Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. Use of ICT as learning tools: perceptions and reality of the ICT in secondary
schools
2. Barriers and Obstacles: main problems that represent real barriers to the ICT
learning tools diffusion in the schools
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 1
BRIDGING IE SURVEY
1. Use of ICT as learning tools: perceptions and reality of the ICT in secondary
schools
2. Barriers and Obstacles: main problems that represent real barriers to the ICT
learning tools diffusion in the schools
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Analysis and review of the literature (existing researches, studies, reports, normative
documents).
Review of the web or other publications – existing cross-national, national and
regional researches, projects, initiatives, good practices, etc.;
Review of the National Strategy for ICT
Interviews with experts in the field of ICT educational approaches in Italian’s pedagogical
practice:
Mr. Mario Rotta _ Expert on ICT, e-learning and on-line learning environments in
education
Mr. Antonio Fini_ Expert in e-learning platforms and in particular of cooperative and
collaborative systems.
Technology is now such an important part of children’s everyday lives that a learning
environment without it would be completely out of touch with their own realities.
The technology is now part of our social and economic fabric, and it is hard to imagine
education and training without it.
Our vision draws on the shifts and trends that are transforming the way people work, learn
and—to tell the whole—make sense of the world in a digitalised, networked and knowledge–
based society.
«I believe that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child’s powers
by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself.
Through these demands he is stimulated to act as a member of a unity, to emerge from his
original narrowness of action and feeling, and to conceive of himself from the standpoint of
the welfare of the group to which he belongs. Through the responses which others make to
his own activities he comes to know what these mean in social terms»
(Dewey 1897)
à à à Situation
The Ministry of Education strategic documents and laws (D.lgs. 59/04, )underlined the
importance of the ICT Integration into Italian Schools.
E-learning is defined as the use of new multimedia technologies and Internet in order to
improve the quality of learning by facilitating the access to resources and services.
à à Main goal
To improve the quality of education
To enrich the educational contents through ICT
To introduce innovativel educational technologies
à Specific goal
To include ICT into educational programs
To integrate the ICTS into educational aims at a national level and at local level
ICTs would have to work in tandem with the development of school development plans.
Barriers
ICTs are not yet adequately incorporated into the general subjects’ educational
plans and thus they are limited, accidental and dependent on the teacher’s personal
initiatives.
Potentialities
The experts pointed out in particular the importance of the social dimension of the use
of the new technologies in education
During the last decade, the Internet has changed our life in many ways and especially the
way that we communicate. Technologies like e-mail, discussion forums and chats are
considered today almost out-of-date, while new and promising technologies like weblogs,
wikis and podcasts emerge and contribute not only to the development of the individual
expression but also to the creation of Communities of Practice (CoP).
These emerging technologies signal a transition to Web 2.0, i.e. the second generation of
the Internet, which is characterized by greater functionality, interoperability and
connectivity of resources and information, better organized and categorized content, open
communication and active online communities.
No doubt that this new milieu will have a great impact on research, education and teaching
as it is also a transition from the “Read Only” Web to “Read/Write Web”.
Social software contributes to the construction of knowledge with the others and for
the others.
The focus is on the community itself and not on the individual user
There is also evidence that ICT has a positive impact on learning processes and
teaching practices. It leads to better teamwork, collaborative working across schools, and
a more student–centred approach which gives learners more autonomy. Using ICT affects
the nature of learning itself. It encourages inquiry, problem solving, and critical
thinking.
The technology offers unprecedented learning tools:
Barriers
The potential of ICT for learning is not being fully exploited yet. There is a need to
keep up with technological developments, in particular to extend the use of broadband,
available in just two thirds of schools at present
There is a lack about the confidence required to use ICT for methodological
improvement.
Institutional innovation is slower than technological development
Most current developments in the use of modern technologies in education and training
are… “little more than relatively naïve transpositions to new environments of the much
criticised educational paradigms of the past. Driven by an invisible force that calls us to the
past, we seem to keep putting emphasis mainly on the use of the PC itself rather than on
learning opportunities that the new technologies are pleading to offer us”.
• Stakeholders should use innovation and success stories of others to create and promote
future ICT policy and implementations.
• Decision-makers should use the results of research; researchers should make their results
readable and usable by decision-makers.
• There is a need for more practical implementation oriented researches into schools
• Educational policies should consider teachers as key agents of Education, of the evolution
of Education, and of the preparation of players and citizens of the knowledge society.
