Transcription

 

(slide 2)
I come from the university of art and design, Media Lab in Helsinki and we are a department of the university of art and design.
(slide 3,4)
I thought that first I speak about the institution, since most of you probably don't know it and about the learning environment process in our department. Then I will go through the pedagogical approach which has been, I guess, the main reason for asking me to come here. Afterwards I will talk about little bit about the research and development work as a process we have been working on in Itcole project and a little bit about the resources and then what's going on in 2004.
We finished about a year ago and need to be going forward this year and will go on. I will show you that the Itcole project is sustainable, at least at a certain level and we are still working on the best things going on after the project.
(slide 5)
But first just shortly something about the media lab and the learning environments research. The university of art and design is actually a quite old university. Its 130 years old. We talk about product designs and productions. Through the schools you can see what kind of things we do. We have the film school, which is the only film school in Finland at a university level education in film or motion picture. We have the industrial fashion or object related design at educational level. We have the department of art education as well. All Finnish art teachers are graduated from our university. Then visual culture, which is the graphic design for the graphics. And the media lab which is the newest school in the university. We are quite international, at least in terms of Finland. 15% of our students come from abroad. Actually more from outside Europe than from Europe. From Asia, China Japan, Korea and also from south America. The media lab has its tenth anniversary this autumn and we now have interdisciplinary MA programmes
(slide 6)
We take students with the backgrounds in computer science, in art and design, in education, for instance, my background is in educational science, and I also graduated from the media lab. So we try to bring together people with different backgrounds to work on digital media. We have had doctoral programmes as well, since 1996 and research groups since 1997.
(slide 7)
We have quite small departments, with about 120 students and we take 20 students every year. Staff members are 40 people and external funding is 50% coming from external sources, which means industry and the European Commission. We have both, national and international sources of funding. Through external funding we finance the research work, the MA programme is founded by the Ministry of Education of Finland.
(slide 8)
So all in all we are a laboratory. We want to emphasize that we are laboratory, which means that we make experiments. We even do various kinds of commercial productions. Quite a lot of new media companies in Finland can be found in the media lab, in our department and we have a lot of these spin off companies coming from our department as well. We encourage in our work, collaborative learning or collaborative work. We talk about co-design, or participatory design. We emphasise that creativity is reflective practice in a way. And also the usability and accessibility issues, designed for quite important things in our activities.
(slide 9)
The media lab is focusing on learning environment research. We have been working in this field since 1998 and we have the slogan, that we are "theory based - design orientated", which means that we base our educational theories, mainly on the psychology of education. The cognitive science, but our results as a research group are not necessarily papers or study reports. We do quite a lot of prototype scenarios and software which can then be used in the real situations. Of course the ITcole project has been our biggest work in last two years, then there is the fle3 environmental software which is still part of the ITcole project. Lately we have been working as well with the UNESCO for a young digital creators programme, and now we are working quite a lot with the mobile thing, thinking on how to use them in situated and collaborative learning. We have a national project starting now about this issue. And then one new area, which is also a kind of spin-off from the Itcole projects, the "learning Objects for progressive inquiry". I will tell you a little bit about the progressive inquiry which is kind of result of ITcole project as well.
So then to ITcole project and after a few words about the consortium. We were having in the consortium quite strong pedagogical research from psychology of education. We were having partners form University of Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rome, Salerno and Athens and University of Helsinki as well, all coming from the background of educational science and psychology of education. So we have this strong pedagogical research in the background and then we were working on technology development with several technical partners. We had a user, which was the city of Helsinki, the department of education which was our partner in the participatory design process, by working with the schools, mostly with the teachers on the design process.
(slide 11)
So in that sense, even if we were focusing on technology, we first developed the pedagogical models of collaborative knowledge building and of collaborative learning for European education. Based on this research work we were developing the knowledge building environment, and fle3 is the one environment for collaborative learning on knowledge building. Then of course the third part is to evaluate, test and disseminate the model and the environment. So they go hand in hand: the way of teaching and learning and the technology which has been developed.
(slide 12)
So first of all we are developing models and practices, we are relying on web based technology, as it is web-based software tools we are developing. At the very beginning we decided that it must be open source and free software, because the schools have low investment possibilities to try out new pedagogical models with new technologies. They shouldn't make a commitment for a year or even for a shorter time in order to try out something that is new for them. It should be free or low cost for schools to try out and see if it works in their own environment.
The general idea was that at the end of the project European educational institutions, especially the schools will have an opportunity to adopt , deploy and develop further the web-based educational platform along with guiding pedagogical models. We were doing software which can be distributed, you can download it, you can set up your own server, you can modify it if you want, but you are not left only alone with the software.
