The school of tomorrow: A school open to the world – Examples of elements of good practice.

1. The school of tomorrow: A school open to the world – Examples of elements of good practice. Open Classroom Conference, Barcelona 2000 Dr S.A.Sotiriou, Ellinogermaniki Agogi

2. The use of ICT in the school The new technologies must not be imposed as a substitute to the conventional teaching but rather as an add-on that has to justify its introduction through the qualitative upgrade it offers to everyday school practice.

3. The vision for the school of tomorrow The school of tomorrow will be able to emit and absorb along different wavelengths, be immersed in contemporary culture be open to the emotions, facts and news of its time. It will be permeated by society but not unprotected. The relationship between the school and society will be one of osmosis, where the new educational tools and learning environments will filter guide and act as a membrane and interface M. Zini, i3 magazine

4. The main educational concepts • Enhancement of a constructivistic approach to teaching • Development of an interdisciplinary model in current educational practice • Learning should be a collaborative experience • Equal and parallel development of pedagogical and technological aspects • Innovative pedagogical and technological aspects have to be systematically evaluated

5. Enhancement of a constructivistic approach Learning should be the outcome of formulating questions, investigating, researching and sharing results. Students feel personal investment in the investigation, they develop critical thinking and firsthand experience in the ways technology design can both serve and inspire scientific investigation.

6. Development of an interdisciplinary model in current educational practice It is held that interdisciplinarity is crucial towards enhancing the effectiveness of education, since it provides a unique way of strengthening learning processes, such as discovering analogies, similarities etc., while providing application examples, which are inherently closer to real world problems.

7. Learning should be a collaborative experience It is widely held that increased students’ participation stimulates interest and enhances learning. Furthermore, students’ collaboration and interaction is one of the most essential characteristics of success of the didactical approach.

8. Equal and parallel development of pedagogical and technological innovations In the presented approach technological innovations were designed to serve clear and specific educational demands. During the development of the presented tools students and teachers came together with researchers, psychologists, and technological and educational experts to contribute to the re-engineering of the school of tomorrow and test and evaluate the new ideas, concepts and technologies in real school environments.

9. The cycles of school-centred work are not only meant for evaluation purposes (technological and pedagogical). The aim is to help both teachers and students reach beyond “clichιs” to the areas in which they can make the most valuable contributions, and potentially increase their role on the world stage afterwards. To assure maximal usability of the new tools, optimal adaptation to the local environments and realistic evaluation of the pedagogical effects, the developed software add-ons use a heavily student-centred approach.

10. Innovative pedagogical and technological aspects have to be systematically evaluated The evaluation of the electronic tools of all the presented projects was performed according to an academic valid scheme, based on well-defined methodologies. The aim is to develop a better theoretical framework on how different types of tools and learning environments support different types of thinking, reasoning and understanding. The research process includes quasi-experimental design (pre- and post achievement tests in control and experimental groups) and on-field observations (interviews, teachers logbook, video captures).

11. Technological Innovation All presented tools have real time data analysis capabilities. Our aim for the developed educational tools is for them to be fast processing tools, free from complex procedures, giving students the opportunity to easily access the data on demand. The open architecture of the tools allows for additions, modifications and improvements in their introduction to the real school environments as well as for future expansion. The tools allow for full freedom in the selection of the parameters plotted, the axis, the time window, etc.

12. Application examples • AgroWeb project • e-Hermes and YouRA projects • Artemis and Athina projects • EuroSPIn project

13. AgroWeb The project aims at the exploitation of the ICT for the development of an environment that promotes interdisciplinary approaches and makes full use of the capacity of informal learning. In the framework of the AgroWeb project students from four European countries collect information about the agricultural products of their region, which they present and sell through the Internet

20. E-Hermes and YouRA projects The projects aim at the development and application of a pedagogical framework suitable for the implementation of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) to 10-17 year old students. Since in this age students do not easily use foreign languages, during the development of the electronic tool special emphasis was given in the possibility of non-verbal communication, communication based in the use of drawings, photographs and video.

21. Students Teachers Group Students Teachers Group Students Teachers Group e-Tool Students Teachers Group Students Teachers Group

22. e-tool The e-tool’s main characteristics are: • multi platform software application • databases with TCP-IP connectivity • produces plots in real time The user-interface was developed to: • guarantee full freedom of students in choosing the form of plots • address clear educational demands www.ellinogermaniki.gr/e-Hermes/dataentry/show.html

23. pH

24. Data analysis

25. Homemade devices Students construct their own devices in order to measure: • the temperature • the pressure • the height of rainfall • the speed of the wind • the direction of the wind

26. Students’ activities

28. The YouRA project: The user-interface

32. The Artemis and Athina projects The Artemis and Athina projects aim at the creation of an advanced technology language course for the teaching of Modern Greek through various educational channels. Artemis project is covering the introductory level, while Athina project is devoted to the advanced level of learning the Greek language. The projects develop written material, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM with interactive multimedia and use digital video and advanced Internet platforms for facilitating ODL (including interactive applications like video, distributed authoring environments, web-based books etc.). The communicative approach to language teaching is at the core of Artemis and Athina's materials.

33. e-tools

41. The EuroSPIn project The project aims at the development of a model of cooperation between the media and the schools throughout Europe. Within the aims of the project is also the development of a model of active civic education that allows students to participate in research efforts. In the framework of the program students perform a research with questionnaires and interviews on the preferences, attitudes, political beliefs and ideological dispositions of European youth, under the supervision of specialized experts who will collaborate with the students and the teachers participating in the project.

42. Instructions – Data entry - Results

43. Instructions: How to view the questions

45. Question 13a – Total results – Histogram

46. Question 13a – Total results – Pie chart

47. Question 13a – Results after imposed criteria

48. Conclusions The presented pedagogical concepts govern the scientific research in the fields of Pedagogy and Educational Technology. This research is in principle necessary to be performed in a large multinational community for science advance and broad benefits. The developed tools are results of collaboration of complementary expertise in the fields of technology, communications, basic research, educational software development, education, science teaching and pedagogical psychology, a group that can be brought together only in the dimensions of the European Union.