospects for the application of role-play scenarios than others, the use of such approaches can also allow for the development and assessment of a wider range of knowledge competencies and skills than would be typical in the case of learners operating online and at a distance from tutors and fellow students. Mentoring and specifically e-mentoring provide a context where, in addition to theoretic knowledge competencies, it is also possible to use the online learning environment, and its collaborative possibilities, to develop and assess soft skills.
The online learning environment can support collaborative or cooperative learning within distance learning communities in ways previously not possible. Nevertheless, the development of collaborative learning opportunities, whether through structured role-play or game-based activities, requires imaginative and detailed planning and skilful management from course developers and teachers respectively. This is particularly true where learning activity is often asynchronous and working partnerships or groups are established among distance learners of differing personalities and potentially varying abilities. ICT Technology can support collaborative learning in ways formerly unthinkable, but as Brian Hudson has recently highlighted, it is ultimately the application of innovative pedagogical practices that determine whether collaborative learning fails or succeeds in the online learning environment.
Dr Harvey Osborne
Researcher
Centre for Research into the Educational Applications of Telematics (CREATE), Suffolk College, UK.
Links
- RAMIE
- CREATE
- Suffolk Institute of Technology
- Maja Pivec - The Benefits of Game-Based Learning – 11 Jul 2005
- UNI-GAME (Minerva Project)
- Brian Hudson - Conditions for achieving communication, interaction and collaboration in e-learning environments - 15 Aug 2005
1D.Johnson, R.Johnson and K.Smith, Active learning: cooperation in the college classroom, (Minnesota, 1998). W.Campbell and K.Smith, (eds.), New Paradigms for College Teaching, (Minnesota, 1997).
Conditions for achieving communication, interaction and collaboration in e-learning environments
This article presents a summary of the findings of a study with the aims of exploring the conditions for achieving communication, interaction and collaboration in open and flexible e-learning environments. It reflects work undertaken with students in an international online learning community on a Masters programme that was developed from a Socrates Erasmus project. The context is a joint Masters programme between Sheffield Hallam University in the UK and Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
This summary is based on the paper “Working on Educational Research Methods with Master students in an international online learning community”. An updated and revised version of this paper has been accepted for publication in the British Journal of Educational Technology.
The process of evaluation of the students experience was structured around three key research questions. The analysis of the data collected is presented in the following lines under each key question.
How best can we facilitate purposeful engagement of autonomous and independent learners in e-learning environments?
In general the use of a variety of strategies involving discussion fora in response to set reading tasks, discussion topics in response to reflections on prior experience, group activities and peer formative assessment on drafts of assignments worked effectively in promoting purposeful engagement, autonomy and independence. The curriculum design which involved the overall structuring of the various tasks, assessment requirements and orchestrated feedback all was a key factor in the process of facilitating purposeful engagement.
In addition the local meetings played an important role and were cited by more than half of the students, through the open responses at the end of the module, as one of the most important aspects in promoting their learning. However a particularly striking aspect of the student feedback involved the responses to those questions which focused on the affective dimensions of the experience.
All the students responded by agreeing or strongly agreeing to feeling a sense of belonging to the learning community, a feeling of succeeding in the module and to a sense of the atmosphere of the learning community promoting their learning. These responses were despite the fact that a few students had not felt the benefit of peer support or the international dimension.
To what extent is the notion of assessment for learning a key condition for achieving orchestrated interdependence and autonomy in e-learning?
It can also be said that the use of a variety of strategies involving discussion fora in response to set reading tasks, discussion topics in response to reflections on prior experience, group activities and peer formative assessment on drafts of assignments worked effectively also to promote a high level of interdependence within the learning community. This conclusion can be drawn from the evidence of the high levels of interaction, communication and collaboration in the discussion forum. It is also supported responses to the questionnaire which indicated that all the students agreed that they felt as if they belonged to a learning community, that the atmosphere of the learning community promoted their learning and that they had enough support for the studying process.
Also this sense of community was one that was shared by the staff team. Furthermore the responses to the question about which activities promoted learning confirmed the importance of assessment in this module because of the way in which the role of the assignments was stressed by the students.
What all the responses illustrated is that the staff team was able to engage most students in this e-learning environment as a result of the complex interaction of (i) structure of the module as a whole (e.g. reading tasks, group tasks, local sessions, discussions on line and processes of peer feedback), (ii) the content of the tasks and assignments and also (iii) the processes of staff feedback to the students.
What are the optimal conditions for achieving well-orchestrated interdependence in open and flexible e-learning environments?
This question is one that will continuously drive ongoing development. A strong sense emerged within the local meetings and final focus group discussions at the end of the module that it would represent a considerable improvement to the experience of the module if the photograph activity, or something similar, could be brought forward right to the beginning of the module.
Some very strong reactions had resulted from the reading of chapter 1 on the "Nature of Enquiry" from Cohen et al (2000) which reflected those of the first cohort a year earlier. There were numerous protests about the difficulties of the language {including the native English speaking students} and the complexity of the ideas after the initial reading. However as the ideas were repeatedly returned to throughout the module, the relevance of thinking about the philosophy of the research process seemed to become apparent to all.
The discussion in the local meeting in Sheffield prior to the final video conference was summarised by one of the Sheffield students as follows:
"Yes, we had a conversation about the way in which some of the activities in the unit might be placed in a different order and the one which we took was the very good activity where people were giving initial reactions to the photograph and then the discussion that followed on from there.
