NML learners… Some considerations Georges-Louis Baron, Eric Bruillard UMR STEF (ENS Cachan / INRP) IUFM de Creteil

Some results No clear evidence regarding effects of ICT on educational achievements Innovative ways of learning… but innovations are seldom sustainable Question: effects of ICT? Learning and teaching as situated and instrumented activities. A new vision of informatics for users

From a processing chain… The classical LISP : print eval read for functions

… to an interactive loop

A socio-cognitive approach Software execution combines human activity and machine activity Set up a significant interaction for human and machine Take into account the dynamics of the process, temporal and situated. Cognitive and social questions are inherent parts of technical problems. Informatics: science of design and use of IT semiotic artefacts (Nicolle, 2002)

Three roles for ICT in education A new instrumentation Educational technology General software tools Communication, access, production Instruments in subject matters According to each role, specific processes can be observed

NML learners Role 2 is mainly concerned, changes in work environment of teachers and students May be New capabilities but Strong opposition between school use and home use of computer instruments Same technology Immature culture (immediate satisfaction) vs distance and reflection

NML learners? ICT uses in school, at home… At the end of primary schools, no very big differences How do they acquire ICT competences? Their competences: what they do? Hypothesis: a differatiation process during age (grade 7-10) Some works in progress

A PHD thesis (Fluckiger) Objective : how low secondary students (grade 7-9) acquire ICT competences In schools, at home, with friends… Links between activities and competences Method : Classroom observation Observation during inter-courses, at a local center outside school, at home, interviews Analysis of student blogs, evolution of blog structure, analysis of social networks…

Didatab project Analysis of the uses of spreadsheets in schools by French students Three years project ( ) "The use of spreadsheets in business is a little like Christmas for children. They are too excited to get on with the game to read or think about the 'rules' which are generally boring and not sexy" in David Chadwick, Stop that subversive spreadsheet ! A fruitful business: errors in spreadsheets (see Panko, 2000).

Why studying spreadsheets? Commonly used by a large number of professionals More technical than word processors (programming) Designed for end users Indicator of computer literacy In education, specific links between subject matter and spreadsheets

Methods of investigation Content analysis of official curriculum texts, educational websites and educational resources Interviews of teachers and students Classroom observations in different contexts: middle school, high school, vocational school Questionnaires Test of competencies (paper test and computer tests) (Staff: 3 researchers, more than 10 master students, teachers in different secondary schools…)

French educational system Technology Math Physics Engineering Social sciences …

Objectives and results To identify the main “trajectories of use” (Proulx, 2002) personal and social Process of differentiation Significant events / Role of curriculum, activities, social factors Some comparisons: Greece, Belgium, Italy Results Stream effect (gender, social background…) No strict correlation Low use and low competencies

Methodological questions Is it possible to have a picture of a seven or eight years process? Through examples With a mainly qualitative approach (and some quantitative tests) And interpretative process (providing ideal types?) But relationship with ICT is changing

Other reflections EIAH : Environnements Imaginaires pour l’Apprentissage Humain Jacques Wallet Non real environments for human learning

Albert Robida, « Les cours par téléphonoscope » La vie électrique le vingtième siècle, Paris, Librairie illustrée, 1892, page 25, bibliothèque Nationale

Importance of examinations Generational Gap ?

Don’t shoot the teacher Teachers as « bouc émissaires » Or double bind They have to be modern And to control precisely the acquisition of a group of students Professional uses / few classroom uses An official best pedagogy? (towards dequalification of teachers)

Example of new teachers Sesamath ( French association of teachers main goal is to freely provide, via the Internet, pedagogical resources and professional tools to be used for mathematical teaching and learning. a public service approach a commitment to the free software movement. Many projects. Recently, they produced a mathematical textbook for 7th graders (Wikipedia like process)

Manuel Sesamath “Sésamath 5e is a complete textbook, in accordance with new prescribed curricula for 7th graders, rather classical in its organization (in chapters, and in each chapter, in sections: methods, activities, exercises...) and in its editing quality (quality of the cover, of the setting and of the printing)” (designers’ discourse)

Sesamath First, it is a textbook (form with great resonance), a classical textbook Subject matter unique reference and stable (few links with research) Recommended usage of computer instruments Which innovation ? Reinforcement of control (see Cuban)

Bridging the gap IFIP TC3 / WG 3.1, October 1997, Grenoble (Yvonne Buettner)

… Building the wall

Change school to adapt it to what exists outside? Or do the contrary ?

School at home?