WG2: i-Teacher | schoolonthecloud

WG-2

i-Teacher – Using the Cloud: the innovative teacher

i-Teacher

– Using the Cloud: the innovative teacher

Using the Cloud makes the potential of personalised learning a reality. But what exactly do we mean by ‘personalised learning’? Is it individualised learning, independent learning, self-organized learning or what? How do we fit personalised learning inside existing formal and non-formal education? If it improves motivation for learning, what about the effectiveness of learning? ...

The most difficult aspect in developing and applying ICT in any endeavour is the ability to evaluate mid – to long-term future perspectives. WG4 will seek to evaluate such future developments as they relate to education and cloud technology. In other words examine “Future scenarios for Education on the Cloud”. ...

Are you an innovative teacher? What does that mean? What’s the role of the teachers in education today and in the future? Will coaching and providing a useful learning environment for students be more important? How will you help students making their own learning path and finding out different learning styles? ...

i-Teacher

Can education organizations take advantage of the potential offered by the Cloud? What prevents innovative leadership from pushing for change? What barriers are there to implementing the use of the Cloud in education? Working Group 1 (WG 1) ...

i-Leader

i-Future

Overview

WG 2 explores the impact of the Cloud on the roles of teachers and trainers in education and discusses how we can use new technology and Cloud applications as a value-added component in education. It will look at learning and teaching issues connected with the Cloud and examine the barriers and key competences required. It explores teachers as innovators. i-Teacher reviews learning and teaching approaches and provides practical and essential guidance for teachers and teacher educators.

The following deliverables are planned:

Presentations on the impact of Cloud-based teaching and teacher education, leading to the identification of training needs for teachers
An online catalogue of recommended Cloud-based platforms, applications and tools
A guidance leaflet for teachers and trainers on Cloud teaching
The creation of an interactive training workshop about using the Cloud for i-Teachers and iTrainers that disseminates the activities and outcomes of working group 2

This Working Group is led by GO! Education of the Flemish Community (Belgium).

Porto, November 7th – 8th 2014

In preparation of the very first gathering with the workgroup iTeacher, we created an introductive assignment which was send to every partner, using the cloud-service. We encouraged our partners to do this assignment in group, working together per country. As a result, some interesting ideas about the future role of teachers, specifically in relation to modern technology, were suggested.

During the gathering we used a symbaloo in order to store all the assignments and results in one place and create links to them. Off course the introduction assignment is also part of the symbaloo.

All of the above, as well as the cloud-tools we have been using so far, can be found by clicking the following. link: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/iteachersoc-porto

We will continue to use this symbaloo in all future gatherings of the workgroup iTeacher.

Topics fort his gathering were the following:

What is an iTeacher?
How to be an iTeacher?
What do you believe will be the main changes to school education in the future?

What is an iTeacher?

To define an iTeacher, we worked with the primary process of education, by Flanders Synergy:

First of all we agreed on 10 keywords for each primary process of education. This way there would be no misunderstandings about the different processes and there meaning. Then, we created a tagxedo (word cloud) containing these 10 keywords and posted this on the lino-wall
of each primary process.

After that we discussed in what ways new technologies can improve or change the education process of the 4 primary processes. Some very concrete answers were formulated and also posted
on the lino.

Next on the agenda was a group discussion about the competencies and training needs of the iTeacher with Trello. Four small groups were formed for this assignment. A list of competences was given to choose from, but adding new competences was also an option. Goal of the assignment was to define what competences teachers need in the different stages of their jobs, namely the innovative teacher, the starting teacher and the current teacher.

To roundup the topic “what is an iTeacher” we had a plenary discussion about the lino-walls as well as the competences.

How to be an iTeacher?

It is good to define what an iTeacher is, but how can you be one? To answer this question we organized a brainstorming session in groups by using a carrousel system. This means that we had three rounds in which 2 placemats were to be filled out by each group. Using this system allowed everyone to express their ideas about every subject related. In the final round every group was able to continue with the ideas all other groups had added to the placemats. As all the participants were very enthusiastic a lot of great input was given during this brainstorming session.

What do you believe will be the main changes

to school educationin the future?

As the future evolution of school education has a great impact on how to be a teacher, we also worked on an additional assignment from the workgroup iFuture. They asked us to state our opinion in terms of the role of cloud computing as it relates to the learning needs, objectives and strategies in order to enhance the activities the learner is good at and improve those that the learner face difficulties with.

Also for this assignment we decided to work in small groups. Every group watched a movie in which a situation was portrayed in relation to a pupil, a student, a manager and a teacher. Conclusions about these movies were presented for the whole workgroup iTeacher. You can consult our findings in the symbaloo.

After two days of hard work, fun and lots of inspiring ideas we met with the workgroup iLearner, who were also present in Porto. Both workgroups presented their findings of the last two days to each other. As each workgroups is partly depending on the other, this stage of the process is very important and necessary. In addition to the presentations a lot of time for discussion and sharing of ideas was foreseen.

Conclusion:

The main conclusion of the gathering was the following: The iTeacher is a concept rather than a person.

It is about being an innovative teacher, which can only by achieved by cooperating with other people. For this reason the workgroup iTeacher will put his focus on the team and its competences instead of the individual. It will be an challenge to process this within a cloudconcept.

During the gathering we used a lot of cloud tools in order to get to know there added value, find out there flaws and integrate the cloud within the workgroup. This way we will be able to use cloud solutions in our future work with the group.

Based on the input of the introductive assignment and the 1st submeeting the cloud will be used to cooperate and finalize the deliverables.

The next gathering of the workgroup iTeacher will take place in Madrid in the beginning of 2016.