We thought it might be valuable to put that right at the start of the unit in order to encourage discussion about the kind of assumptions that people make and then how those assumptions may well be changed and developed by the addition of further information and that actually then links very well to that initial question that we had some very good discussion on about i.e. What is educational research? I can’t remember the exact wording of the question, but I think those two link together and I think that probably would make, for me, a much more coherent start for the course. I don’t know what you feel about that?"
His comment about raw reactions and emotions followed as his rationale for “why it would work better for me and I think it’s definitely worth a try at the next cohort.”
A primary aim of the module team was to engage students with idea that the aims, processes and outcomes of empirical educational research need to subjected to critical scrutiny of underlying assumptions and that the process of interpretation is one to be approached only after careful and deliberative reflection. This perspective of educational research as a critical social and human science challenges the relatively widespread instrumental view of research about teaching and learning as some kind of practical reasoning based upon the gathering of relatively unproblematic information. The general sense of the staff team is that we succeeded to a large extent with this aim. However the real test of that interpretation will lie in the quality of work contained in the final dissertations from the group of students in subsequent years.
The importance to design a social infrastructure.
To conclude we would like to return to the strongly positive responses from the students to questions about the affective dimensions of their experience. This finding resonates with the ideas arising from the field of computer supported collaborative learning which highlights the importance of the need to design and develop an appropriate social infrastructure which is seen to operate at three levels.
Firstly is the ‘cultural level’ which is associated with the philosophy and norms established between teachers and students. Secondly is the ‘activity level’ which involves social practices and thirdly is the ‘tool level’ which involves the use of the technology. There is a growing body of knowledge arguing for the secondary importance of the technology and for the primacy to be given to advanced and innovative pedagogical practices that already exist which can exploit the opportunities afforded by the technology to take them further.
A key influence on our pedagogical practices has been the project-based approach of W. H. Kilpatrick whose ideas were first published in 1918!. Accordingly our experience is entirely consistent with this latter perspective.
e-Learning – a diver of European Competitiveness
eLearning emerged a couple of years ago when the term e-Business described the transformation of business processes with the application of ICT. In this sense eLearning was describing the transformation of learning processes and approaches using ICT and digital media. Yet, in the early days eLearning was mainly focused on traditional formal education and training processes, leveraging technology to implement incremental steps in existing processes, in most cases without transformation.
Fast forwarding to today’s situation – this perspective has changed. eLearning is no longer confined to formal education and training. It has widened its scope in the realm of informal learning. Technology has helped to permeate and dissolve the border lines between learning and doing and is giving us new means to enhance our learning every day – without taking a formal course. Most of the learning we do is actually informal – as we work in our professional roles, in teams, in groups of students, on projects, when accessing experts or searching for essential information on the Web.
Today the term “convergence” describes well what is happening on various levels – convergence of different disciplines – such as online learning, knowledge management and collaboration. This convergence is driven and enabled by the digital convergence of media and information services, networks and devices. From a user’s perspective this means that we can increasingly access information, learning resources and people from a single user interface, leveraging converged technologies. eLearning has the potential to deliver dramatic benefits for society by increasing the speed and degree of dissemination of knowledge, by facilitating knowledge and skills acquisition, by providing flexible learning opportunities for students and citizens, personalising learning and by creating new collaborative learning opportunities. eLearning is an efficient and cost effective tool for fostering workforce development, it can lead to cost savings through better utilisation of a user’s time, efficiencies in personnel resources in institutions providing education and training as well as reductions in physical requirements. In this sense eLearning is becoming the underlying enabler of our Knowledge society and a key lever for European competitiveness.
Taking into account this broad definition of eLearning the European eLearning Industry Group (eLIG) has clear recommendations about what should be done to support the progression of Europe to become the most competitive knowledge economy in the world.
Infrastructure
All too often we hear that infrastructure is not an issue any more. Here again – the definition may get in our way. Infrastructure is a broad set of capabilities to enable the users to leverage the technology for what they want to achieve. It ranges from networks, to portals and learning environments with search, collaboration and various content technologies included. As an example – the roll-out of broadband has been going well and is accelerating. However, thinking about rich content, we are far from having reached the penetration levels required to make rich media based learning available to large parts of the population. The European Commission and the national Governments cannot become complacent in this field and needs to keep the pressure up– the next generation broadband will bring the full benefits required for rich media based, highly interactive learning. In a recent survey on e-readiness conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit it was clearly demonstrated that countries where broadband has become a national development priority (in particular the Scandinavian Countries) are becoming convergence leaders. ICT infrastructure is sparking a virtuous circle – increased usage shifts more actors towards building technologies and businesses to exploit the capabilities of the Internet.
To ensure that technology serves the best interests of the community and gives room to ever increasing innovation additional infrastructure related elements have to be kept in mind which eLIG strongly recommends should be supported by policy measures and action programs.
The proper implementation of open ICT and eLearning Standards is essential to foster the wide deployment of eLearning solutions. In order to create an interactive, interoperable learning environment for all, eLearning tools and services should be based upon open standards. Too often eLearning solutions ‘’lock-in’’ users to single vendor solutions. Deployment of an interoperable eLearning technology architecture based on open standards and proper implementation of open standards need to be high on the eLearning strategy and need to be reflected in the public procurement standards within the European Community and benchmarked accordingly.
