Transcript Internet and Web Tools in the 21st century Internet

21st Century European Classrooms
Internet and Web Tools in the 21st century
Internet and Web tools
for Educational needs
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
El Puerto de Santa Maria, España,
October of 2015
Fulfillment of needs
Survival of organisms depends on the
degree to which they are able to fulfill
their needs;
As humans evolved, their needs
became more complex;
Fulfillment of needs
The history of humankind is shaped by humans’
attempts to fulfill their needs;
And from long time ago, humans have been:
-making attempts of fulfilling their needs,
-creating solutions,
-and creating tools;
Fulfillment of needs
It is clear that the tools humans developed over
the years were consistent with:
-their psychobiological characteristics,
-the evolution of thought (cognition),
-the constraints and opportunities of the
context, and,
-existing tools and resources;
Fulfillment of needs
It is evident the move from concrete to more
abstract
- needs to fulfill, but also
- solutions and tools;
At the present time we testimony a marked shift
in the predominant dimension where the
fulfilling of needs is happening:
-from social contexts and physical reality
to digital and virtual reality;
Would it be possible that some individuals are
wellsucceeded in fullfilling their basic psychological
needs of
-relatedness (be attached to someone/something);
-competence (opportunity of feeling competence in
performing something); and,
-autonomy (opportunity to make his/her own decisions
to play an active role)
by means of internet and web tools, in virtual reality (for
example, in web comunities, similar – but more complexthan those such as facebook)?
If so, then it means that internet and internet
tools and reality would be able to perform
functions (that society organizations are doing
for centuries) in some domains underlying what
is most human in us.
And what does this tell us about what
humankind is and, especially, about what
humankind is becoming to?
Of course, internet was a creation of Mankind,
and it was aimed to fulfill a need. And now,
internet is not only making possible new
realities, but it is shaping its creator as well;
Interestingly, internet had been a tool created
to fulfill a need, but it is creating new needs
itself.
And Education is a very good example of that.
Internet began in the scope of academic
information:
-From sharing information, social interactions, fun
and amusement, to education, therapy and spiritual
healing;
-From speculation, imagination, to a possibility,
-From escape from reality to virtual reality;
Internet and web tools for Educational needs
What educational needs do we want to fulfill
using digital tools?
-Is this a simple question?
-Is this a naïve question?
-Is this a stupid question?
-What is the answer?
-What is the best answer?
-Is there an answer?
It is a FACT that humans created digital tools…
But are we completely aware of the FACT that
digital tools are now shaping ourselves?
And are we aware of How internet and digital
tools are shaping ourselves?
Internet and web tools are shaping our
experience/notion of time, space, social
interactions, and reality(ies);
The impact of internet and web tools is (and will be)
very marked in changing us.
This is because it operates throughout the very
same mechanisms underlying the evolution of
human being as a specie,
but also the evolution of each human being during
his/her life.
Learning and Memory systems
The power of internet and digital tools in shaping
Humankind relies on the main mechanisms
underlying its interaction with Man: learning and
memory.
Associative, propositional and narrative learning.
Procedural, semantic memory; long-term and
operative memory.
The use of internet and web tools to fulfill our needs is
not possible without learning:
We start by learn basic aspects of the tools:
-such as the association between a given
state/characteristic/function of a tool and its
consequences;
And gradually we make organizations of complex nets of
associations, and gradually more complex processes,
such as meaning-making;
But internet and web tools only fulfill our needs
because we have memory: ability to retain, to
storage and to recover information.
And the interaction between learning and
memory systems with internet and web tools
modulates patterns of feeling, thinking and
behaving
But, interestingly, it is also changing the
characteristics of the contexts,
which, in turn, will become stimuli (changed
stimuli)
that will influence consistent patterns of
emotions, cognitions and behaviors.
Web and internet tools shape internal experiences,
which lead to changes in contexts,
which, in turn will become stimuli
in a sequence of developmental cascades of mutual
influences;
Our contexts
(both physical and experiential contexts)
rapidly change,
consistent with the rhythm and speed of
internet
And it is almost always very clear to us that this
new rhythm/level (internet access, internet
speed, etc.) becomes our NEW NEED;
What happens when we experience a
disturbance in this rhythm/level, when the need
for having access to internet and/ or the need of
having fast internet is not fulfilled?
What happens when internet
-is not available;
-it crashes;
-it is outdated (e.g. is too slow)?
It is very likely that we feel unpleasant emotions,
unpleasant cognitions which obviously will
influence our behaviors.
And what about people?
How is our relation/experience with those people
who we feel not being at the same rhythm/level we
are, at the rhythm/level of our living, at the rhythm
that we feel and think that we need?
What happens when the other persons become
outdated stimuli or interpersonal context?
What happens when a person at our level/rhythm:
-Is not available?
-Crashed?
-Becomes outdated?
We tend to feel a lack of identification, of
relatedness, and we may feel that the need for
being understood but also to be challenged is not
fulfilled.
What do we do to the internet tools which are
outdated? What do we do when a tool, such as
a computer does not fulfill our needs?
