Blog

I've decided I am going to experiment on blogs at school this year.

It seems to me that a blog, as a personal (I like this "personal" more than "individual") mean of expression, is fit for working outside ordinary contents, delving and internalizing knowledge.

Technically, I visited the Scuola-ER portal managed by my regional school authority, and probably with one of my classes I shall try using it. Anyway I find blogger easier and more suitable for its user management options.

For now I have launched the thing with one out of my three classes. I was too curious and I couldn't wait to be back from my paternal leave next month. With the other two classes I will probably wait until I am back, also seeing what happens with the active one.

In any case, the blog is hidden, accessible only to me and the students of the class. I wrote the parents (as I had done last year for the wiki) to explain my intentions and reasons. Tomorrow we'll start working on it.

Being first of all a personal work, I am quite curious to see how much the students will let themselves be "caught". I will keep you updated.        

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Wikis with fifteen-sixteen-agers

Just to get back in activity with the blog, I'm updating the last post.

Wikis with fifteen-sixteen-agers. We finished them and the wikis are (almost) ready and eventually I was able to sort the final questionnaires and put them together.

Four classes, four wikis, one about electrization, one about lightnings and two about equilibrium in fluids.

The work was arranged as follows:

1. researching infos to answer some questions raised by observing some phenomena
2. information accumulation, skimming, group rewriting processes, ending in a single document for every student/group containing all information deemed pertaining, necessary and sufficient to describe the subject
3. choosing key-words and mind-mapping
   
4. assigning key-words to students and writing of individual encyclopedic entries about key-word
5. wiki population with
   
1. texts
2. images and graphic elements
3. links according to the mind-map and more
   
6. reading and mutual peer editing of the encyclopedic entries
7. self-assessment about the quality of own work, teacher's assessment about the quality of work, classwork on contents with a questionnaire about appreciation

From a scientific point of view, this should only be the beginning of a methodologic process that should lead to experimental verification in lab of the explanations found to the phenomena.

For me, it is anyway a starting point. The interesting thing that I want to share are the results of the appreciation questionnaire. The question was:

Question 3: With the wiki activity we worked in quite an unusual way: try to balance the books about this methodology, expressing in particular your opinion about:
a) is it or is it not useful to learn more (and, in case, which kind of thigs can you learn better and which can you learn worse?)
b) is it or is it not useful to motivate you to study
c) which aspects of this work do you find more positive and which more critical
d) suggestions, various thoughts, your ideas about what we have done.

The results are interesting. 37 students took part. The answers were free and of various length, some following the scheme, other more original. Here is a summary of the answers.

Pros

• you can learn ICT (32)
• you can learn physics (22)
• it makes studying physics light (21)
• you get motivation from the fact that you are creating something (20)
• you learn to use the net in order to study and learn (14)
• you get to cooperate with your school mates, even when they live far away (14)
• it's different (13)
• you can go in depth with unknown words and concepts (10)
• you learn a method of work that will be useful in future (8)
• you share ideas (8)
• you are forced to pay attention to the connections between concepts (8)
• you reach plenty of specific and detailed information (7)
• you get motivated by using computers and the net (6)
• you can study in a creative and constructive way (5)
• you learn to cooperate (5)
• it facilitates theoretical learning (5)
• working so much on shared information you get to understand its contents (4)
• the product grows with everybody's contribution (4)
• it's accessible everywhere and always (3)
• you get to interact directly and at any time with the teacher (2)
• it makes your school innovative (2)
• you become curious about the final result (2)
• you are responsible of what you write (2)
• you produce your own studying materials (2)
• you can work alone or in a group (2)
• you improve the net (2)
• you learn how to evaluate and improve your and other mates' work (2)
• you share working methods (1)
• it motivates students who like working in groups and share (1)
• you get to use the school's ICT labs (1)
• you don't write with a pen but on a keyboard (1)
• you learn to express yourself in an appropriate way (1)
• it's easier than learning on books (1)
• it forces you to read everybody's work (1)