Security is becoming a major concern with systems pervading our work and our lives. A quality infrastructure must also take into account – such as focus on secure web servers.
Content
Increasing focus must be placed on the development of high quality, cross-media and cross platform digital content. The European content industry faces a particular challenge, given the multi-lingualism and the fragmentation of the European content market. However, on the other hand the cultural diversity and richness is one of Europe’s core strengths.
The eLIG has developed 10 recommendations, that were handed over to Commissioner Reding in a recent meeting. This manifesto of 10 Golden Rules to develop the European Digital Content Industry is being published at this conference and available at the eLIG stand.
I would like to focus on 3 specific items from this manifesto.
First – the current investment levels to jump-start the European digital content industries and in particular the education publishers are insufficient, given the complexities of the transition from traditional publishing into online publishing. Moreover, digital publishing itself is currently facing disruptive technological changes in its design and production processes with multilingual and multiformat content management technologies publishers need to learn how to adapt and implement.
Second - clear public sector policies should be established to enable the content industry to deploy adequate business models to provide high quality educational content in a sustainable manner. These include appropriate funding and licensing conditions and incentives to invest in digital resources. We are concerned that in the area of digital rights management (DRM) and intellectual property rights (IPR) there are currently grey areas left open exposing the investment of the content industries. The content market will potentially bifurcate – into a low-value low-cost segment with content designed by qualified amateurs and a high-quality segment with high standard editorial content. The establishment of quality standards and quality assurance across Europe for high quality pedagogical content will be essential.
Third – there is a unique opportunity to leverage eLearning to further the idea of a European Community - that is to create a core of a common European content for education institutions. Personal skills areas which are currently not widely covered might be selected for this. Understanding the differences and the commonalities of European country cultures could be a compelling subject, helping to reinforce the European cultural cohesion. This development of a common core European content should be examined based on a broad public private partnership with the publishing industry in Europe.
Services
After the initial hype surrounding eLearning we see things moving in a much more pragmatic and “down-to-earth” manner. However, it is still early days – we have not yet been able to leverage the transformational power of eLearning on a broad scale. The innovation challenge in eLearning is moving from technology to the application side i.e. how we can use technologies to better acquire, create, and distribute relevant knowledge. The complexity of today’s environment does not allow us to predict user behavior with regard to new technologies, it needs to be explored in practice. Launching experiments and learning from those is a way to address this challenge. Hence research focus and investment must increasingly be pointed to innovation in the application of knowledge and content technologies.
Targeted measures have to be taken which prepare the ground for future broad based deployment. We see the investment in large scale demonstrator projects and test beds as a promising way to achieve this and would like to see this as a priority in the future research and innovation framework programs. These projects could not only provide real time validation and verification on advanced knowledge and learning services, but would also be a living labs where new services could be developed and enhanced in a real life environment.
Let me close with the following observation:
A competitive knowledge society needs mobility, flexibility and adaptability with regard to skills of its citizens. Changing market conditions require changes in skills as knowledge workers move through different careers throughout their lifetime. eLearning has the potential to provide the underlying capabilities to make lifelong learning a reality.
In support of increased workforce flexibility and adaptability the European Union and national Governments should support new ways of enabling and facilitating the individual in the skills process. It needs a culture change and new alignment of key participants and stakeholders.
Technology should ultimately become an underlying “utility” that anybody can tap into. Once we are less preoccupied with technology, we have more room to deal with the real challenges – i.e. transformation and change management challenges must be actively addressed by all stakeholders – be it schools, Universities, vocational learning bodies, SMEs, corporations and Governments. The networking paradigm applies to the physical infrastructure as well as to intellectual infrastructure. Connecting the minds and connecting with content will support a dramatic progress in productivity of knowledge and help Europe to reach the Lisbon targets.
For further information about the European eLearning Industry Group and for a copy of our recommendations please consult our elig website or contact the Secretariat at +322 5030419.
1. MAKING LISBON A REALITY
Contribution by the eLearning Industry Group to the mid-term review of the Lisbon Agenda
2. The 2005 e-readiness rankings
A white paper from the Economist Intelligence Unit
3. i2010: Fostering European eLearning Content to Make Lisbon Target a Reality
The Educational Potential of Weblogs
At first sight blogging, publishing on a weblog, seems merely a way to show one’s own opinions and ideas. What is different in a blog in comparison to traditional home pages on which people share their interests and hobby’s, is that from a communicative perspective a weblog not only transmits information through the internet, but also takes on a receiving role. Many bloggers give their readers the opportunity to respond to the different postings (through a comment and trackback function) and get involved in conversations through a weblog.
The weblog, or blog, is a webpage on which the author publishes pieces with the intention to start conversation. (Wijnia, 2004) This conversation is different from what we know from daily activities. In day-to-day vocabulary having a conversation with someone implies that you are in the same room at the same time. Weblogs are mainly text based and therefore the conversations that take place are a form of asynchronous conversation. People involved in the conversation are not physically in the same room or together at the same time. This means that through blogging you can easily have a conversation with someone from a different continent in a different time zone.
