Dr. Symeon Retalis University of Cyprus Department of Computer Science retal@cs.ucy.ac.cy

1. Σύγχρονα παραδείγματα χρήσης νέων τεχνολογιών στην εκπαίδευση και δια βίου μάθησηUsing new technologies in education and life long learning: Recent examples Dr. Symeon Retalis University of Cyprus Department of Computer Science retal@cs.ucy.ac.cy

2. Outline • What are today’s beliefs about new technologies and education? • Have new technologies introduced in classrooms? • Are there any examples for the use of new technologies in education? • Are there any show-cases of good practice? • School environments • Life-long learning • What are the key action lines for the efficient use of new technologies in education? • Are there any concluding remarks?

3. Today’s situation (1) • N. Negroponte (1996), Being Digital: • contemporary skills of a doctor-surgeon vs. skills of an educator • In USA, 8 billion USD are given to primary and secondary education for software, hardware, and telecommunication costs, every year. • private investments in the educational market-sector exceeded over 8 billion USD, as venture capitals, in 1999, only in USA

4. Today’s situation (2)

5. New technologies in school environments (as was in 1998) • Germany: 1 PC per 50 students • France: 1 PC per 30 students • Switzerland: 1 PCper 20 students • Denmark: 1 PC per 10 students • 3/4 of schools in Scandinavian countries have access to the Internet • <20% of European schools have access to the Internet while < 60% in USA • In Greece, till 2004 all schools will have access to the Internet (now around 10%)

6. Let’s see some real examples

7. Some ideas … for eliminating this experience • “It takes a whole village to raise a child” (African proverb) • Now it´s the time for realising of the ideas for “educational shift”, that is • active participation and interaction of both students and instructors. • Knowledge is viewed as a social construct, and • therefore the educational process should be facilitated by social interaction in an environment that enables peer interaction, evaluation and cooperation.

8. Learning Resource Learning Resource Expert Expert Expert Expert Learner Learner Learner Learner Some ideas … for eliminating this experience

9. Some more ideas … • No need to reinvent the wheel. • Adoption & adaptation of good practice • Adaptation of learning resources • Joint research and development efforts • Institutional level • National level • International level

10. Some show-cases of good practice (1a) • The European Schoolnet (EUN) [http://www.en.eun.org] • A European Network of Innovative Schools - ENIS - with the aim of bringing together schools in Europe at the forefront of using ICT to improve teaching and learning

11. Some show-cases of good practice (1b)

12. Some show-cases of good practice (2a) • E D U C A T I O N W O R L D [http://www.educationworld.com/] • In the spring of 1996, the founders of Education World recognized the need for a Web site that would make the Internet easier for educators to use. • They wanted to create a home for educators on the Internet, a place where teachers could gather and share ideas. • They wanted to create a complete online resource guide where educators could start each day to find the lesson plans and research materials they were looking for.

13. Some show-cases of good practice (2b)

14. Some show-cases of good practice (3a) • The Big Myth [www.bigmyth.com] • A new experimental learning module designed for use in European primary school classrooms. • It is a sociology textbook for the comparative study of world creation mythology. • The myths are told using Flash animation and are accompanied by an overview of the culture, the pantheon of the gods and a series of exercises based on that culture.

15. Some show-cases of good practice (3b)

16. Some show-cases of good practice (4a) • Math Goodies [http://www.mathgoodies.com] • A free educational web site featuring interactive math lessons, homework help, worksheets, puzzles, message boards, and more! • Over 400 pages of free math activities and resources for teachers, students, parents, and homeschoolers.

17. Some show-cases of good practice (4b)

18. Some show-cases of good practice (5a) • MetLink International [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/metlink/map2000.html] • use the Internet to enhance weather studies • record weather data into the MetLink weather database • exchange with other schools • develop weather projects, plot graphs and compare results • students write articles about weather events

19. Some show-cases of good practice (5b)

20. Life long learning • Training is a process for delivering knowledge. In the case of life long learning, the objective of the process is to enhance employers’ skills. • Technical knowledge and skills become obsolete after 3-5 year • American companies spent 18 billion USD for training their employees in 1999 • British Army signed a 2 year contract of 5.4 million USD with Syntegra Ltd, subsidiary of British Telecom for training military personnel on WAH-64 Apache helicopters. • Aims of using new technologies: • increase the speed, flexibility and reach of training; • reduce costs associated with offering classroom training as the only delivery vehicle; • leverage instructor’s expertise to broader population of participants

21. Lifelong e-learning providers • click2learn.com [http://home.click2learn.com/], • One of the leading provider of people, products, and services to enable organizations to create, deliver, and manage e-Learning. • With click2learn.com products, you can easily create and deliver your courses over the Internet or on CD-ROM. • You can choose to manage your courses yourself or have them hosted on the click2learn.com e-Learning marketplace.

22. E-learning providers (1) • World Lecture Hall [http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/index.html] • publishes links to pages created by faculty worldwide who are using the Web to deliver course materials in any language. • It is possible to: • search for educational material (search facility included) • add educational material, update material and send comments to others • see what links to educational material is newly added (each link is provided with a short abstract of two - three lines) • look at comments on the site (generally no specific educational material is mentioned in the comments)

23. E-learning providers (2)

24. Key actions lines for introducing new technologies in education • Teacher training • Offer motivation to teachers • innovation in digital content via collaborative development activities & reusable components; • Standardisation of learning technologies • innovation in instruction delivery methods: no “old wines in new bottles” • spreading innovation, and • bridging the digital divide.

25. Collaboration between institutes,training organisations, SMEs and content provides Collaboration in vocational training –life long learning. Instruction delivery on topics related to industrial needs Collaboration in teaching & learning process Joint development of course material

26. Conclusion • New technologies are not panacea for high quality instructional delivery • Instruction has a lot to do with formatting one person’s character, ethics, values and way of acquiring new knowledge, as well as with his/her ability to perform well in a job. • Requirement for new skills of: • an educator as well as • content development groups (especially instructional designers) • Science without conscience is the disaster of human being (Bodler)