Cons

• it's difficult if you don't have a computer or an internet connection at home, or if the schools computers are slow or malfunctioning (16)
• technically editing isn't too easy (5)
• sometimes the information you find is not correct or appropriate or adequate or reliable (4)
• some can work more and others less, coordinating is not always easy (2)
• working in the PC room is distracting (2)
• sometimes you end working alone anyway (1)
• little practical learning (1)
• there's a risk that someone's contributions are mishandled by others (1)
• you go in too little depth regarding physics (1)
• someone can be unable to study on a PC (1)
• the topic wasn't interesting (1)
• you learn well your own contribution but not the others' (1)
• not enough time to absorb the contents (1)

Suggestions

• work like this more frequently (30)
• use this method in other subjects or topics (4)
• make the wikis accessible to everyone, not only to our classes (3)
• keep changing groups (2)
• build a social network (1)
• build a gaming site (1)
• improve graphics (1)
• the school should provide tools for everyone to have an experience like this (1)
• choose better topics (1)
• insert exercises (1)
• insert summaries (1)
• insert lesson notes (1)
• use IM services (1)

Feels like it's a good first time. Although I have some corrections and steerings to think of for the next time. In a next post I'll focus on these.

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Wiki, didactics and assessment

As I wrote in a previous post, I decided to experiment using didactically a wiki with my four 14-16ers classes.

This experience, that's proceeding with some labour but, for now, in a satisfactory way, is teaching me a lot. First of all it teaches me that a wiki is just a tool. Finding colleagues who are so fond of technology in education that they miss its goal, is easy today. So, a wiki is a tool serving didactics, let me write it down clearly so I won't forget even if right now I adore wikis.

This, to me, means that, more than its practical usage (that has still some educational values in a school environment), its worth is the side-work. Preparing texts and materials, building the conceptual network, organizing the work, timeliness, accuracy: these are, in my opinion, aspects that must get through in a wiki-related project, perhaps even as assessment indicators for the completed project.

If our idea is to help our students to learn how to learn (repetition is on purpose), we would do well if we provide them with methods, in order to lead them without doing the work for them. For this I think that a good organization of a wiki-related project is necessary: so students can take advantage of the wiki both in learning the subject-theme the wiki is about, and also, and especially, in reflecting on the methods and tools of technologically assisted collaborative learning.

Publishing a wiki is not the end of the project. The "dry-run" publication phase must lead to improvement of the finished product, before its possible "www" publication. So all students must explore the conceptual network represented in the wiki, be able to intervene improving and augmenting the contents already present or suggesting options to their authors for more radical changes, which, in turn, the authors must be able to accept or refuse giving reasons.

Commenting on a post of hers, I asked Talia to suggest how one can assess e-learning in the classroom. I don't want to be lazy, so I'll try to give my contribution, in spite of my confused feelings and not being an expert in the field. I think I can safely say that a wiki per se is un-assessable, in the sense that it is a collective product and it's impossible to partially assess individual contributions. What can we assess, though?

1. in the initial phase (pre-wiki): participation, quality and quantity of information found, timeliness, respecting tasks...
2. in the publication phase: care of contents and of links
3. in the final phase (post-wiki): the level of interaction and understanding shown in discussions about possible variants and corrections, the depth of the methodology and meta-subject reflection about the work done
4. in the summative phase (extra-wiki): specific learning of the subject-theme as shown in a suitable classwork.
   

Of these four phases, the first two seem open to self-assessment by students, or peer-assessment, while the last two are more traditional and require expert and competent eyes of the teacher. The way to organize self-assessment or peer-assessment can depend, in my opinion, on the age and maturity of the students. It can be an anonymous matrix where each student marks his/her own and his/her mates' behaviour relatively to the indicators, or a grading list. One must pay attention that the assessment is specific, maybe even giving reasons, about the project and regarding only aspects contained in the indicators. For this, it can be limited to a self-assessment and to an assessment of mates belonging to the same work group.

I think that in a collaborative activity such as this, it's useful that

• not only contents are assessed
• not only the teacher assesses

I find it's even more useful for a teacher to experiment, be it only once, on an activity whose analysis and assessment levels are necessarily so complex. It motivates, it helps to refocus one's objectives and expectations, it opens one's mind, it forces reflection. In a word, it's healthy.

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To Talia about teacher-student interaction in e-learning.

Let me post here a comment I left on this Talia's blog post.