A blog could be a useful tool for learning as well. More and more teachers are experimenting with the use of weblogs with their students. See for instance Barbara Ganley’s blog and the article Blogging as a Dynamic, Transformative Medium in an American Liberal Arts Classroom, or the findings of my own experiment. One of the big advantages of blogs is that students can see what their peers do and thus learn from eachother. Next to that, the interaction between students and between students and teacher is not limited to the face-to-face time that has been scheduled. The weblog is there 24/7 and when creativity flows students (or teachers) can put it ‘out there’, even at 3 in the morning.
During my experiment, some of the students explained that it felt natural to sit behind the computer surfing around, chatting perhaps and check out the blog in between. This points out one of the the biggest challenges the educational system faces in the next few years. Schools are not dealing with the way teenagers learn. They are taught by people that grew up and finished their education before the internet era. Lots of teachers still lack the skills to teach current teenagers in the way they are familiar with and can understand. Loads of information is coming to them via the internet and everything they do is through the screen: the learning, the reading, downloading and listening to music, writing, designing and most importantly: communicating with the world. If for teenagers the screen is their umbilical cord to the world, why is there so little being taught through the screen in schools?
A starting point for discourse
The benefits of blogs and blogging for learning can be regarded from a more theoretical perspective. Looking at the theory of Habermas, we can distinguish three formal world perspectives: the subjective, the objective and inter-subjective perspective. (Kunneman, 1986) Weblogs can be used to express all three world perspectives.
In the subjective perspective, or personal sphere, self-expression is important. Photoblogs are a nice example that are used to quickly and simply share photographs. Digital photography has made this even easier, as digital photographs hardly need to be worked on before publishing. Photoblogs are primarily a form of self-expression but the same channel can be used to share knowledge about photography as well. Another use could be to practice writing in blogs, either expressive, prose or poetry, as well as for business use, to explore and sharpen ideas.
In the objective perspective knowledge sharing is the central issue. Looking at educational opportunities blogs can serve as a place on the internet where students can share their solutions to mathematical problems, for instance. Or the blog can be used as a shared space to link to other sources on the internet.
Finally, in the intersubjective perspective, weblogs serve as a platform for societal debate. Think of getting the public involved in politics or from a learning perspective getting students to discuss certain issues.
When more people start blogging, according to the formal world perspectives of Habermas, it is a logical consequence that networks will form, sometimes globally, around interests and topics. “Habermasian new spaces begin with individuals in ‘pluralistic differentiated civil societies’ who gradually unite in communities of shared interests and understanding. Using democratized access to a new form of mass media –the internet- these individuals engage first in self-expression, then engage each other in debate. In so doing, they begin to form new communities of discourse.” (Froomkin, 2003) The growth of the number of blogs on the internet (estimated at a little under 8 million and doubles every 5 months according to Sifry.com is a good sign that blogging for many people is a sensible way of connecting with others sharing the same interests and ideas, and there are indeed networks forming as a consequence.
The blogosphere does not operate in a vacuum communicatively speaking. Other channels for communication will be used beside the blog, such as e-mail, VoIP (internet telephony) and chat. Weblogs can best be seen as a starting point for discourse, a communication hub. (Wijnia, 2004) The weblog is a fixed marker on the internet that offers readers multiple communication channels to choose from to enter into conversation and participate in or start a discourse. By using multiple communication channels, like chat and VoIP, discussion will grow more intense and social ties will become stronger and thus enhance the learning experience of sharing different world views.
- list of blogs in primary education (Dutch);
- the blog of Banyuls école (French)
- blogging at Hangleton Community Junior School (English)
- the blog of my own experiment in secundary education (Dutch)
- the creative writing class 2005 of Barbara Ganley (English)
- Weblogs from German teachers (with links to class blogs): http://www.gryanzen.de/, http://www.herr-rau.de/wordpress/ (German)
- Teachers experimenting with blogs in higher education: Peter Baumgartner, Sebastian Fiedler.
References
Froomkin, A.M. (2003). HABERMAS@DISCOURSE.NET: TOWARD A CRITICAL THEORY OF CYBERSPACE. Harvard Law Review, 116 , 749-873. Available at: http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/discourse/ils.pdf
Knneman, H. (1986). De waarheidstrechter: een communicatietheoretisch perspectief op wetenschap en samenleving. Meppel: Boom.
Wijnia, E. (2004). Understanding weblogs: a communicative perspective. In T. Burg (Ed.), BlogTalks 2.0: The European Conference on Weblogs (pp.38-82) Available at: http://elmine.wijnia.com/weblog/archives/wijnia_understandingweblogs.pdf
« Les gens ne doivent pas être de simples consommateurs, mais également des producteurs d´informations »
Au cours des dernières années, quelque soixante-dix sites de publication en ligne ont été créés dans la région de Brest. Derrière ces sites, il n’y a pas de journalistes mais des citoyens participatifs et motivés. C’est un exemple intéressant de l’appropriation sociale d’Internet. Nous présentons dans cet entretien l’opinion de Michel Briand, responsable du programme Brest.net.
Quels types de portails ont été créés par les citoyens ?
Il y a une très grande diversité. Il existe des sites comme Arts dans la rue où des jeunes font des reportages sur les spectacles d’artistes de rue. Le site Brest Ouvert, dédié à l’écologie, met en ligne une vingtaine d’articles par semaine. Beaucoup d’exemples peuvent être consultés sur La ronde des sites coopératifs au pays de Brest.
Jusqu’à quel point peut-on dire qu’il s’agit d’initiatives « locales » ne concernant qu’un public très précis ?
