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Internet in Education Lára Stefánsdóttir, consultant on Internet in education, e-mail: lara@ismennt.is (DOK-SYS, Piran, Slovenia, May 1997) Abstract Our societies now have more access to information than ever before. Internet is one of the largest providers of information, both good and bad. Students need to be able to study in a new environment where it is important to be able to find, evaluate, process, connect and express information of value. In the changing society countries and people are more accessible. Students need to be able to work with other students and people on-line on projects. They need to be able to seek information on culture and environment from others as well as giving information about their own culture and environments. It is possible to use Internet in all subjects taught in school. Icelandic students have been doing projects on Internet since 1989 in various subjects. These projects are Nordic, International or created by the teachers. What is the effect on education? How old must the students be before they use Internet? This is a common question I get when introducing Internet for teachers and parents. There is no one too young and no one too old. In fact age or sex has nothing to do with Internet. A recent survey amongst the Icelandic population shows that there are just as many women as men using Internet. I have seen children from 6 years old using computer communication, it is just the mind that limits the use if the technology is available. In Iceland the person who originally introduced Internet was a schoolmaster in a little village in northern Iceland with only around 150 inhabitants and his work grew to become The Icelandic Educational Network - Ismennt connecting 90% of the schools to Internet, http://www.ismennt.is/ . At first financial support came from The Teachers Association as well as the Ministry. Joint interest of teachers themselves as well as the support from the Ministry made it possible. Connection is however not everything, 90% of the teachers have not been using Internet and not all of those who use it are doing so with students but as means of supporting their teaching and profession. Approx. 20% of the teachers in primary schools have participated in a variety of on-line in-service courses so the interest is huge. Addition or transformation Many teachers who have been using Internet with their students claim that it is extra work and sometimes in addition to what they are obliged to do. We still have a lot to learn about transforming education in relation with the information society but we are on our way. Here I am not only talking about Icelandic teachers but internationally. This takes time but still it doesn't happen unless we begin now. Harpa Hreinsdottir, an upper secondary school teacher in Akranes, Western Iceland, is working on the development of a national literature WWW project with her students, http://rvik.ismennt.is/~harpa/forn . In stead of writing as many essays as earlier, the students create WWW pages on sagas from Western Iceland as well as mythology. After the first term the students are very satisfied with the work. It has been linked to the international Viking project http://odin.nls.no/viking/nvnethome.htm which is co-ordinated from Norway and Scotland. Valgeir Gestsson, the library teacher in Grandaskoli, a primary school in Iceland, has been supporting teachers and students, aged 6 to 12 years old to use Internet. There twelve year old have been creating WWW pages http://rvik.ismennt.is/~valli/7R for their school. Not only do they create their own WWW pages but they also participate in the KIDLINK project for kids aged 10 - 15 years old http://www.kidlink.org. Teaching methods There is nothing such as the "right" educational method when using Internet in education. Each teacher selects his or her method when teaching and although Internet is added there is no such thing as Internet pedagogy. Therefore each teacher has to select a method that suits the teaching and/or subject. An interesting on-line book Engines of education http://www.ils.nwu.edu/~e_for_e/index.html by Roger Shank, focuses on how computers can be used in education. The discussion there can be useful for teachers when seeking methods. The main issue though in the information society is that a new competence is needed. The Internet is loaded with information but no quality standards. There is so much information that it is difficult to find information of value. We who work within the Internet every day cannot anticipate how much actually will be there in the near future and it seems to be impossible to organize the whole thing. Therefore it is more than ever important to teach our students the skills to find, evaluate, process and express knowledge. Of course this is more related to some educational methods such as discovery learning but still it is not only related to that. Who makes the difference? What makes it successful to use Internet in education is not some single thing. A teacher must have technical equipment, he/she must be capable of using it to some extent and it is important to have some official strategies from the authorities on what is expected. Although all this is important, the teacher is the factor that plays the largest role. I have seen a school full of techology, willing authorities but nothing happens. At the same time I have seen a school with very limited funding, not so willing authorities but doing amazing things. Without a well qualified teacher nothing happens. The teacher makes all the difference. In Iceland there has been no IT plan for the education. Minister of Education and Culture, Bjorn Bjarnason http://www.centrum.is/bb/ has now taken action and that will imply the first IT plan for education in March 1996. One might think that lack of instructions from the top would lead to little activity in the schools but that is far from true. The Ministry has often supported projects and pioneer work in the field that has allowed teachers to develop ideas. But it definitely helps the teachers to know what is expected of them. Why change? To many people change is difficult and it is difficult to find the reason for changing. Often this is related to the issue how people look at things. It can either be a problem or a possibility while being the same issue all the time. It is not easy to change teaching while it might be easy to change learning if the teacher changes his methods. The teacher likes to "know everything" and to think that his job is to transfer that knowledge into the students mind. Can a student use knowledge that has only been told, written down and checked on a test? Our societies change so fast due to the changes in information technology that it is very likely that no matter how well we teach or how well the students learn these methods are not enough to prepare a human being for working in modern society. The teacher must adjust to the fact that he/she doesn't have to know everything but support learning. Internet can break those walls and create new possibilities in the learning environment. Not just for students but also for teachers who would like to increase their knowledge. A teacher who would like to keep up with the society that his or her students are going to take part in cannot use the same methods or same material during a lifetime of teaching. It is very important to create an environment for a teacher to practice lifelong learning. Without that environment a teacher has limited possibilities of growing within the teaching profession. ----- In the beginning of this paper I raised the question, what has changed by using Internet in education in Iceland. Maybe we really don't know, maybe it is impossible to find out until after some years. Still I feel that using Internet in education gives the students the possibilities to learn more about cultures and people in other areas or countries. People in the surrounding, family, friends and co-workers are and will be important. Internet will not substitute them but it gives us the possibility to work with people in other countries and areas as well as making friends in a way that has never been possible before. I have been able to work closely with Alenka Makuc in Slovenia and later develop friendship which is very valuable for me. Without Internet we would not have been able to work together in the KIDLINK project, discuss possibilities and problems of using Internet in education. She accomplished making a very interesting on-line project about sport which I thought was a subject difficult to teach on-line but Alenka proved me wrong. Internet gives us possibilities far beyond what we knew before and it is important for us to learn from each other, share information and grow to be able to live and make the information society a good place to live and work. Lara Stefansdottir, Pósthólf 472, 602 Akureyri. Sími: 896-3357 (einnig talhólf). lara@ismennt.is © Öll réttindi áskilin varđandi efni sem ég skrifa á ţessari síđu, greinum og erindum. Ţakkir til Rita Birmans fyrir bakgrunn og línu. Síđast uppfćrt: 26. desember 1997 |
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© Lára Stefánsdóttir Öll réttindi áskilin varđandi efni sem ég
skrifa á ţessari síđu og undirsíđum. |