Processing information: Students interacting with two women crossing the Antarctic
Norway
NO006 Molladammen Lower Secondary School
A. Meso-level context of the Innovation
A1. School background
The Innovation involved 8th grade students in a lower secondary school located in a middle-class area a short distance from the capital. The area surrounding the school has been growing over the last 20 years and a lot of young families have moved in.
The school is a relatively new school built in 1995.[1] The architecture and outline of the school is a bit different from most other schools. It consists of different pavilions, each containing two large rooms for the classes. In addition, one building is for the administration and sport facilities and another for the library and study rooms. The latter is the core building of the school and is surrounded by the others. This building is also where the computers for the Innovation are located.
The school has about 315 students, with about 105 students on each grade level. There are 35 staff people at the school including the administration. The majority of the teachers are young.
The school is part of a European project called European Network of Innovative Schools (ENIS). A government agency selected different schools to participate in this network. There is no funding of any activities at the school in question, just a network between schools in Europe. Molladammen has not had much contact with any of the other schools in this network. However, the school wants to use the technology to continue to expand international collaboration.
A2. School culture
The school has formulated a vision for their work based on “responsibility for each other and for our surroundings, locally, nationally and globally.” (School document) Central to their work is student activity and building up projects with national and international links. That implies that they want to create opportunities for their students to pursue different activities. They put an effort into creating stimulating and comfortable surroundings for their pedagogical work. As the principal states:
“We believe that in order for the students to learn something they must feel safe and confident. Besides that we want to teach the students responsibility, to take responsibility for themselves and for their surroundings. In connection with this we introduced flexi-time. That means that students in 10th grade have a core period in the middle of the day where they have to be in school, but can come when they want in the morning and be at the school longer in the afternoon if they want. That is part of learning responsibility.”
Differentiation of approach suited to all students from poor to top performers has been very important for this school. This is the reason they started what they call “Go ahead” groups with project activities for students “who have more to go on.” (Principal) The group of students in the Innovation we are studying is one of these groups. The reason for starting these groups was a feeling that many of the bright students did not get enough challenges.
As a new school they do not have a lot of school tradition to build on, which gives them an opportunity to create new and up-to-date perspectives on learning activities
As the principal says:
Yes, we feel we have a history of innovation at this school because it is part of our platform that we shall be a progressive school. We are a relatively new school so we have always had good equipment and resources when it comes to computers. We also have had other projects that have been innovative on a national level.
They have had several innovative projects using technology in recent years. For example, they used ICQ (‘I seek you’) software to support their interest in expanding the students’ learning environment to also include the home. For parts of that project the students sat at home and had synchronous communication with the teacher and other students. In describing the use of ICT at the school in recent years the Innovation teacher said:
It has a lot to do with changing the traditional drill teaching that computers often have been used for previously to become student-centered, an inductive way of letting the students work. For example, all students get an e-mail address when they come to this school. All students have to take a course on how to use the Internet when they start 8th grade.
The principal defines his leadership style more like an administrative one than a pedagogical one. His pedagogical impact on the school is mainly defined through being chair of the planning group at the school that outlines the vision and the framework that guides the school’s development.
The Innovation springs out of other activities at the school, even though the project itself is unique. Both the principal and the innovation teacher see the Antarctica project as a good example of their what they want to develop within their school culture and their overall vision on teaching and learning.
A3. ICT in the school and beyond
This school does not have a lot of computers. They have six computers with Internet access installed in the library. Besides that they have a few computers out in the classrooms. The teachers have a few computers available in their own study rooms. A few teachers have their own portable computers that they use.
On the question of the school’s vision the principal said:
It relates to being able to use many senses, and to do things and to see that it works. To learn about another country by reading about it in a book compared to getting it presented through Internet. Images and sound and experiences you might say, and communication with students in other countries direct through e-mail and chatting and all that which now is possible.
The Innovation teacher who initiated the Antarctica project said that the school has a strong vision of becoming more internationally linked, and that ICT is seen as the main tool in accomplishing this.
Most of the younger teachers at the school are comfortable with using computers actively in their teaching. However, for older ones it is more of a problem. The principal also states that things have changed in recent years:
It is obvious that the limitations on the students’ use of computers relates a bit to the teacher’s knowledge about it. But I feel that it is used more and more. For example, I see that Excel as a tool was not used much a few years ago, but now the young teachers use it quite actively. They take their classes with them into the computer room and use Excel when doing arithmetic and so forth.
The school has also used certain students as instructors for other students because of their competence in using ICT.
Two out of three students have computers at home.
A4. ICT support structure in the school
The school does not have a staffer who only takes care of technical support. There are two levels of support. On the first level the principal has given one teacher some extra time to take care of immediate problems with the computers in the school and the intranet. This is also the teacher who now organizes the Innovation. He has no formal education in ICT and learned his skills through courses and studies. Other teachers at the school can ask this teacher for help when needed. On the second level the municipality has a support system with four full-time people to support all the schools in the municipality. The principal states that this is sufficient to handle the current situation, but that an increase in the number of computers will create a need for more technical support.
The school does not have a special program for the professional development of the teachers in the use of ICT.
B. Macro-level context of the Innovation
B1. National and State/Provincial policies
There are national and regional policies relevant for the school’s learning vision and for the use of ICT in the Innovation. This relates to a greater focus on students’ learning activities and responsibilities. It also supports the increased use of ICT. The principal mentions that the curriculum states that all schools have to use ICT as a tool in different subjects.
