Digidac
search for didactical improvement of digital learning
Correspondence address: Walenburgerweg 16b, 3033 AB Rotterdam, e-mail:
IT STUDY VISIT GOTHENBURG 14 – 17 MARCH 2005
GROUP REPORT PLATO PV 2004-1403
1. Introduction
Eight schools from the western part of The Netherlands have been linked in a network called Digidac. The aim of this network is to search for the didactical improvement of the use of IT and to implement the findings in education. With the (financial) help of the Dutch European Platform one or two representatives of each school paid a visit to the city of Gothenburg in order to look at good practices in the use of IT in education in Sweden.
The group members were either headmasters or it-coordinators (appendix 1).
Govert Werter of the Dutch European Platform arranged the purchase of the plane tickets, the booking of the hotel Opera and sent money for the Flygbuss. Furthermore he provided Jacques van Beers who acted as a tour leader with a lot of good and useful information.
2. A description of the programme
An overview of the programme of the visit, as proposed by Ann-Marie Losenborg and Ulf C. Jonasson of the Educational Authority in Gothenburg and Eleonore Westling, Rektor of the IT Gymnasiet in Gothenburg is given in appendix 2.
In the next sections a day-to-day description of the activities is given. Each day has been described by two of the participants and translated into English in the most part by Steve Taylor.
Monday 14 March: arrival day
Tuesday 15 March
Presentation by Ulf Johansson (Chief Informatics Officer of the Göteborg Education Authority)
Ulf explained how the local education authority is set up: all educational facilities related to the implementation of IT have been centralised within the LEA. His responsibility in terms of the coordination of ICT stretches to 16 schools. These schools are not, however, the only Upper Secondary schools (for students aged 16-19) in the region; the LEA schools face increasing competition from independent schools.
During the course of the next 2 years the LEA aims to centralise all IT support for the schools in the hope that this will improve efficiency and increase the development of technical standards adopted by all technicians working for the LEA. This essentially also means that the selection and purchase of software, etc. will all be determined and organised centrally. All information will be run from two servers, one for the administrative network and the other for educational material. The LEA currently operates 1 computer for every 5 students.
Following unsuccessful experimentation with a homegrown LMS (Learning Management System) the decision has been taken to implement a new commercial product from Norway: Fronter.
The main problem facing all schools is that the teaching staff have insufficient IT knowledge to use IT effectively in their teaching. Government initiatives to increase teachers’ IT skills have not reaped high rewards, so the LEA has decided to take the initiative to improve their teachers’ IT levels of competence.
School visit to the Katrina Lund Gymnasiet.
Presentation by the biology teacher, Joakim Berge.
The themes of Joakim’s presentation were internet–use in education and Webboard as a tool for science education.
After a trial, Joakim’s conclusion was that Webboard was not suitable as a tool for the motivation of students in their school work. He therefore decided to develop his own methodology. He created chat zones so that he could communicate with students and allow them to communicate with each other, answering and posing questions on certain subject matter.
The main way in which this approach worked in motivating the students was that they were no longer submitting answers to someone who had already mastered the subject (i.e. the teacher), but to each other. This stimulated peer-learning and encouraged them in a ”race to impress” each other.
The disadvantage of this approach is that is requires a lot of time investment on the part of the teacher. It would also be fair to conclude that not all of Joakim’s colleagues are enthusiastic about using this method (about 5 of the 60 at the school currently employ it).
Burgårdens Leercentrum
Presentation by Ingrid Björk
This establishment offers students the opportunity to follow mainstream educational courses of study at Upper Secondary School level at their own pace both at the school itself or via a web-based distance learning programme.
Advanced primary school pupils are able to follow courses at Upper Secondary level early and adult learners can apply to re-take exams in order to try and achieve higher grades.
Bok & Webb
Presentation by Sofia Nordstrand
The final presentation was by Sofia, a representative of a commercial educational publishing company, Bok och Webb, which first began publishing material in 2001. Their method couples a textbook with tasks detailed on their webpage. According to the vision of this company, the specific advantages of the two media, book and web, are combined in an all-round package.
During the demonstration it was nevertheless clear that the opportunities offered by the webtasks are still in an early stage of development; the site still contained a lot of text and too little animation.
Wednesday 16 March
IT Universitet
Presentations by Sylvi Vigmo and Hans Rystedt
In the morning the group visited the IT Universitet. This faculty is a collaboration between the university of Göteborg and Chalmers University of Technology. Mrs. Sylvi Vigmo and Mr. Hans Rystedt held a presentation in which they explained that their focus is on education and research. Important areas of research are games and simulation, the planning and structure of learning, IT within the context of education, flexible learning solutions and remote learning.