(slide 13)
This has to be a kind of starting point for us if we are thinking that we are working in the Information Society and believe that that's what we are aiming to. What are the skills needed in 20 years time . I think , that we must focus on knowledge and especially on students skills in order to cultivate knowledge or create new knowledge. It doesn't help anymore that they are able to go through some instructions in their own work-life. They need to be knowledge creative in a way and then we get to the collaborative way of working with the knowledge. Of course the creativity part is important when you try to create new knowledge.
(slide 14)
When it comes to the e-learning discussion, ICT and learning, I would take away everything which is in this red frame (see slide). We are not interested in this, we don't talk about computer based training or that tradition which is from the 1960s . No real web-based training, no e-learning or freedom of time and space, no distance learning, not this untiring teacher idea through real impact if the real impact is with the computer, no cost efficiency or any management issues related to learning. What we are focusing on is that computers are student collaborative tools, which is, if you think, also the tradition of living together with the computer. Samuel Proppers once said that computers are tools that will help people to solve things which they can't do without. They were in the tradition of seeing computers as a cognitive tool for people to go beyond their cognitive skills by using the computer. To use the computing power of the computer to solve problems, and then when we come to the network computers then comes the collaborative and network learning aspect. I really don't want to talk about e-learning at all
(slide 15)
A few words about pedagogical approaches in the project. Student-centred learning, collaborative learning, cross curriculum projects, are where the students are working. I will not talk about those, but just a few words about distributed expertise, progressive inquiry and knowledge building, which might be not that common.
(slide 16)
The idea about distributed expertise is that there can be a distributed commission, socially and physically. First of all socially we can overcome limitations of our cognitive skills, by working together. We can share the problems and solve problems together. More complex ones than those which we can work on just by our self. And then, very important when it comes to the use of ICT, is the physically distributed commission, that we can divide into the commitive load to the external tools. In the community, to the heads of other people, but also to the external thinking tools or cognitive tools. Traditionally notebooks and blackboards, so why not computers. A computer is actually a quite powerful cognitive tool if it is used in a clever way.
(slide 17)
The progressive inquiry model is a learning model which has been developed partially in the ITcole project. Actually it has been developed earlier in some doctoral. research, but then we were implementing and developing it further in the ITcole project. I will try to explain this idea. The students build up the context. This is of course done by the teacher who will give the theme or the topics on which the students have to work on. Let's say it can be on some of the courses or test sites we were working on. It was the internal row, without defining if it is history or geography or art or something else. Its just about Rome and then the students can have a look at the videos related to Rome, the history of Rome and the culture of Rome.
But after bringing up the context, which is done by the teacher, the students are free to set up their own study problems. They define what kind of topics related to the context they want to study. One study problem in this example was, why there is the saying that all roads leads to Rome. I don't understand where that saying comes from. So this is a study problem students worked on. Now we come to the use of computer. In this instant we can share these things through the computer, so the students will report their study problems into the database. Normally this kind of progressive enquiry may take four months of working on one topic or one theme. After four months of working and presenting your study problems and getting deeper into the topic, you have quite a lot of information. So actually you need a computer to organise this, to be able and available for further reflection, and for having a look at where did we come from and where did we go to. After the study problems, we tried to model the scientific research process. After the study problems the students have been asked to present their own explanation of theories. And in this example "why is there the saying that all roads lead to Rome" there was an explanation by one of the students that : "I guess that maybe the Romans think, that they are the centre of the universe. They have been coming up with this kind of saying. So that is a student explanation, which is based on the existing understanding of the topic. And it's really important that their own explanations, own theories also get stated somewhere, where you can go afterwards and see, if they did have any learning or conceptual chains as we call it.
Some student knows a little bit more of the topic, some student may have an evaluation of the hyper thesis of theories and then this critical evaluation and explanation leads students to search for deepening knowledge. They can use all existing sources of information, their study books, their school books, internet of course, cd-roms and of course, the teacher as well.
After this kind of work, the students study problems may hopefully become more focused. They provoke non defined problems as well and what they adopt during the process is something that can be called "new theories". They are new theories for the students, because the earlier theories where their own explanations, own beliefs they where holding and now they have better theories which are probably closer to the scientific explanations of the issues they have been studying. Where we need the computer is when the input is put in the database, which is shared by the students or the whole community of learners working on that theme. So afterwards, in the database you can have a look at what was the student "John" first explanations on this problem, or what was the deepening knowledge found by "Ann" during that learning process. So for reflection of the students on learning and of course for the teacher to follow what's going on we need a computer to manage the information which is actually created by the students during the learning process.
(slide 18)
Questions and explanations derive from the users own understandings and the scientific information found. We need this tools for working with knowledge objects., like explanation theories, hyper thesis and interpretations. These knowledge objects are things students are creating during the learning. A similar way to the way of experts working with knowledge, presenting explanations and theories and verifying them. We also need these tools for monitoring the learning process. And now with this monitoring I don't mean the teacher monitoring the students, but the students monitoring themselves. The monitoring of the learning process as a community.
