patricia wastiau, conclusions

General report and conclusionsFriday 12 June 2009

Patricia WastiauEuropean Schoolnet

• VISION ABOUT 21st CENTURY LEARNING

• WHICH LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN LINE WITH THIS VISION?

• HOW TO GO THERE?

• REASONS TO COOPERATE AT INTERNATIONAL LEVEL

• HOW TO COOPERATE?

• ….AND SOME ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

• Bigger challenges and more responsibilities for new generations needing to be prepared for it and better skilled

• First class skills and excellence to be provided FOR ALL,

• ICT-based education is a way to support it through personalisation of learning and teaching

• A shift in the fight against the digital divide: from ‘access’ to ‘use’

VISION ABOUT 21st CENTURY LEARNING

• What are the skills of the 21st century?

• Flexibility, openness, etc. and ?????

• An ethical challenge: ‘understanding the sense

of every action; what is acceptable, what is not’ Lord Puttnam

WHICH LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN LINE WITH THIS VISION?

A USEFUL REMINDERS:

• the enormous potential and spontaneous interest of pupils/students to learn by themselves (self organised learning environments; self organised mediation environments)

• listening to pupils/students telling us how we can help them to learn and what they need to learn;

• the issue is not that new; what is new is the possibility to connect content, thanks to new technologies and digitalization

• The issue is not a technological one

• A comprehensive/systemic vision is needed addressing teachers skills, learning environment, available digital content, etc.

• Starting from the problems faced by education to pave the way for ICT integration in schools (fight against disengagement, developing 21st century skills, teachers professional development, assessment challenges, etc. )

HOW TO GO THERE?

More specifically:

• Starting with a change in assessment

• Recognising that innovation comes from top and down

• Mainstreaming ICT pedagogy

• Networking between teacher education institutions to facilitate capacity-building, peer-learning on ICT in education integration for pre-service teachers

• Any reform of teacher education requires buy-in from leaders of teacher education institutions - involving Deans of Education is key to this process.

• Ongoing communities of practice for pre- and in-service teachers to help consolidate new approaches and pedagogies, by facilitating peer to peer support, and avoiding the isolation often experienced by teachers

• Peer learning assessment of digital educational resources

• how to get the full potential of ICT through to heads of schools (not skilled for that)?

• How to ensure that all can access excellence in more and more decentralised systems

• How to achieve policy alignment given division of responsibilities within organisations

Difficulties to overcome:

• we share more common points than differences and an existing appetite to exchange;

• Enlarge our vision through comparisons• To be ready for when the right times come even if not

applicable now; • to combine our forces to reach a learning age, more

than an information or knowledge society

REASONS TO COOPERATE AT INTERNATIONAL LEVEL

• Be committed to share information• Good practices• Solve common problems• The more we show what is happening in the classroom,

the more we’ll progress• Focus on a small number of areas

HOW TO COOPERATE?

• Informal learning initiatives

• Including teachers and heads of teachers in the

process

• More analysis about the skills needed to prepare future citizens to be able to face complex challenges

• Ethics of ICT

….AND SOME ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Change the rules of the game,….

or the game itself?