The educational concept consists of ‘learning by doing’ especially in life-like projects. Fulltime students spend a relatively short amount of time on pure learning. Part-time students are mostly people with a background in education. The IT university has established the Swedish NetUniversity together with five other Swedish universities. This collaboration is intended to facilitate fulltime remote learning. Nevertheless face-to-face contact remains vital. Especially in cases where students’ oral skills are stronger than their written skills.
The University has placed much of its learning material in the Norwegian LMS ‘Fronter’. From an educational point of view this system appears to be the most effective. ‘Design and structure’ are important features in this system. At the beginning of a programme of study the focus is placed on ‘structure’. Without clear guidelines at the start of the course, students can lose their way. As the course progresses students are allowed more freedom.
Mrs. Vigmo took the opportunity to share some interesting insights with us within the context of a programme called ‘European Schools’. She monitors her students using dialogue, which has been recorded digitally.
The discussion developed further incorporating the relationship between education and industry.
Angereds Upper Secondary and Slottsberg Gymnasiet
Presentations by Göran Karlsson and Stefan Dellenborg
Later we visited the Angereds Upper Secondary. Göran Karlssonhad developed an animation programme, which was intended to illustrate the difficult abstract concepts associated with photosynthesis. For the Dutch party this insight was a revelation; it showed how IT could be effectively implemented to support the learning process in a way which would be impossible to replicate in book form.
After lunch Mr. Stefan Dellenborg, IT technician at the Slottsberg Gymnasiet told us more about his school. This is a school for handicapped students, and caters for learners with a variety of learning difficulties. At school several individual programmes can be followed parallel to the general programme. There are different programmes for pupils with light to severe handicaps. The school has 230 employees and 400 pupils.
Mr. Dellenborg held a presentation on the “Infordis Platform”. This LMS is very well suited for people with multiple handicaps. They can use specially modified computers and online audio and video. The virtual network computer (VNC) makes it possible to offer remote support.
After a short break Mr. Dellenborg presented “Cyberlink”. This advanced and complicated programme is designed to enable severely handicapped students to to work with a computer. It works by measuring the movements of the eyes, eyebrows, jaw and brainwaves (EEG). He gave a demonstration and after that one of the Dutch guests was invited to give it a try.
The afternoon ended with a presentation of the Swedish and Dutch educational systems, the use of IT within the respective educational contexts and a discussion on the means of promoting the use of computers in education.
Thursday 17 March
Independent upper secondary school, IT-Gymnasiet- Göteborg
300 students aged 16-19 years old, 20 teaching staff
Headteacher Eleonore Westling
IT-Gymnasiet Götenborg is one of a group of five schools of which 4 are situated in Stockholm and its environs and one in Göteborg. The school targets students who are interested in Electronics and IT. IT has been integrated into all subject areas. Learning activities are organised on the basis of PBL (Problem-Based Learning) methodology. The curriculum in organised into modules. Students follow a timetable consisting of compulsory core subjects and a number of chosen subjects. Each course is weighted in terms of ‘study points’. A minimum aggregate of study points (2500) needs to be acquired before a diploma can be awarded. Students who are able to work quickly can take on a higher study load, and so better prepare themselves for future study or work.
Technical Development: Örjan Johansson
ICT developments are initiated from within ‘E-groups’ in each school in consultation with the IT coordinator who is responsible for technical implementation. The initiative for development lies with the E-groups, and the E-group coordinator meets on a monthly basis with the MD and the IT coordinator in order to determine strategy.
Learning material is presented within a web-based platform called “FirstClass”. Örjan described this environment as a communication platform rather than an LMS. One of the advantages of this system is simplicity; it can be easily adapted to include aspects such as E-democracy, timetabling and automated communication, e.g. with parents by text messages in cases of absenteeism. Use to this end in particular is considered to be very effective.
Webdesign and Multimedia by Sara Nilson and Jerry Johansson
The standard ICT skills taught at the IT-Gymnasiet include working with Word, Excel en Powerpoint. Sara makes use of a free website in which tasks are complemented with accompanying explanations. Besides Swedish, this version should also be available in other languages. Her role is one of coach.
Once the standard level has been met, students follow a course in web-design, whereby they design their own homepage using Photoshop, Dreamweaver or Flash. Video-editing is carried out using Premiere and Soundforge. All course components are provided in a logical sequence and eventually result in the production of a commercial website for an external customer.
Local Network Construction and Cisco by Pelle Melin
This course uses CCNA, a product developed by Cisco, which is divided into 4 areas each with 4 sub-areas. Only the first module is offered at the Gymnasiet. Nevertheless it remains simple to pick up the thread of this course in future studies.