The school has no specific policy document concerning ICT. The principal also complains that the national plans are not related to the needs on the school level:
We hear about the many millions of kroner appropriated for ICT on the national and the regional level. However, apart from the fact that the municipality has hired some people to help us with purchasing and how to make the infrastructure function, I feel that very little goes to the specific school.
That is also the reason why this school has not been able to invest in more computers. They have to cover most of the expenses with their internal budget.
C. Thematic analysis of the Innovation
C1. Curriculum content, goals, and assessment
The Innovation is part of a wider project at the school consisting of different projects and activities. It is important to understand this wider context in order to grasp the specific Innovation that we focus on.
One aspect is that the group of students we focus on belongs to what this school calls “Go ahead” groups. It gives students who perform well an opportunity to go out of their regular classes to participate in specific projects in which they are interested. They are expected to keep up with their regular classes in addition to participating in the project, and they have continuing contact with their regular teachers. They have specific teachers for the projects developed for the “Go ahead” groups.
The Innovation we will report on is the final activity of several activities that have been going on for some time. The overall focus of all these activities has been “to make a dream come true.” It all started in October 1999 when two explorers, Liv Arnesen, a Norwegian, and Ann Bancroft, an American, presented their ideas for an education program relating to their Antarctica 2000-2001 expedition.[2] This was presented as a global activity where schools in different countries could participate. A special database was developed where anyone could follow the expedition. The activity involved factual information about Antarctica, up-to-date information about the progress of the expedition, some images, and an opportunity to e-mail questions to the explorers during the expedition. In addition, the school had a special arrangement with one of the explorers, Liv Arnesen, under which they would have direct interaction before, during and after the expedition. This was both to get factual and research-based information, and information of a more personal nature about the experiences of the two women in Antarctica.
Liv Arnesen lives not far from the school so she was invited for a visit and to talk with teachers and students about the expedition. In January and February 2000 the school had several Antarctica-related projects integrating history, science, studying former explorations/expeditions, health, nutrition, pollution/ozone, whaling and weather/metrology. They also had a specific art and music project to present some of their findings.
Even though the specific expedition would take place from November 2000 until February 2001, the overall theme that the schools were invited to work on was dreams how one can make them a reality. Liv Arnesen had dreamed of crossing the South Pole since she was 12 years old and now she had a opportunity to make her dream come true. The two explorers are the first women to cross the South Pole on skis. During the spring of 2000 the school started different activities under the heading of “My Dream!”
The first step was that the students wrote a short essay about their “secret” dream. They discussed these dreams among themselves, and to what extent it was possible to make them come through. The next step was to exchange dreams with other students in other countries. Some teachers had gone on the Net and found some schools in the U.S.A., Poland, Finland and Palestine. The first Innovation teacher explains the impact of this as: “The students got input in understanding youth culture and learning about different life conditions.”
The students translated their written dreams into English and sent them to these schools. The reason for this was to give the students experience in formulating their dreams, communicating with others about this in English and also trying to achieve mutual understanding among different students. They did not get as much response from these other schools as they had expected, but the few dreams they got in return made some striking points. One example was the comparison between one of the boys at the Norwegian school who dreamed about becoming a better snowboarder, and a Palestinian girl who dreamed about a stable and secure school.
The next step was that a couple of teachers started a project to follow the two women crossing the Antarctic on skis while pulling sleds. A group of eight students joined this specific project, which is the Innovation that we followed. The aim of this project was to create a web site that would contain different kinds of reports and information gathered by the students about the expedition and Antarctica. The intention was also to collaborate with a school in the U.S. on this project. However, after a while it turned out that this school did not follow up and the Norwegian school had to work on the project alone.
The intention was that the students would have a regular contact with the explorers, both through e-mail and by satellite telephone. However, because the company that was supposed to deliver the satellite connection went bankrupt, they did not get the interactivity they had expected. Another company with other sponsors and collaborators took over the satellite connection that excluded this school. The students had two main telephone interviews with the women during the expedition. The consequence was that the students had to rely more on information from other sources. One important source was one of the main newspapers in Norway, which had a special agreement with the expedition organizers to get up-to-date information. The Innovation teachers negotiated with the newspaper to let the students use this information and connection with the explorers. The newspaper also posted a link to the web site of the students on their own web site.
The Innovation is defined according to overall curriculum goals calling for an interdisciplinary approach and project orientation. However, it is different from how most other schools define the same goals in the sense that this is an activity to give certain students a bigger challenge and is organized as a project in addition to regular classes. The main change is still the content of this specific project and how they used technology for communication purposes to gather information and as presentation tools.
The students do not get grades on their project work. At the end of the project they get a statement from the teachers about the project and the student’s activities that the students put with their formal assessment documents when applying for schools later on. The principal says the assessment strategies at the whole school have changed. The students get an assessment scheme on how they collaborate, how involved they are, what they have produced, what role they have in the group, etc. The exam procedure has been changed as well: “Today’s exams are different than they used to be. Now the students get a text with some questions a couple of days before, and then their exam is on that text.”
One important aim of the Innovation is to get the students to evaluate different sources of information and to handle information themselves for presentation.
What I have stressed a lot during this process is that they have to be clear and objective with regard to the use of sources, so that what they write is formally correct and can be backed up. I have included certain journalistic principles and methods as certain knowledge-based factors in the project. (Innovation teacher)
To be able to critically evaluate sources is something the students themselves have become aware of, also because real journalists have interviewed them. The students became aware that they have to know the subject they are working on well when being interviewed, because it is embarrassing to not be able to answer when they ask about something. Another aspect is also that the students see how the journalists use the information from these interviews and how they may change the information they got. A third element implies that the students are very eager to present the information on their web site as good as possible when they know that everybody can read what they have written.