Is the school management pro-active about the introduction of ICT into schools?
Have you time at your disposal for the introduction of the new ICT approaches into
your school-programmes?
Do you need to update your ICT skills?
Do you have any kind of experience concerning ICT innovative projects into your
schools?
Do you think that the new ICT educational appoaches can improve your
professional teaching activities?
What are the utility of the different ICT tools?
What are the main tools that you think you will use?
TEACHERS SURVEY CONCLUSION
There has been some progress in teachers’ understanding of the contribution of ICT
to teaching and learning
The best work is from teachers who, despite having undertaken the generic training, are
largely self-taught in applying ICT to teaching, or who have received informal
training from a more knowledgeable colleague.
Teachers now have more knowledge about the effective use of ICT but the focus is still on
technical skills rather than conceptual understanding of the new educational potentialities of
the ICT.
To realize the potential inherent in ICT, there is a need for innovative ICT
pedagogies in secondary education.
The infusing approach involves integrating or embedding ICT across the curriculum, and is
seen in those schools that now employ a wide range of computer-based technologies.
Teachers explore new ways in which ICT changes their personal productivity and
professional practice. Subject areas to reflect real-world applications.
Schools that use ICT to rethink and renew school organization in creative ways are at the
transforming approach. ICT becomes an integral though invisible part of daily personal
productivity and professional practice. The focus of the curriculum is now learner-centred
and integrates subject areas in real-world applications. ICT is taught as a separate subject
at the professional level and is incorporated into all vocational areas. Schools have become
centres of learning for their communities.
CHAPTER 2
Projects and the most recent experiences related to technology innovation in Italian schools
Purpose:
Active Learning
Methodologies
Social training & Networking
KIDSMART
It is a IBM-Italia project aiming at children approach to technology through creative
games and fun in order to integrate the information and communication technology in the
teaching methods.
• Cartoons: How to use the PC
• Creative games
• Writing and using web tools, playing online games
• Exercises: (e.g. “create a book using a digital camera)
• sharing of skills acquired through games that can be improved through work carried
out at home
The PC game offers children a way to solve problems, make decisions, use acquired
skills and at the same time help their class mates acquire new skills, also with the help
from parents.
http://www.kidsmartearlylearning.org/IT/index.html
DIVERTIPC: PLAY AND LEARN WITH THE TV
DivertiPC offers:
- a new approach to learning through fun of English and Italian at school through TV
and the Web.
- A number of open spaces available for students who want to customize them with
their own material. They can also be uploaded with interdisciplinary training
contents.
It will initially provide some important information such as the class register, school
activities, school fees. It will also allow students to participate in the courses from
home. This is a very innovative path that the Public school system has never followed
before.
www.istruzione.it/innovazione/progetti/
E-DIDATECA
This project aims at collecting and spreading multimedia tools for educational
purposes, created by a consortia of educational institutions and public organizations
From the website other facilities can be reached such as a section dedicated to the use of
video-language for didactics (streaming videos can be downloaded, a collection of links,
a forum area, a useful software section, etc)
It has been a reference point for schools of every level, that through this portal can
download, send and consult multimedia material produced by the schools
themselves, and receive useful suggestions to produce projects.
An example: "I Ragazzi del Fiume" school network has implemented a project for teaching
and spreading minor and EU languages and for online cooperative learning through
Podcasting technology.
Podcasts can offer educational material to be listened to and visualised on personal
computers or mobile devices, freeing learning from the constraints of a classroom
www.ragazzidelfiume.it/
ForTic
This initiative proposes to implement a national web portal for technological training
through a blended-learning method. The programme includes open training paths combining
and exploiting both didactics and technology, in order to meet the requirements and skills of
the school staff.
www.istruzione.it/innovazione/progetti/tic_05.shtml
@pprendereinrete
Microsoft & Italian Government
This portal is dedicated to teachers: it is in fact a free online educational tool for teachers in
which can be found ideas, suggestions and useful documentation for in-depth study for a
proper use of didactic technologies.
- “Apprendereinrete” is a web space open and free though for teachers only. A virtual
meeting point born to disseminate in school both knowledge and the use of
technologies. It is a forum in which ideas can be compared and support can be
obtained from tutoring personnel expert on the use of Microsoft Office: it comprises
training programmes free of charge, both virtual and in class; an area in which
teachers can share their experiences and see their woks published; documentation
and presentation to improve one’s computer competences.
