Innovative use of ICT in schools in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdo

1
Innovative use of ICT in schools in Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, Germany, Portugal and the United
Kingdom

• Ulf Fredriksson
• Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning, Ispra,
  Italy and
• Mid Sweden University, Sweden
• Tjeerd Plomp
• University of Twente, the Netherlands
• Gunilla Jedeskog
• Linköping University, Sweden
• Elsebeth Sorensen
• Aalborg University, Denmark
• Maria Rasmusson
• Mid Sweden University, Sweden

2
Innovative use of ICT in schools in Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, Germany, Portugal and the United
Kingdom

• The ELFE project a short presentation
• Findings from the project
• Findings from the Nordic countries compared with
  findings from the other three countries
• Discussions and conclusions

3
The ELFE project

• Initiated by ETUCE
• 2 year project financed by the EU
• allow ETUCE and the wider society to get a
  better understanding of the strengths and the
  weaknesses of using ICT in primary and secondary
  education

4
The ELFE project aims

• Aim 1 Analyse and share good experiences and
  identify good practices in using ICT
• Aim 2 Study the possibilities of transferring
  these good practices to other schools and
  countries
• Aim 3 Create a debate on how the European policy
  on eLearning and use of ICT in education should
  be developed

5
The ELFE project

• Cooperation between researchers and teacher
  unions
• Denmark, Germany, Norway, Portugal and United
  Kingdom
• Three schools from each country
• An additional study in Sweden (three schools)

6
The ELFE-project selection of schools

• normal as opposed to schools that receive extra
  budgets and support as part of a specific project
  
• a mixture of primary and secondary schools
  including some vocational schools and some
  isolated and/or rural schools
• the use of ICT is aimed at pedagogical innovation
  
• ICT is intensively used in teaching and learning
  processes in the school as a whole

7
The ELFE-project selection of schools

• selection of school was done by the national
  trade union representative of the participating
  countries in the ELFE Steering Committee
• only three days were available for the three
  school visits in a particular country (one day
  per school, during that day the ELFE team also
  had to travel from one school to the next)

8
ELFE instruments

• Principal interview and questionnaire
• Innovative teachers (i.e. teachers deeply
  involved in using ICT in their teaching and in
  implementing ICT in the school) interview
• Other teachers interview
• Students interview
• ICT coordinator (staff member responsible in the
  school for the ICT infrastructure) questionnaire
• collect school level documents relevant for the
  topic

9
Three questions

• What factors influence the intensive use of ICT?
• What difference does the use of ICT make in
  schools where ICT is intensively used
  for instructional/pedagogical purposes?
• How are the students influenced by this different
  way of teaching as compared to the traditional
  classroom education, both individually and as a
  collective?

10
What factors influence the intensive use of ICT?

• Vision on teaching and learning
• Schools involvement in other innovations
• Leadership style of the principal
• Integration of ICT in the schools culture
• Teachers professional development
• Teacher collaboration
• External policies and linkages relevant for ICT
  use and pedagogical changes

11
What difference does the use of ICT make in
schools where ICT is intensively used
for instructional/pedagogical purposes?

• Interaction between teachers
• Interaction between teachers and students
• Better communication with parents
• Other type of interaction with local community
• Influences on teaching and learning
• New physical arrangements
• Increased efficiency of school administrations
  and effectiveness of school management

12
How are the students influenced by this different
way of teaching as compared to the traditional
classroom education, both individually and as a
collective?

• What students do with ICT
• How students experience working with ICT
• No hard evidence of what impact the intensive use
  of ICT in subjects and/or in projects and
  independent learning tasks has on students
• New competences such as being able to work
  independently and in projects, to search for
  information, to collaborate and communicate, etc

13
How are the students influenced by this different
way of teaching as compared to the traditional
classroom education, both individually and as a
collective?

• Students show more confidence and have better
  learning motivation
• Students have no instrumental problems in
  working with computers and more general with ICT
• In general students like working with computers

14
Findings from Denmark, Norway and Sweden
15
Findings from Germany, Portugal and the UK
16
Findings from Denmark, Norway and SwedenWhat
factors influence the intensive use of ICT?

• Vision - yes
• Leadership style yes (autonomy of the schools)
• Integration of ICT in the schools culture - yes
• Teachers professional development yes (based
  on local needs and local decisions)
• External policies - yes

17
Findings from Denmark, Norway and SwedenWhat
difference does the use of ICT make?

• Interaction between teachers and students
• New physical arrangements
• Increased efficiency of school administrations
  and effectiveness of school management

18
Findings from Denmark, Norway and SwedenHow are
the students influenced by this way of teaching?

• All students use ICT
• Students ability to work independently?

19
Comparison between the three Nordic countries and
the other countries

• All the schools seem to have much in common
• The schools in the Nordic countries and in
  England seem to have been working more with
  teachers professional development than in the
  other countries.
• Students use computers in all involved schools,
  but the schools in the Nordic countries and in
  England seem to have more access to computers
  than the German and the Portuguese students

20
Discussion and conclusionsTime is an
issue(Fullan, 2001)

• Three stages
• Initiation
• Being informed
• Implementation (change)
• Fear, risk, etc.
• Pedagogical imagination
• Competence
• Institutionalization

21
Discussion and conclusions The teacher as the
key

• The appropriate role of technology depends on the
  individual educational designers/teachers views
  and perception of the goals of education
• A conscious choice
• Time

22
Discussion and conclusions A set of questions
for reflection

• The role of the teacher/student?
• How to balance student initiatives and teachers
  need to control?
• Dialogue/collaboration?
• How to use ICT to foster collaboration?
• Imagining appropriate assessment models?

23
Discussion and conclusions

• The findings from the ELFE project are not
  possible to generalize.
• Comparing schools that are supposed to be in the
  forefront may give some hints about the
  directions of developments in the involved
  countries
• The differences between the schools in the
  project seem to reflect the differences between
  the countries.

24
More information about the ELFE- project

• http//www.elfe-eu.net/

25
Kiitos!
Merci!
Danke!
Takk!
Thank You!
Tack!
Gracias!
Grazie!