Pelle went on to talk about the course in local networking, which is presented through MCSA from Microsoft. The entire the course takes 100 hours to complete.
Programming and databases by Björn Gullander
This course is offered via PHP and MYSQL. The reason for these choices is that the products are relatively easily to manipulate. Java only makes an appearance in the final year of the course in Götenborg as it is considered to be the most challenging programming language. This is not necessarily the case in the schools in Stockholm.
One project currently up and running involves a partnership with Volvo whereby 6 students are working on a web-based inventory of computer hardware.
IT strategies, security systems, development of support systems by Kenneth Mutka
The 5 partner schools make use of just one internet access point and are interconnected via a VPN. Bandwidth is policed using a level 7 Firewall, a simple tool to use, as long as the technician has enough understanding of the various characteristics of internet traffic.
All students must sign a rental agreement before they are given a laptop from school for their own use. Misuse is punished. In extreme cases this can result in laptops being adapted so that non-school work is impossible, computers being confiscated or even suspension from school. Kenneth’s knowledge of how to run a wireless network is as yet insufficient for him to take the security risks installation would entail. This is not the case at all member schools.
Friday 18 March
GTU Sverige AB
Presentation of Jan Salomonson
The day began with a short tram ride to the headquarters of GTU Sverige AB in the company of Anne-Marie Losenborg, where we were met by Eleanore Westling, Head of the IT Gymnasiet of Göteborg, who had hosted our visit to her school yesterday.
She introduced Jan Salomonson, Management Consultant and member of the board of GTU Sverige AB. He then held a presentation, in which he first explained and illustrated how the parent company was structured, incorporating interests in Industrial Training and IT-based education. The company was founded and is owned by the current MD Jan Friman, an entrepreneur who branched out into mainstream education after a law change made this sort of activity possible in 1993.
After a period of steady growth there are now five IT Gymnasiets in Sweden, four in Stockholm and its environs and one in Göteborg. The school board is pursuing a policy of opening a new school every two years. Senior staff are relocated into a new school in order to ensure that essential elements of the school culture are immediately implemented into the new environment.
The initiative to set up the first IT Gymnasiet was originally taken in order to meet the demands of industry and universities, as outlined in the company vision (see below).
The school works on the basis of two principles:
- The working environment resembles as closely as possible that of an office, both in terms of facilities and interior design and the structure of the working day, which, for staff and students starts at 9 o’clock and ends at 5 o’clock.
- Learning activities are organised on the basis of PBL (Problem-Based Learning) methodology.
Schools in both the public and private sectors in Sweden are funded by the local authority on a lump sum per student basis. This means that the two sectors compete with each other to attract students, and the income they indirectly provide.
The success of IT Gymnasiet has largely been due to the approach of targeting specific areas of the education market (IT and Natural Sciences) and effectively communicating and marketing this idea at students and parents. Students have a clear idea of the type of curriculum they will meet, and are motivated by the promise of high quality programmes within their specific fields of interest. Coupled with this approach is a vigorous personnel policy, in which new staff are carefully selected by panels consisting of management, teachers and students, according to specific areas of competence and introduced into a professional working environment. The school management takes great care to meet the professional developmental needs of staff throughout their careers at the school.
Göteborg Education Authority
At 10:30 the group decamped to the offices of the Göteborg Education Authority, where we were met by Anne-Marie and Ulf Jonasson. Ulf presented an educational concept in which it should be made possible for students to progress in their learning at a tempo which suits their individual talents and areas of competence. Students would no longer be restricted by the organisation boundaries, which currently exist between the various educational establishments.
According to the concept, students would begin by consulting with a teacher and study councillor in order to set up an individual ‘road map’. This customised study plan would constantly be referred to during the learning process and could be adapted if necessary to ensure that students complete their course of study and move on at a pace which suits them. Ulf called this model a ‘Learning Loop’. The Göteborg Education Authority would like to find partners to submit a joint bid to the EU-funded Minerva platform, so that this experimental project could be funded, and Ulf asked the Digidac members to consider entering into such a partnership. The deadline for bid completion is November 1 2005. Ulf invited the Dutch delegation to react to his “Learning Loop” model before the summer of 2005.
Ulf went on to reflect on a week, which for him had been extremely fruitful on both a personal and professional level. All members of the Dutch party concurred with this appraisal, and group leader Jacques van Beers, expressed his
sincere gratitude for the hospitality shown by all of our Swedish hosts, in particular Anne-Marie, Ulf and Eleonore. Furthermore Jacques concluded that the group from The Netherlands had been given much food for thought (as well as food for digestion!), which would inevitably lead to interesting further inspiration and discussion on both Digidac and individual school level.