Il ne s’agit pas du tout de choses marginales. Pour prendre un exemple extérieur au réseau brestois, Futura-Sciences est un site de vulgarisation scientifique animé par un étudiant de l’École nationale supérieure des télécommunications qui atteint un million cinq cent mille pages lues par mois. La co-publication et l’écrit à plusieurs ne représentent pas un écrit de second ordre.
Et comment obtient-on que des citoyens se convertissent en rédacteurs ?
Le point de départ est le réseau des soixante points d’accès publics à Internet brestois et la vingtaine de projets soutenus chaque année dans l’appel à projet local. C’est dans ce réseau que sont nées les premières initiatives qui ont découvert la co-publication il y a trois ans. Et puis, les projets se sont étendus à une quinzaine de personnes l’année suivante. Au bout de deux ans, nous avions quarante-cinq sites de co-publication.
Quels outils procurez-vous aux citoyens créateurs de contenus ?
Il y a de nouveaux outils de publication sur Internet qui permettent de publier facilement sans connaître l’informatique. Il s’agit en particulier de l’outil SPIP, système de publication par Internet, qui est librement distribué sur le site Uzine.net. Le fait d’avoir un outil de publication ouvre des possibilités d’expression inaccessibles jusque-là. Mais, très vite, la question qui se pose n’est plus de maîtriser l’outil, mais d’oser écrire et d’apprendre à écrire un texte qui est donné à voir à tout le monde.
Parfois, écrire n’est pas aussi facile que cela en a l’air…
Écrire est un apprentissage qui doit être accompagné. Par exemple, au début, les gens écrivaient en titre « compte-rendu de réunion », ce qui ne veut rien dire. Nous avons donc appris aux gens à essayer de mettre des mots-clés dans les titres pour que ces derniers soient intéressants pour des extérieurs.
Je suppose que vous avez dû mettre en place un programme de formation.
Oui, quatre ateliers par mois alternent formation à l’outil de publication et formation à l’écrit journalistique, à la Mairie ou dans les quartiers. Ensuite, il y a des ateliers plus spécialisés avec des conférenciers invités : l’écrit hyper média, wikipédia, les blogs, droits et propriété intellectuelle… Ces ateliers diversifiés permettent d’avoir sans arrêt des gens nouveaux et d’élargir l’appropriation collective.
Quelle a été l’implication de la Mairie de Brest dans cette initiative ?
Les choses prennent du temps. Mais j’ai été frappé par la rapidité avec laquelle les mairies de quartier ont accepté de mettre les comptes-rendus de réunions des conseils de quartier en ligne. Avant, ils écrivaient un texte qui était envoyé simplement au maire adjoint et à quelques personnes. Aujourd’hui, ce qu’ils écrivent est lu par tout le monde [voir le site Participation à Brest ]. Et ce sont ceux qui l’ont écrit qui signent. Leur travail est reconnu et valorisé en paraissant sur Internet.
Jusqu’à quel point la publication généralisée sur Internet favorise-t-elle la mise en place d’un nouveau mode de participation démocratique ?
C’est un changement, car nous ouvrons l’expression et ce n’est pas habituel dans une culture des collectivités locales et des services publics où il y a souvent peu de place pour la parole des habitants. Donner de l’intérêt à ce que dit une personne, c’est aussi l’inciter à s’impliquer dans la vie de la cité et revaloriser ainsi le politique. Nous avons depuis le début une volonté d’appropriation sociale. Cela nous a semblé un excellent moyen pour que les gens ne soient pas simplement consommateurs, mais également producteurs d’informations.
Combien de personnes avez-vous pu impliquer ?
Nous sommes peut-être trois cents rédacteurs sur la ville, pour deux cent mille habitants. Il reste encore beaucoup à faire.
Michel Briand est adjoint au Maire de Brest en charge de la citoyenneté et des nouvelles technologies, Président de Créatif, collectif des réseaux d’accés public à internet et Trésorier de AVICAM, Association des Villes Câblées et Multimédia
Des sites d’intérêt pour les créateurs de contenus:
Ecrit public, publication qui accompagne l’écriture sur Internet.
Place Public, association qui facilite les échanges d’expériences entre citoyens.
Créatif, collectif des réseaux d’accés public à internet.
SPIP, Système de Publication par Internet
AVICAM, Association des villes pour le câble et le multimedia
Infini webhosting, plateforme d’hébergement et de l’assistance non-profit.
Marsouin, le laboratoire des usages en Bretagne.
Building Personalised Functions into Dynamic Content Packaging to Support Individual Learners
The use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) to support self-pace e-learning is expanding at an enormously rapid rate. However, these current e-learning systems support online learning through the use of up-to-the minute technology, but often fail to take into considerations learners’ context i.e. learners’ characteristics and level of prior-knowledge.
These new requirements from learners for using LMSs raise challenging issues in instructional design for courseware.
1. How the individual learner’s learning requirements can be captured for packing the learning material;
2. How the appropriate learning objects can be selected and presented based on the learner’s requirements;
3. How learners’ participation during the learning of the materials can be monitored;
4. How the required support can be provided by the system.
We address these issues by applying a method for personalised instructional design (MPID). The main aim of MPID is to build a software component through which the individual learners can express their learning requirements, e.g., a way they prefer a presentation for the learning materials. This method has been experimented in one of our existing courses in the University of Reading
Learning as knowledge construction process
It is recognised in education that learning is a process of knowledge construction. This view is supported by major learning theories such as Constructivism and Semiotics. Constructivism claims that learners construct their own reality, or at least interpret it based upon their perceptions or experiences. Constructivists emphasise the role of the learners, who take on increasing responsibility for their learning.
