THE USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES 
IN THE LEARNING PROCESS

Communicate in net

The problem

The institute Comprehensive of Porto Venere is a school institution formed by a large number of schools scattered on the Ligurian coast (Porto Venere and 5 Terre) and in the surrounding area of the town. The schools is made up of 14 schools in total:  two middle schools, five elementary and nursery schools each with a number between 20 and 140 pupils.

It is clear that such a fragmented situation keeping a good level in  of communication and of information exchange, between the management and the schools and between the schools themselves, is fine in theory but difficult in practise. We decided on new technologies like computers, the only one able to guarantee us a fast and reliable system of communication.

However, to understand our difficulties, you have to know that up to 1996 we didn’t have any data processors in our institute.

 

 Aims

 We wondered what our priorities should be in the process of installing this new technology.

  1. To give schools to have up-to-date information, both in relation to the activities of the institute and to local and national events.

  2. To maintain regular communication with  families and  the teachers

  3. To pool the knowledge gained by the individual schools through didactic schemes.

  4. To initiate joined schemes among several schools  using  the Internet as a common resource.

  5. To build up  a network of communications with the schools in other institutes, at different  levels: local, national and European.

  6. To establish an educational scheme capable of explaining the new expertise the students could develop with a programme in which individual learning, the knowledge acquired, communication with others and the software would not be considered isolated parts to be assembled but elements linked in a system of conceptual frameworks.

The current situation

The internal organisation of the institute

 

The choice made by the institute was that of creating several data processing labs in each school; this avoiding the problem of having one centralised lab, which would have excluded those schools with a small number of students or of isolated geographic position. This decision brought with a number of problems:

  1. The necessity of buying with a budget and so doing without specialised equipment which comes at a higher price.

  2. Establishing repair centres in several schools with a relative increase in costs(service currently provided by specially trained non-teaching staff).

  3. Using all the free Internet resources available(with resulting unreliability of information)

  4. Training a large number of teachers (at least 2-3 per school).

 

 CHOISES MADE

  1. Training plan. The institute started a trained programme to give all teachers a basic level of competence in the use of new technology. Adult courses were organised allowing us to  raise funds and to arrange with the council the installation of digital telephone lines(ISDN).

  2. Computer labs. Currently the Institute has 7 computer labs each with between 2 and 12 computers depending on the number of the students..

  3. Internet connections. All the schools are connected to Internet and  have an E-mail account(from which all informatio is sent)A mailing list has been activated which allows us to send and exchange information directly with schools, individual families and teachers.

  4. Web sites. The institute has constructed a main web site (Www.portovenerescuole.it), a teaching web site ( www.portoveneredidattica.it ), 5 sites created by individual schools for the publications of projects and material produced by the students.

  5. Organisation. The institute has a principal teacher responsible for the technological organisation helped by a core of teachers representing different schools. \Non teaching staff read and send e-mail. The principal teacher attends meetings of the management of the Institute.

 

Unsolved problems

1. Computer resources: still insufficient  relative to the number of the students

2. Wiring of the buildings: all  computers are located in a single lab for problems linked with the network structure. 

3. Wide band: the majority of schools operate using analogue lines and excessive waiting time.

4. Software resources: costs are still high in spite of the agreements and contracts with M.I.U.R. 

5. Investments in equipment: updating all the equipment is made difficult by lack of funding. The Institute although having funding of its own and that obtained from the government and privately, has difficulty  in renewing hardware resources.

6. Technical assistance: the absence of technicians in the institute makes maintenance of the machines difficult and prolongs repair time. The presence of non teaching staff with specific skills is coincidental. 

 

Outside the institute: schools on line

All the above mentioned plans come together under one scheme known as” Progetto Mare”. The aim of this plan is to discover our own territory as a root of our identify and be able to talk about it. Our students must acquire the taste for communicating with others to tell them own stories and discover worlds different from their own; it will be precisely this discovering of cultural diversity that will enrich knowledge and permit the building of an open society which is a necessary element in the human and civil evolution of a country.

 

1. In region of La Spezia: the FIUME-MARE network: two parks

 In 1998 the Fiume-Mare: 2 parchi project came into existence.

The network is made up of 6 institutes, 40 schools of varying levels(from elementary to secondary), and is used by 1500 students. It is based on a set of rules which propose cultural exchanges, communication between different areas, school trips and inter school games. The network  has a Web (Www.fiumemare.it) site

 

Many activities carried out:

1.      School trips: a set of proposal has been presented to the BTS which includes sailing excursion, rafting on the Vara, guided tours on Palmaria island, visit to local farms, horse riding etc..

2.      Exchanges of information on the area between classes in different Institutes visiting each other

3.      Documentation of the activities on the web site.

4.      Reaching an understanding with local administration offices and private firms to fund the activities and share objectives.

 

2. In Italy: ARCHIPELAGO SCUOLA . The association of schools in the smallest Italian islands

 Joining this association , owing to the presence in our area  of the archipelago of island of Porto Venere  (Palmaria,Tino,Tinetto) aims to widen the exchange of information between the various communities in order to overcome the isolation of the schools and communities of the islands, but

also of small villages in the coastal area of Liguria which, for geographical reasons, are very isolated.

In this case the distance between schools makes the use of data processing equipment, which  forms the preferred means of communication, indispensable to allow the synchronous and asynchronous communications necessary for effecting real exchanges between student which are not simply change meetings.

 

 Activities carried out:

 1. E-mail communications and video-conferencing with the Lipari islands.

2. Exchanges (school trips): the  Fabiano elementary schools is hosting students from Lipari islands

3. Documentation of the activities on the Fabiano school web site .

4.   In Europe: ENIS-European Network of  Innovative School

 The adherence to  ENIS  aims to overcame national confines , allowing us to widen communication between schools concerned with environmental education, both from a scientific and a historical  point of view . To do this we propose to : 

  1. Establish  synchronous telecommunications  (video-conferences, etc.) and asynchronous ones (e-mail, etc.) between schools in different nations, witch have common characteristics

(geographic positions, similar number and age of students, etc.)

  1.  Establish multilingual Web sites to shave information and to make archives concerning the different areas available.

  2. Establish exchanges of students from different schools using accommodation provided by the council and by private citizens  ( as an Institute we can lodge 40 students, as a Fiume-Mare network about 100 students.

  3. Get common experience  on the territory in sailing rafting, etc.

  4. Plan shared curricola about environmental education, computer studies, a long distance communication.

 

 Net Characteristics

 A network among different schools has the characteristics of complex systems  (unpredictability of the system, random (complex) not sequential approach, self-regulation, temporaries of balances, and variability of relationships). 

 

Pedagogic guidance

 The guidelines  of the pedagogic orientation for all the projects must be shared by all participating schools.

 

Aims common to all  projects

 A) Offer opportunities for different children to meet  in order to  promote : dialogue, comparison and acceptance of differences. 

B) Develop an ability to take pleasure on planing, facing  and solving problems  and in taking responsibility 

C) test a sort of common work where all the local associations and the school itself have the important role  of addressing and directing  activities.

     The teacher responsible  Enis -  Arcipelago    Patrizia La Rocca

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