ICT as a changing agent in small remote schools

A comparative case study in three countries

Nils Ole Nilsen

These are the schools

• Kilkenny County Ireland:– Scoil Naomh Fiacra– Lisnafunchin school

• British Columbia - Canada– Vernon Open Door Learning Center– Nakusp Secondary– Ashcroft Secondary– Kamloop Open Learning Center

• Nordland County - Norway– LOSA - Beiarn

Three Challenges to prove for Small Remote Schools (Stevens):

1. Small remote schools are educationally as viable as large urban schools

2. Small Secondary rural schools must provide academical and vocational education to the extent expected in larger urban schools

3. Small rural schools have to prove that their continued existence can be justified

Research Questions

• What are the main limitations for small remote schools?

• How can ICT contribute to a educational improvement in small remote schools?

• How is collaboration with other schools/institutions organised?

• What are the didactical and pedagogical challenges using ICT for teaching and learning?

Situating the researchCase studies in multi grade schools in two countries in addition to Norway Document studies in each countries Partly structured interviews with school leaders, teachers and students in multi grade schools, school officers and coordinators on the regional/ municipality level Observations in schools

What are the main limitations for small remote school?

– Travelling teachers and/or school bussing?– Multi grade classrooms?– Few teachers responsible for teaching many

subjects - generalists– Difficult to attract and retain specialized teachers– School development seems to be difficult to work

with in small schools with few teachers– Few courses are offered in small secondary

schools– Secondary students have to move to urban

schools to continue their education

How can ICT contribute to a educational improvement for a

small remote schools?

– Distributed Learning• Asynchronous (LMS= Learning Management System)• Synchronous (Online Learning)

– Collaboration with other schools/students • Participating Projects and Programs like Commenius,

Leonardo etc)

– Learning Networks between small schools• School Development• Continual Professional Development for teachers

How is collaboration with other schools/institutions organised?

• Participating EU programmes or national programmes/projects (Ireland)

• Syncronous Online Learning – same time table in all participating schools (Canada)

• Asyncronous learning – using a LMS (Learning Management System) (Norway)

• Learning centre in each school – local teacher/facilitator

• Face to face meetings for teachers and students

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Learning Networks

• Fullan states:– ”schools must learn from each other if they are to have any

hope of widespread reform”– ”networks of collaboration – local, regional or national

learning communities….are vital to a new culture of learning in the schooling system”

• A test of wether a school is large or small will depend of how it is networked with other places of teaching and learning

”The Digital School” - a Model for developing your

school

ITU: Digital skole hver dag - 2006

Closed and Open Schools• Closed model of the school

– Autonomus institutions with their own students and teachers– Serve a geographically defined community– Students taught by teachers face to face

• Opne model of a school– Academically and administratively integrated with another for at

least part of a school day– ICT facilitate the linking of classes in schools to share teaching,

learning and resources– students can study outside the traditional classroom– Students can choose between courses offered from more than

one location and collaborate with students in other schools– Virtual classes and use of ICT – Teachers engaged in a search for appropriate pedagogy

Cool, games,

chat…

Subject goals, curriculum, exams…

Digital litteracy

Skills

Knowledge

Attitudes

Creativity

What are the didactical and pedagogical challenges using ICT for teaching and learning?

What are the didactical and pedagogical challenges using ICT for teaching and learning?

..a confident user of ICT

Oh....I´m scared....

...do you use the technology?

Paper based?

Competencies for teachers

Four aspects of integrating ICT:the use of ICT as a pedagogical toolICT as a stand-alone subject at different levelsPedagogy in netbased learning

ICT as a tool used in other subjects and areas.

Different kinds of Qualities and the Connection between them (Fevolden og Lillejord 2005)

Fevolden og Lillejord: Kvalitetsarbeid i skolen. Universitetsforlaget 2005Fevolden og Lillejord: Kvalitetsarbeid i skolen. Universitetsforlaget 2005

Structure quality

Process quality

Quality of results

The schools resources-how is the school organised- staff competencies - the school´s economic frames

- quality of learning environment - quality of focused content- quality of learning methods

The students results