Semiotics, as a discipline of the study of all kind of signs (e.g. verbal language, pictures, literature, motion pictures, theatre, body language, and more), has a strong influence on the way we understand the world which we live in and the way we conduct our work. It is difficult to assume for all learners involved that they will derive the same association between a given object and a sign, as it involves issues such as meaning, cognition, behaviour, culture and social context.
Adopting semiotics and constructivist paradigm would have a tremendous impact on designing e-learning environments. An e-learning environment should:
· facilitate learners to interpret the multiple perspectives of domain context;
· guide learners to conduct and manage their personalised learning activities;
· encourage collaborative and cooperative learning for critical thinking and problem-solving.
These two paradigms raise some challenging issues in e-learning on how individual learners can be facilitated and supported effectively during the learning process. We believe that an understanding of individual learners’ learning behaviour and styles is one of the fundamental functions which should be built in learning management systems.
A case study: - Identifying learning styles and assessing prior knowledge for a programming course at the university of Reading
A learning style is simply a preference for the method by which an individual learns and remembers what he or she learned. Everybody has a preferred learning style. Knowing and understanding our learning style helps us to learn more effectively.
In addition, Instructional designers need to identify clusters of learners with similar patterns for perceiving and interpreting situations in order to adjust learning environments for each cluster.
There are many different classifications of learning style found in the literature. The most common and widely used is the perceptual style which refers to the preferred sensory modality for receiving information. Generally, learners prefer a Visual (learn through seeing), Auditory (learn through listening), or kinaesthetic (learn through touching, doing and moving) mode, although most use a combination of perceptual strategies for selecting and processing information. For the instructional designer, what matters is to provide key concepts in more than one modality, with learner control built in.
From the way learners respond to information, they can be categorized as Activists, Reflective, Sensing and Intuitive learners. Activist learners tend to retain and understand information best by doing something active with it--discussing or applying it or explaining it to others where as Reflective learners prefer to think about it first. Sensing learners tend to learning facts whereas intuitive learners often prefer discovering possibilities and relationships.
In addition, learners can be grouped into two other categories depending on the way they prefer to access information or learning materials in this case. These are sequential and global learners. Sequential learners as the name suggests, prefer to learn materials in a sequential manner by following logical stepwise paths in finding solutions whereas Global learners prefer to be presented with the overall big picture of the problem to solve at first and then work they way through it randomly.
We identify the above different clusters of learners using a multi-dimensional model (see Figure 1) with Dimension 1 (sequential and global learners); Dimension 2 (Activists, Reflectors, Sensing, and Intuitive learners); and Dimension 3 (Visual, Auditory, and Tactile).
Figure 1The combined results from these three dimensions help to capture learner’s preferences. Instructional designers can then select and configure the learning content and delivery method according to their learning needs. For instance, designing for Visual learners would require additional visual aids such as graphs, animations, picture or charts. Auditory learners would rather have sound files (for instance an audio tape of a lecturer explaining difficult concepts) or video with sound. Tactile learners would be satisfied with content such as “drag and drop” quizzes where they will need to use objects on screen as part of their learning experience.
However, these three dimensions do not indicate the learner’s past experience in terms of prior knowledge. If one’s prior knowledge is known before the learning materials are packaged, learning would become more interesting and effective. Therefore, prior knowledge has been considered as Dimension 4 to figure 1.
A learner’s profile is created by MPID to capture both the learner’s learning styles and prior-knowledge. We have devised a mechanism to identify the individual learner’s learning style and assessing his/hers prior knowledge for formulating parameters for the optimisation and personalisation algorithms. There are two main steps to carry out the analysis process.
The first step involves a design of questionnaires by which the learner’s learning preferences can be identified. As figure 1 exemplified, there are three dimensional factors which influence the presentation and sequencing of learning materials. However, the organisation of learning materials is somehow incomplete because of the lack of learners’ level of background knowledge. This is where the fourth Dimension plays a vital role in assuring that adequate, relevant and personalised learning materials are presented to learners based on their prior-knowledge (this is the knowledge or skills that learners possess before interacting with learning materials).
MPID is conceived as a solution to the deployment of an IT course entitled “C Programming Language” and this specific course is used to demonstrate how learners’ prior-knowledge can be extracted and later on used in the pre-test. Three different levels of prior-knowledge were identified. These levels are: little prior-knowledge, enough prior-knowledge and good prior-knowledge.
Each level of prior-knowledge has a specific content level associated with it and will determine what instructional strategy to adopt during the delivery of the learning material. The following are learners’ Prior-knowledge characteristics using the “C programming” course as an example:
· Learners with “Little” Prior-knowledge: These learners need help, guidance and support from the instructor. They have a little level of autonomy. The learning materials should be organised and presented in a step by step guided manner.
· Learners with “Enough” Prior-knowledge: This group of learners require some flexibility during the learning process and have some level of autonomy. They understand the basics idea about the subjects and do not entirely rely on the instructor.