(slide 20)
I really believe that we need this kind of consortium when we develop technologies for schools. We need that pedagogical research which should be done with schools. We need design which is quite often left outside, which should be done with schools and then with the technical development.
(slide 21)
For this kind of circle we were working on, we were of course having the requirements, in the specific case an interface design which was made with the teachers and with the schools, then we made the system development immediately or testing an evaluation with the schools in the project. At the same time we started the dissemination and exploitation. All the people or whoever, was actually free to try out our resource too.
(slide 22)
We released the software as open source together with our results. All the pedagogical models are on the web as well. On the software development side we were implementing the extreme programming model, which is user centred, participatory design method for software development. In a way we think of the role of the teachers and the schools, I would call it a consulting or action research we were doing with the schools. Intervention with the technology to the practices of schools. And the teachers were writing user stories for us. We were also having collaborative design sessions. But what is really important to emphasise, is that this is a consulting process. It's not that the teachers are ordering features for their own use. That's not the point of participatory design. It's a dialogue between the developers, the researchers who actually know better than the teachers what is good for them. Then you find out the consensus in the community, and then you can get to the new level. Its not that user centred design doesn't mean that you do what the customer is asking for.
(slide 23)
There is a relationship to the national polices of ICT in schools, in a way that technology development can be part of the schools IT services. In a similar way as they have email and web sites and so on. Actually the software can be installed on many different levels. You can install it on the teachers' computers and build up the learning community in there, which is actually a quite nice solution, because it's also a secure network for students to work. Well if you want to work with a different class and with the same server, you can install it on the school server or you can install it for the school district level or the national level if you have some collaboration between the schools, which is not necessary in the point of view in here. We don't talk about distance learning in here. So it's a free and open software with open standards and interfaces. You can also integrate it with other systems like student management systems. At least in theory, it's quite open for different kinds of modification. Of course it requires technical skills which probably do not exist in all schools.
(slide 24)
By doing the project we made more than 80 collaborative learning projects in Finland, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands, in primary and secondary school levels. We were focusing on the school level. And then in another EU- ICT project they have been working on with more schools in other countries which were not participating to the ITcole project.
(slide 26)
Now some words about the results and the disseminations. We have been producing quite a lot of papers, articles about the pedagogical models in several European languages and in different kinds of publications, scientific and more on the level of general interest as well. We have of course the project brochure and the booklet which I think are quite important tools for dissemination. We have been publishing teacher training and consulting models that can be implemented. At the moment only in English, but it is available in our website and schools and school districts, ministries of education may implement this kind of model of teacher training or consulting of schools and introduce progressive inquiry and the software in use.
On the side of the software this free and open source software will be provided for downloading and also the other software, which was developed during the ITcole project is for free use in schools. Our partner "Frauenhofer" is hosting the free service for schools . At least at this point. The fle3 has been translated into more than 20 languages already, and this has been done by the developers of the software, none of the translations was made by anybody who was participating to the ITcole project. They all come from external developers. It is in use in more than 30 countries. Actually we don't know exactly how many places it is in use. Hungary and Portugal they are introducing the fle3 to schools in their own countries. This has been done by the ministries of education there. And the software has been tested in hundreds of institutions in Europe but also globally in many countries. We also have a certain best practice community web site with a media library where teachers explain what kind of projects they did, or they have implemented with this software. There is a quite a lot of textual descriptions of school projects related to the use of this software, of progressive inquiry and these learning models. We work a lot with the European School Net which is an initiative of the European ministries of education in order to disseminate results on different levels. I think that this requires dissemination at the policy level, at the school management level and then at the teachers level. There are a few pictures of the fle3. This is the Chinese version and …
(slide 32)
Then finally the year 2004 and beyond. Where are we going. There are some business and sustainability models which we build up, based on the results of the ITcole project. There are some service providers of the software and there is the developer community which is committed to develop the software further. So in a way, when it comes to fle3 it's been leaving us already and it lives its own life, which is I think a good result. We don't need to worry about it anymore. It will continue and there are developers working on it and there are users. So we have reached with fle3 a certain critical mass of developers and users and it will stay alive. There will be some initiative for providing consulting and training services for teachers, also consulting educational policy makers and managements. We need support for teacher networks and of course in developing of school curriculum and something, (I don't know if this is the European term), the school information strategy which in Finland the ministry of education is asking to each school to prepare. We have to link the pedagogical models with the information strategies of schools. So there are lot of things going on afterwards and there is a sustainability, at least one year afterwards and I'm wanting quite a lot for hopefully small business initiatives where little companies are offering services for schools related to fle3, hosting it, but also providing the pedagogical consulting and teacher training for the local schools. That's the model I would like to see in the near future.