- in the area Docente@utore (almost 200 teachers of all disciplines have already
joined it) teachers use the platform as a debating ground with their Italian
colleagues. This initiative offers the opportunity to produce interactive
multimedia projects with the students; these projects are then uploaded in a
common space thus giving teaching a new aspect.
NETFORM
is a ministerial internet product of which teachers are at the same time producers and
users.
It is :
• a "repository" for didactic programmes
• an educational environment in which teachers who are less familiar with the use
of TIC in teaching have access to material produced by more experienced colleagues.
NETFORM has found a new form of constructive cooperation between teachers almost
exclusively “at distance”; it represents also an open system accessible to teachers for fresh
input and for the inclusion of new programmes.
http://www.pubblica.istruzione.it/innovazione/progetti/netform.shtml
PIONIERI
Realized by the Italian teacher association with the objective to supply an easy path to
teachers for the use of technology in education.
- through class seminars the teachers have first become familiar with the teaching
tools and have been helped in understanding the didactic and technical
characteristics of the programmes used (Moodle, LAMS, Hot Potaoes, Mind Maps:
MindManager e FreeMind, FLE3, Mediawiki, WordPress), acquiring a better in-sight of
these tools.
- a meeting, sharing and exchange point for the teaching community (and not only)
interested in the use of educational tools.
- a resource and a concrete help thanks to the possibility to find and download
precious theoretical information (basic knowledge section), practical information
(good practices section), as well as online courses through a number of didactic
softwares (online courses section).
- In the section “template of learning activities” there are also a number of models
(templates) for learning activities ready to be copied and personalised according to
individual teaching objectives.
http://www.copernicus-bz-pionieri.it
REMOTELAB
Remote tests consist of a range of high technology tools which are included and
integrated in a virtual website which allows managing and supervising them in real time,
so as to make the test wherever an internet connection is available.
These tools allow the data processing and analysis in the different science fields, such as
chemistry, physics and mathematics. All the data acquired by the system are real data, and
are therefore subject to a number of errors which could occur in a laboratory.
CAMPUS
It foresees:
- A technological infrastructure to set up in Sardinia 611 computer labs with 12 work
stations for a total of 543 schools connected with the web;
- A pilot project for multimedia experimentation involving 28 schools 12 of which of first
grade secondary level, 8 second grade secondary schools, 4 elementary schools and 4 prep
schools. 100 classes which will work jointly to develop semi-finished didactic tools adapting
them to their needs and improving them through already acquired teaching and learning
experiences.
The following are some of the tools available to the schools involved in the project:
- Online video library
- Lessons in videoconference
- Multimedia lab: files divided by subject or field of knowledge
- Constant school/family dialogue
www.conoscere.it
Think.com
the virtual educational environment for didactics
Think.com web portal is conceived to encourage the cooperation and link between
students and teachers. This tool promotes the development of the didactics and supports
teachers to outline educational plans, manage lesson contents, share professional
knowledge with other colleagues and also initiate international cooperation.
ORACLE provides the Italian schools with an educational virtual setting consisting in
interactive web portal, training and support services for teachers and students. This
allows every teacher, students and parent to communicate online.
Students and teachers will be able to exchange any type of communication, familiarise with
the most advanced technologies and improve training experience.
Think.com in Italy
The pilot project involved about 25 schools of all specializations and levels mainly located in
Rome and the surroundings. Other school institutes have joined Think.com separately. As of
today 40 schools all over Italy have experimented this project.
www.think.com/it
4- School Web Labs
The project carried out in cooperation with three big Italian University Consortia (CASPUR,
CILEA, CINECA) promotes the opening of school libraries to public and private libraries.
Schools involved will be able to take advantage of the facilities supplied by the National
Library Service and will be integrated with the territorial centres SBN (Sistema Bibliotecario
Nationale - National Library Network).
The web portal, which is addressed to all Italian schools, supports the training platform and
gives the access to the facilities as well.
It already includes a number of thematic areas and very popular debate forums, sometimes
shared by other web portals (www.ricercaitaliana.it, www.scuolaeservizi.it) relating to other
important Italian projects. In one of these portal areas
(www.biblioscuole.it/public/vetrina.htm) schools can publish interesting information about
the use of the library for didactics
The cataloguing of the documents will allow to create an only catalogue for school libraries
participating in the project and the use of modern ICT technologies will also allow web
access thus supplying bibliography and access to information to everyone.
http://www.istruzione.it/innovazione/progetti/biblioteche-nelle-scuole.shtml
ON-LINE MUSEUMS
The term "museum didactics" refers to all the methods and tools used by museums and
school institutions to place the existing cultural heritage at a wide audience disposal.