· Learners with “Good” Prior-knowledge: These learners have a high level of autonomy during the learning process and require more flexibility to skip certain parts of materials as they have the knowledge and experience from other programming languages.
Discussion and future work
MPID takes the four dimensional factors to determine the learners’ requirements on personalised learning materials. A small scale of experiment has been carried out in our C programming language course. A prototype system has been developed that can establish the learner’s level of competence and preferred styles of learning. The prototype will then dynamically create a personalised set of learning material that can be used to support the individual learner. MPID will be piloted in many other courses across the university. The experience and feedback on the use of this method from both learners and instructors will be systematically acquired to establish the best practice patterns.
Figure 1Le nouveau modèle d’apprentissage dans l’enseignement scolaire
Ces conclusions tendent à indiquer une nette évolution vers un nouveau modèle d’apprentissage qui marque l’abandon de l’instructionnisme et une réorientation vers le constructivisme. Autrement dit, les visions constructionnistes du futur système éducatif semblent être globalement partagées.
Qu’est-ce qu’un environnement d’apprentissage ?
Toutes les définitions théoriques des nouveaux environnements d’apprentissage mettent en avant le fait qu’un environnement d’apprentissage est un cadre ou une communauté où diverses activités sont mises en œuvre dans le but de favoriser l’apprentissage, et que les apprenants peuvent s’appuyer sur plusieurs ressources. Elles mettent aussi l’accent sur la conception constructiviste de l’acquisition des connaissances et sur le recours aux TIC.
Vers un nouveau modèle d’apprentissage
Une série de changements potentiels sont communément envisagés.
- Considérer les élèves en tant qu’individus. L’idée est désormais qu’il faut avant tout se préoccuper des élèves en tant qu’individus et de leurs possibilités de devenir plus actifs et de prendre davantage en charge leur propre processus d’apprentissage.
- Planification de l’apprentissage selon les styles d’apprentissage individuels. Cet aspect semble étroitement lié à une deuxième caractéristique substantielle du nouveau modèle d’apprentissage, à savoir la différentiation pédagogique, qui souligne la nécessité de planifier l’apprentissage différemment pour chaque élève, afin de leur permettre de travailler selon leur style d’apprentissage individuel et à leur propre rythme. Cette approche est fondée sur une idée de l’intelligence plus large que l’intelligence littéraire traditionnelle.
- Accent mis sur la participation sociale. Parallèlement, l’accent est davantage mis sur la participation sociale. De ce fait, l’objectif est avant tout d’utiliser les capacités de communication et de collaboration des enfants.
- Modification du rôle des enseignants. Il y a un changement dans la perception de ce qu’est le rôle approprié de l’enseignant. La relation pédagogique à sens unique enseignant-élèves fait place à des processus davantage fondés sur le groupe ou sur la relation d’élève à élève, où les enseignants agissent plus systématiquement comme conseils, guides et superviseurs auprès des étudiants, tout en leur fournissant des cadres pour les assister dans leur processus d’apprentissage.
- De la reproduction à la construction des connaissances. Un important aspect du passage à un autre modèle d’apprentissage est la préférence qui est désormais donnée à la création de savoirs plutôt qu’aux contenus et à l’aptitude à reproduire des faits et des connaissances. Les élèves devraient être des participants actifs dans la construction des savoirs à travers leur propre processus d’apprentissage, en travaillant seuls ou avec leurs pairs. L’expérimentation et l’exploration sont d’importants aspects de cette démarche active de construction des connaissances.
- Réorganisation de la situation d’apprentissage. Le nouveau modèle part du principe que l’acquisition des connaissances sera favorisée par des modes de réorganisation de la situation d’apprentissage dépassant les manières de pensée traditionnelles (qui sont liées au programme), mettant en œuvre des approches pluridisciplinaires et modifiant radicalement l’aménagement et l’organisation du temps de travail des apprenants et des enseignants.
Le rôle des TIC
De l’avis général, semble-t-il, l’utilisation des technologies de l’information et de la communication peut jouer un rôle d’appui important dans ces évolutions vers un nouveau modèle d’apprentissage, voire constituer un formidable vecteur de transformation. Pour la plupart des personnes ayant participé à l’étude, les TIC sont à l’origine d’une véritable révolution du système éducatif. L’étude conclut cependant que tel pourrait être le cas, mais qu’il n’est pas du tout inévitable qu’il en soit ainsi. Selon les auteurs, les TIC pourraient soit appuyer et préserver les méthodes traditionnelles, soit constituer un moyen – ou un appui – pour changer les méthodes pédagogiques et l’organisation de la situation d’apprentissage.
Six exemples concrets de bonnes pratiques ont été analysés dans le cadre de l’étude. Tous corroboraient la conclusion préliminaire des auteurs, à savoir que les nouveaux environnements d’apprentissage ne sont pas tant tributaires du recours aux TIC elles-mêmes, mais plutôt de la réorganisation de la situation d’apprentissage et de la capacité des enseignants à utiliser la technologie pour appuyer des objectifs pédagogiques qui transforment les activités traditionnelles d’acquisition des connaissances.
