How to Teach Teachers to Teach with New Media Initial and Further Teacher Education in a Collaborative Learning Environment Peter Gorny Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 2nd National Conference POSKOLE 2003 on Computers in Education Lazne Sedmihorky, 23 – 25 April 2003 Projekt eL3 – eLernen und eLehren in Lehrer-Aus- und Weiterbildung

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 2 Contents The situation in 2000 (when proposing the project) The project concepts – content and methodology The project realization First evaluation results and participants` opinions

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 3 The situation in 2000 (when proposing the project)  Project eL3 funded by BMBF-Program New Media in Education Approximately 75 % of all teachers in Germany (> 700,000) do not use a computer for teaching or preparation of teaching material. Only 5 % use computers in the classroom. Only 2 % use the internet in the classroom (Estimated by Federal educational administrations, 2000) The Federal organisation of the school system leads to a great diversity – and little influence for the Federal government. But singular Federally funded projects might help a little....

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 4 The eL3 Project Consortium Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuernberg FIM-NeuesLernen Dr. Walter Kugemann (Chair of Consortium and of subproject Erlangen) Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg Learning Lab for Multimedia-supported Learning within the Center for Didactics Prof. Dr. Peter Gorny, Informatics (Chair of subproject Oldenburg) Prof. Dr. Hilke Guenther-Arndt, History The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) – Program New Media in Eduaction Financial volume 2,3 Mio Euro (approx. 72 Mio CSK) Jan 2001 – Dec

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 5 The objectives Development of a system of distance education courses for teacher education pre-service = teacher students in-service = professional teachers for all school subjects for all school types general schools special schools vocational schools For all school levels Primary (grades — age: yrs.) Lower Secondary (grades — age: yrs.) Upper Secondary (grades — age: yrs)

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 6 The pedagogical concept Self-organized, open, active learning Awareness of New Media („media competence“) Learning by Doing Direct application of New Media in each school subject Technical skills not presented separately and in advance, but embedded in the classroom content (method: training modules for those who lack some technical skills) Methodological competence („media didactics“) The web-based material to be completed with other material to be retrieved from the internet or other sources One task for a small group (max. 5) to be solved cooperately in each team at the end of each content module

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 7 The methodological concept (1) Web-based learning material hypertext structure embedded applets for simulations and animations Tutorial guidance max. 15 persons – preferably in one school district – form a team with online communication and regular F2F-meetings Direct online contact to peers Discussion forum (newsgroup) for each team and for each course Chatrooms for each team and additional focus groups Database with glossary, bibliography, expert addresses etc. A hybrid approach to distance education

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 8 The methodological concept (2) Support functions newsgroups Workflow Management- Tools Communication Cooperation Coordination Source: Stefanie Teufel 1995 Virtual Bulletin Boards Hypertextsystems Video-Conference Chat

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 9 The methodological concept (3) Face-to-face group work „real“ plenary discussions in a team (max 15) or meetings of small groups (max 5)

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 10 The methodological concept (4) Forms of learning and associated media self organized learning, mostly online-learning, including the possibility to annotate web pages for exchange of ideas within a team. Request for help from a tutor: per Discussions via newsgroups („Forum“) or via Chat Exercises: Learning by Doing with tutorial feedback on request per Tasks: sent to the tutor, graded and detailed feedback per Work in small (local) groups, espec. for exercises and cooperative tasks (online or F2F) Creating cooperative environments: F2F team meetings

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 11 The technical basis The course material embedded in the learning platform Hyperwave eLearning Suite, which offers the necessary functionality, especially also the groupware functions. The content is authored with the scripting language XLML (XML-based Logical Markup Language), developed for eL3. Internet access provided by the universities Erlangen and Oldenburg and by regional school networks.

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 12 The course content (1) The course material consists of problem-oriented case studies from school subjects, presents technical advice and methodological solutions. Concrete methodolical problems or class room scenarios analysis selection of an appropriate medium derivation of an methodological approach and its mapping on technical fucntions problem-based exercises to enhance the necessary technical skills and competences

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 13 The content (2) The content is organized in three levels Basic Level with main focus: How to teach with the help ICT in the classroom (specialized for each school subject), 2nd Level with main focus: How to organize students' ICT-supported learning (specialized for each school subject), 3rd Level for in-depth courses (in planning) production of eLearning material (e.g., database applications, digital video / audio, simulations, animations), "Beyound the classroom walls: The Global village”, computer-supported student projects, evaluation methods.

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 14 The Content (3) Course modules ( e.g. for the subject History ) Introduction: Teaching and learning with the computer Collecting and organizing educational material with the computer Computer-based communication and cooperation Information retrieval with new media Designing work sheets with the computer Preparing digital images for the lessons Presentations in the classroom Animations and simulations Collecting and analyzing data Designing interactive work sheets Applying data bases and designing own data bases LeveI I Level II

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 15 The practical realization Staff 11 full-time developers 15 teachers on part-time basis Development time 3 years Course system development phase Test phase: Summer term 2002 (5 courses, max. 15 participants per course) Prototype system: Winter term 2002/2003 (9 courses, max. 45 participants per course) Course system – full access starting Summer term 2003 for min 50,000 teachers (distributed over several years) organized by U Erlangen-Nürnberg and U Oldenburg or organized via other institutions („franchise-model“)

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 16 First evaluation results and participants` opinions (1) Course platform The performance of our course platform Hyperwave eLearning Suite is extremely bad: very long responce time for the users. (This is caused by a poor cordination of several systems: OS Solaris / Oracle / HIS / eLS). Solution: New hardware for Redhat-Linux / Oracle / HIS / eLS. The participations complained over inadequate communication functions of the platform. Partial solution: Customization of the user interface. The participants preferred to work offline with the course material. eLS was only activated for communication purposes. Solution: a download version and tutorial support for triggering online communication.

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 17 First evaluation results and participants` opinions (2) Didactical concept and course contents The participants approved the strong school subject orientation of the course material – especially as didactical motivation for exercising the software functions. The participants disliked, that the lecturers and tutors „synchronized“ the participants` work with the course modules by giving late access to the exercises and tasks and by strict deadlines for sending in the task results. An evaluation of the content quality of our course material is not yet available. (To be performed in Fall 2003.)

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 18 First evaluation results and participants` opinions (3) Communication and cooperation The amount of communication amoung participants and between participants and tutor or lecturer was surprisingly poor due to several causes: Our course authors have not given sufficient incentives for online communication in the teams. (The material is still very similar to common textbooks.) The participants were not willing (or able) to start online cooperation or collaboration in small virtual groups. The possibility to discuss module texts with the help of cascadable annotations (a function of eLS) was rarely used.

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 19 First evaluation results and participants` opinions – SUMMARY Limits of virtual learning An online identity does not produce the necessary confidence as a face-to-face meeting. Participants rejected to cooperate with „strangers“. Participants are reluctant to spontaneously ask „stupid questions“ online. Individual learning required much self discipline and high competence for self-organized learning. Solution: „Blended Learning“

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 20 Thank you for your attention !

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 21 Analysis

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 22 Analysis

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 23 Selection

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 24 Concrete Examples

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 25 Concrete Examples

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 26 Exercises

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 27 Exercises II: Evaluation

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 28 Exercises II: Evaluation of students

© 2003 Peter Gorny – Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 29 Exercises II: Evaluation of teachers