The cooperation between schools and museums for didactic purposes is very old and
nowadays, cooperation between schools and museums is still an unsolved matter. From this
point of view the insertion of ICT in the cultural heritage field, offers a great chance à
Therefore the Department for Information Technology Systems has implemented a special
Section for Museum Didactics on the MIUR web portal.
It will be a proper tool for students, teachers, parents, museum employees and everybody
looking for a combination between education and knowledge worlds.
The Archive of the Central Museum of the Risorgimento, recently re-filed, and the
iconographical catalogues - photographs, prints, pictures, etc., can be accessed at the
following website:
www.risorgimento.it
www.miur.it
DID@TIC
It is a joint project between MIUR and Microsoft “Partners in learning” started in 2006. It is
a teacher training project aimed at teaching through technology. This included video-
seminars, multimedia resources and tutorship experts that involved the participants in a
virtual-learning community.
The objective:
to give teachers the opportunity to acquire knowledge necessary to develop PBL activities in
schools.
The project was carried out with the e-learning method and was structured as follows: use
of the PBL materials such as video-seminars, handbooks and suggestions for
implementation, bibliography, PBL files with materials for teachers and students, materials
for in-depth studies, indexes, linkography and resources chosen by the tutor; attendance to
meetings group activities for PBL files production
Each participant has been part of a virtual class divided in three areas of study:
psychosocial, history, human science and technical/scientific
During the first phase the teachers studied the materials, then they started group debates
under the tutor’s supervision, sharing ideas, proposals, suggestions and experiences and
finally they studied the PBL files, both together and individually.
Students are assigned an administration type profile, since one of their activities is
programming, and a workspace clearly accessible in the computer’s resources. The tool so
conceived in the web allows teachers and students alike to have access to the files from
anywhere. Students can click on the server from home and open the documents
they have created in their space work in SharePoint. The system allows the opening of
a website for each department and section where the material can be shared.
Each section shows the personal websites of the students. From here they can
save their work and use other tools from SharePoint (personal blogs, calendars,
news on the schools or the subjects)
The benefits of such a project are flexibility for teachers and responsibility for students.
HSH@network
The "Hospital School Home @ network" is a ministerial project that exploits the role of
technology and multimedia communication to guarantee uninterrupted studies to
students who are hospitalized or housebound, ensuring health care as well as
assistance in the education.
In less than two years, the project has achieved some important objectives:
• the implementation of an e-learning platform allowing online training for 450 teachers;
• the wireless wiring and connection to the GARR network of 65 hospitals spread all over the
national territory;
• the purchase and distribution of portable personal computers
• Set up of ADSL lines (free for families) for home learning.
A case:
«S. is nine years old. She is attending the third year of the primary school "G.De Ruggero",
C course, 179° teaching district of Rome. Regarding her disease, S. says: my parents
explained to me that my cells produce other cells although they turn out to be bad ones
instead of good ones.
This uninterrupted game of cards among white and red blood cells and platelets prevents
her from attending her classes and therefore meeting her fellows for long periods.
Sometimes "S. is forced to a brief hospitalization in the best of Rome hospitals" "whereas
she should go to school".
Since a few days though, S. has been able too see her fellows and teachers and speak with
them" "she has been able to do her homework, and even be tested and get bad marks. Yes,
it is a few days since she has been given a computer and an open line with her fellows and
teachers". "She connects to the internet and through the use of a camera and a microphone
she can talk to her friends, she can study, she is, like, in the classroom. Not like all her
fellows in fact, as she would like, but somehow she is there with them. From “Libero”
newspaper.
a project allowing school dropouts to accomplish their right and duty to study
through ICT tools. In particular it tries to re-introduce into an educational context the
"lost" teenagers from the suburbs of Naples, Turin and the provinces in order to stimulate
them to further educational studies and/or vocational training.
• supports the complex didactics of the G-Bus project (a mobile ICT classroom), through the
use of a mobile multimedia classroom;
• uses the internet for collaborative and cooperative learning by connecting the webus to
the classrooms and territory via the umts;
• ensures professionalism and skills which entrepreneurs can refer to during the dedicated
"Youth-work days";
• supplies young people with territorial information, entrepreneurial experience, helping the
business start up.
The webus is in fact also a useful tool for advertising, doing social communication and
raising financial resources.