Sur la base de ces études de cas, il est apparu que si les TIC sont utilisées pour appuyer des méthodes d’apprentissage entièrement nouvelles et innovatrices, créant ainsi de nouveaux environnements d’apprentissage dans toute l’école, ce processus n’a rien à voir avec les technologies de l’information en tant que telles. Les changements qui en résultent se sont révélés être beaucoup plus liés au style de gestion, aux attitudes des enseignants, à leur formation, aux approches pédagogiques et aux nouveaux modes d’apprentissage. Dans tous les exemples de bonnes pratiques, l’intégration des TIC n’était pas un objectif en soi mais un simple mécanisme pour atteindre des objectifs précis d’acquisition de connaissances.
Certaines des caractéristiques générales propres aux environnements d’apprentissage novateurs où les TIC sont utilisées à l’appui de nouveaux modes d’apprentissage peuvent se résumer comme suit :
- L’utilisation des TIC donne aux écoles la possibilité de collaborer avec d’autres institutions (culturelles et éducatives) et leur permet d’accéder à de nouvelles formes de matériel didactique / multimédia.
- Cependant, l’utilisation innovatrice de la technologie n’intervient le plus souvent que dans la salle de classe, et non pas entre classes, à l’échelle de l’établissement ou entre les écoles et d’autres institutions et organisations.
- Les TIC sont essentiellement utilisées pour des activités de collaboration et de communication et pour la production et la recherche d’informations.
- Les TIC sont moins souvent utilisées pour jouer à des jeux et faire des simulations ou d’autres expériences, mais de telles activités ont néanmoins été observées.
- Les TIC sont souvent un catalyseur du changement, mais elles ne déterminent pas en elles-mêmes la direction du changement.
- La nécessité d’évaluer en de nouveaux termes. Les écoles ressentent le besoin d’évaluer et d’apprécier les processus d’apprentissage de leurs élèves selon de nouvelles modalités plus conformes aux nouvelles méthodes, qui ne figurent pas dans l’actuel système des examens nationaux, dans aucun pays d’Europe.
- Le parti pris du maintien des traditions crée des problèmes à plusieurs égards. En premier lieu, les élèves n’obtiennent aucun diplôme (ou équivalent) pour les nouvelles compétences qu’ils ont acquises, bien que l’on reconnaisse leur importance pour le futur développement de nos sociétés. En second lieu, certains enseignants et parents nourrissent encore des inquiétudes quant à la capacité des nouvelles méthodes à garantir que les élèves scolarisés dans les établissements où elles sont appliquées réussiront aussi bien aux examens nationaux que les élèves des écoles utilisant les méthodes traditionnelles.
- Les doutes concernant les nouvelles méthodes. Parmi les parents et dans le débat public sur les nouveaux environnements d’apprentissage, des doutes ont été exprimés au sujet de la capacité de ces écoles à enseigner les compétences exigées pour l’obtention des examens nationaux. Leurs élèves ont-ils le même niveau que ceux venant d’établissements qui s’appuient sur des méthodes plus traditionnelles ? Leur capacité à fournir un soutien et un enseignement aux enfants ayant des besoins spéciaux a aussi été mise en question. L’objectif de cette étude n’était pas de voir si ces doutes étaient justifiés. Cependant, les élèves de deux des écoles étudiées ont fait preuve d’une excellente réussite aux examens nationaux en se classant au deuxième rang dans les comparaisons nationales. Certains de leurs enseignants ont par ailleurs affirmé que les technologies de l’information s’étaient révélées être un outil formidable pour aider les enfants ayant des besoins particuliers, quels qu’ils soient. Ainsi, les enfants dyslexiques tirent le plus grand profit de logiciels qui peuvent appuyer l’amélioration de leurs compétences en lecture en leur lisant des textes à voix haute, ou qui les aident à vérifier leur orthographe. Des enfants ayant d’autres besoins spéciaux, notamment ceux atteints de problèmes moteurs, peuvent aussi retirer un avantage de l’utilisation des TIC.
- Les doutes concernant la réorganisation. Dans certaines des écoles visitées, il semble y avoir un dilemme entre la volonté de réorganiser le mode d’apprentissage et diverses autres considérations. Par exemple, des parents doutaient de la valeur d’une réorganisation à tous les niveaux (horaires, âge, matières), essentiellement parce qu’ils se demandaient si leurs enfants obtiendraient d’aussi bons résultats aux examens nationaux que ceux des autres écoles. De plus, les enseignants se montrent parfois réticents car la mise en place de nouveaux modes d’organisation donne au départ un surcroît de travail. Cependant, tous ceux avec qui nous nous sommes entretenus ont déclaré que le fait de travailler plus étroitement avec leurs collègues avait été très profitable à de nombreux points de vue. D’après leur expérience, se lancer dans une telle entreprise valait la peine à long terme, car leur travail était devenu beaucoup plus intéressant et leur motivation s’en était trouvée accrue d’autant.
- Les difficultés de l’apprentissage autonome. Des doutes ont également été exprimés en arguant du fait que la structure de travail et la motivation requises par l’apprentissage autonome seront plus difficiles pour des enfants ayant des problèmes d’apprentissage, ou pour des enfants qui trouvent simplement l’école ennuyeuse et ont du mal à se motiver. Ils pourront plus facilement y échapper dans un environnement d’apprentissage individualisé. En réponse à ces critiques, les responsables de certains établissements ont souligné que les enfants ayant des problèmes d’apprentissage ont été les premiers bénéficiaires de la mise en œuvre d’approches de pédagogie différenciée.
Principaux défis des nouveaux environnements d’apprentissage
Parmi les principaux défis recensés par l’étude, citons :