Hi Talia. Congratulations for your excellent blog and the great ideas you give through it.
I completely agree with you on this one: establishing an e-learning environment doesn’t decrease the teacher’s workload, on the contrary!
Somehow the teacher allows students to access information, tasks, projects… even when the teacher is not there. But they will do it only if they see that the teacher is there anyway, if they understand that they are not alone, that their effort is being followed.
One of the main reasons I am exploring this field is that I want my students not to think of the subject I teach only on Wed evening because on Thu morning we have a class, something we know is not conducive to great learning, but that happens more and more frequently in my corner of the world. A virtual classroom is something that can be exciting because it resembles things students do on the net, but with a different purpose; it can help motivation, give different keys to learning… But an empty virtual classroom is as empty as a real one. Students want people to be there. Students (and parents) want their (advanced and brave) teacher to be there, always. Or at least when they are needed there.
One point I would like to hear your opinion and tips about is evaluation and assessment in e-learning. I feel a bit… clueless about this one.
I’ll keep in touch.

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E-learning in the class and learning styles

Talia Carbis has an interesting blog with a lot of resources for Moodle users.

In one of her many worth-reading posts, Talia explains how e-learning can be successfully used in the classroom. In the classroom, no only for distance learning, as it is usually thought.

The reasons Talia gives of these opportunities (which I won't repeat, just go  here and find them), are based on something that I, although I am probably not alone in this, often forget: each person learns differently. If you read the post, you realize that Carbis thinks and writes in terms of people who learn visually, aurally, kinesthetically... That is a classification proper of some learning theories, that distinguish three main styles: visual, aural and kinesthetic.

Going beyond theories, which, I believe, are not always too on-the-spot, meaning that each author has his/her own theories often conflicting or not too well blending with the neighbour's, I think an attention to the cognitive and learning patterns and styles of our students is an attention that we rarely take the trouble to pay, but that would save our students, and consequently ourselves, a lot of effort in our daily learning-teaching job.

This said, I think Talia is right: multimedia, the potentials of the net and of e-learning can be useful for every learning style, and facilitate everybody's work, provided they are used well. The problem is, as usual, to change our mental habits...

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Building learning communities

In Sarah Weisz's TEN blog I found a post that caused some reflections. Building professional learning communities simply tells about Will Richardson's idea that many teachers don't understand how technologies can facilitate learning, and invites to join a discussion opened by a TEN member in the site forum.

Is it really so in Italy? Don't many teachers realize about the potentials?

With some effort (VERY ironic here) I think I could agree, even if maybe things are changing a little. The effort that is being made in introducing technologies in didactics is certainly big. What are the obstacles?

• Teachers feel unprepared to use computers (and probably many of them really are);
• teachers feel unprepared to use ICT in the classroom (and certainly many of them really are);
• teachers feel introducing technologies as something "more", not as a different way of thinking and doing;
• teachers have no clues about what can be done with technologies, because they don't know them and don't practice it;
  
• teachers are focused on syllabuses, abilities students must reach (for tradition or to pass the final exam) and don't have any time nor will to try anything new;
• teachers have no will to try anything new;
• teachers have no will.

I believe that the first step is to show teachers that doing something is possible. Show them finite products, even if the quality is not supreme, to let them know what it's all about. I think it's up to the curious ones, to those like me, to open the way so that in our Italian schools something new is tried, if it's worth it.

And I want to underline this element of prudence: if it's worth it. Experimenting is always a little game on our student's heads, and it doesn't mean improvising, and above all it means having the intellectual honesty to admit when something hasn't worked.

I am trying to do something. The project is going on, although, between election days and new labs to be baptized, we slowed down a little. Our next step is to publish the wikis...
I am also using a wiki to prepare an environmental education project in cooperation with other schools nearby. I hope it works. If nothing else, some more people will know that wikis exist.

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OECD and schooling

Translation of today's post "L'OCSE e la scuola" on "Il deserto dei tartari 2.0".

OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) published in 2001 and then republished more recently a document that's quite interesting because it tries to describe the possible scenarios for the future of schooling.

The scenarios described are six, divided in three categories: "Status quo", "Re-schooling" and "De-schooling".

Obviously anyone is free to get his or her own idea about these. From a quick check, I think the de-schooling is more appreciated in the USA.

Personally I find myself more on the reschoolng lines, although I am aware that the real outcome will depend locally on many factors and will probably be a hybrid among the different scenarios

The Status quo model seems to me invariably the Italian sentence, among half reforms attempted by a government and punctually erased by the next one...     

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