Normally, it is excluded from our use, put in a
corner, and often we look at it with surprise,
wondering how was it possible that once we got
satisfied with the way it fulfilled our needs;
And the same tends to happen with people:
We tend to interact with persons who are at
least at our level;
For example, a lot of adolescents and
youngsters do not seem to relate with adults
whit a very poor digital literacy.
In some ways, the tendency for individuals exclude
from their interactions individuals without a
minimum of internet literacy is growing and will be
more marked in the near future.
And this is not only because of the internet and web
tools. The impact of internet and web tools in our
daily lives because they are associated with a wide
range of other functioning domains – it even
became a predictor of many aspects of human
functioning!
Unfortunely, “exclusion” is the tendency (which
will be even more marked in the future) for
what we tend to do to those individuals who do
not fulfill the needs of society for having a
certain level of ICT literacy/expertise;
And this tendency will not be only for
individuals, but also for group and societies;
2 young men apply for a job. 1 is expertise in
ICT, the other doesn’t. Who do you think that it
will get the job?
2 societies compete for capturing resources and
try to produce economic value: 1 has a
population with experise in ICT, the other
doesn’t. Which one do you think that it will be
better well-succeeded?
I am sure that in the near future we will have
several modern cases of the classic “Sauvage
boy”.
But, at that time, the motive of interest, the
curiosity, the intringuing question will be “how
the functioning of this humanbeing who has
developed in deprivation of internet and net?
There is no way back on this process of internet
tools changing us, and shaping us…
But the question is…
What is the role of Education on this?
What Educational needs do we want to fulfil
with the use of internet and web tools?
And what is the role of the teachers on the
relation between the use of internet and web
tools and learning/positive functioning?
Teacher's Activities Can Be Divided Into Two
Major Tasks in Technology-Based Education:
1- Planning And Providing Electronic Content For
Learners,
2- Creating Good Relations Between Teacher
And Learners (Mahini, Forushanb, & Haghanic,
2012, p. 1641)
Elmas & Geban (2012) categorized Web tools
into these 8 main functions:
1. Content Management Systems (CMS/WCMS)
a. PBWorks (www.pbworks.com)
b. Wikispaces (www.wikispaces.com)
c. Edmodo (www.edmodo.com)
d. Edublogs (www.edublogs.org)
e. Weebly (www.weebly.com)
2. Online Meeting
a. Voki (www.voki.com)
b. Todaysmeet (www.todaysmeet.com)
c. Chatzy (www.chatzy.com)
3. Online Storage & File Sharing
a. Dropbox (www.dropbox.com)
b. Screencast (www.screencast.com)
c. Minus (www.minus.com)
d. SugarSync (www.sugarsync.com)
4. Interactive Presentations
a. Prezi (www.prezi.com)
b. SlideRocket (www.sliderocket.com)
5. Online Survey
a. Poll Everywhere (www.polleverywhere.com)
b. Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com)
6. Concept Map & Drawing Tools
a. Cacoo (www.cacoo.com)
b. Bubbl.us (bubbl.us)
c. Scribblar (www.scribblar.com)
d. MindMeister (www.mindmeister.com)
7. Animation & Video
a. GoAnimate (www.goanimate.com)
b. Creaza (www.creazaeducation.com)
c. Animoto (www.animoto.com)
d. Kerpoof (www.kerpoof.com)
8. Word Clouds or Tag Clouds
a. Wordle (www.wordle.net)
b. TagCrowd (www.tagcrowd.com)
c. WordItOut (www.worditout.com)
Byrne (2009) suggested that the advantages of
using web tools are mainly 4:
-
Efficiency
Motivation to learn,
Deep understanding,
Learning how to learn.
If its use in education is an advantadge, it means
that it fulfills a given need;
The use we made of ICT should be an indicator
of the Educational needs that we are trying to fulfill;
That is why that we invite you to re-visit the
analyses we presented last meeting;
What about our schools?
What Educational needs we are trying to fulfill
with the internet and web tools we are using?
We do not have data about that question, but
we do have data about the main uses that
teachers from our schools made of ICT;
“The Teachers Questionaire on the use of ICT”
(Atouguia da Baleia, 2014) assessed several
dimensions, including:
-main uses of ICT by teachers;
-main obstacles for the use of ICT, as perceived
by teachers;
-teachers perceptions about their skills in the
use of ICT;
For now, let’s very briefely to re-visit the
analyses we made for the last meeting.
We found that:
1.Teachers from our schools (as captured by the
Teachers Questionnaire on ICT) use ICT to
a.Communicate;
b.Prepare lessons;
c.Generic use;
2.Teachers perceive that there are some
obstacles to the use of ICT:
a.Structural conditions;
b.conceptions/beliefs about education and ICT;
c.Pedagogic issues
3.Teachers perceive themselves as have
different levels of skills in the different uses they
make of the ICT;
-Communicating;
-Preparing lessons;
-Generic use;
4. Teachers from schools from different
countries registered significant differences in:
a.Uses of ICT;
b.Perceived obstacles;
c.Perceived skills in the use of ICT;
Based on the data collected using that
questionaire, we can not making direct
inferences on how teachers perceive that
internet and web tools fulfill educational needs;
This is because, explicitely, the questionaire do
not address this question, in these terms;
But we do have information about the uses that
teachers make of ICT.
And, as said earlier, if we make use of something is
that because it fulfills some sort of need.
Therefore, we do have information about the needs
of Communicating, Preparing lessons and Making a
general use of ICT of the teachers from our schools;
At the present moment where these mutual influences
between the tools we create to fulfill our needs and the new
needs that those tools create, it is especilly important to
examine the associations between
a)teachers needs on ICT (as revealed by the use they make),
b)obstacles to the use of ICT (or to fulfill these needs), and,
c)teachers perception about their skills in using ICT (teachers
self-efficacy in fulfilling these needs).
The objective of this analysis was to examine
the associations between teachers:
Main uses of ICT;
Perceived obstacles to the use of ICT,
Perceived skills in the use of ICT.
We tested the hypotheses that:
H1. The use teachers make of ICT is positively
correlated with teachers perceptions about their
skills in using ICT;
H2. The use teachers make of ICT is negatively
correlated with perceived obstacles to the use of
ICT;
H3. Teachers perceptions about their skills in using
ICT is negatively correlated with the perceived
obstacles to the use of ICT;
Participants
Perceptions of 193 teachers;
Schools from Bulgaria (n=84), Italy (n=33), Poland
(n=10), Portugal (n=53) and Spain (n=13);
Schools selected by convenience, not
representative;
Instruments
Data collected using the “Teachers’
Questionnaire on the use of Information and
Communication Technologies” (Agrupamento de
Escolas de Atouguia da Baleia, 2014). This
questionnaire was administrated at the
beginning of this project.
Data analysis
We estimated correlation between the variables
using the Person’s correlation test.
Analyses were performed using SPSS, version
22.
From this questionnaire, we selected the following questions:
Question 19 “How often do you do the following activities” – in the answers
to this question, we identified in previous analyses, 3 dimensions:
Communicating, Preparing lessons and General use. These are the
dimensions we are examining in these analyses.
Question 21 “Is the use of ICT teaching and learning adversely affected by the
following?” – in the answers to this question, we identified in previous
analyses, 3 dimensions: Structural conditions, Conceptions/beliefs; and
Pedagogic issues These are the dimensions we are examining in these
analyses.
Question 22 “To what extent are you confident in the following” - in the
answers to this question, we identified in previous analyses, 3 dimensions:
Communicating, Preparing lessons and General use. These are the
dimensions we are examining in these analyses.
Data analysis
We estimated correlation between the variables
using the Person’s correlation test.
Analyses were performed using SPSS, version
22.
Results
Results confirm the 3 hypotheses:
We tested the hypotheses that:
H1. The use teachers make of ICT was positively
correlated with teachers perceptions about their
skills in using ICT;
H2. The use teachers make of ICT was negatively
correlated with perceived obstacles to the use of
ICT;
H3. Teachers perceptions about their skills in using
ICT was negatively correlated with the perceived
obstacles to the use of ICT;
Conclusions
Where are we?
Does using internet and web tools for fulfilling the
needs of Communicating, Preparing lessons and
Generic use (Atouguia, 2014),
Represents and advantadge in
- Efficiency
- Motivation to learn,
- Deep understanding,
- Learning how to learn (Byrne, 2009)?
These results positive and negative correlations
confirm that the several dimensions underlying
the use of internet and web tools are
associated, which means that they tend to exert
mutual influences one into another.
It seems that there is a general consensus that,
if well-used, internet and web tools have those
advantadges.
However, Principles of Equi Finality and Multi
Finality and the Mediatior and Moderator effect
of teachers in the impact of internet tools on
learning need to be intentionally considered.
Whithout that intentionality, the inverted U
may be suitable as a metaphor for describing
also the impact of internet tools on learning and
functioning;
What do we need to do?
Leaderships need to identify the Educational needs
that schools want to fulfill using internet and web
tools and then to make tools suitable for their
fulfillment available to school daily practices;
Teachers need to be intentional, systematic and
rigourous in matching the specific educational
need, and the use of specific tools in the
educational dynamics;
What do we need to do?
Industry needs to develop tools that facilitate the
matching between a given educational need and the
characterictics of the tools.
Also Industry needs to make it evident for educators how
the characterictis and the use of a given tool leads to the
fulfillment of a given educational need;
Research needs to provide the empirical evidences for
both the absolute and relative efficacy of a given internet
and web tool in satisfying a given educational need;
References
Byrne, R. (2009). The effect of web 2.0 on teaching and
learning. Teacher Librarian, 37(2), 50-53.
Elmas, R. & Geban, O. (2012). Web 2.0 Tools for 21st
Century Teachers. International Online Journal of
Educational Sciences, 4(1), 243-254.
Mahini, F, Forushanb, & Haghanic, F (2012). The
importance of teacher's role in technology-based
education. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46,
1614 – 1618