NML learners…Some considerations

Georges-Louis Baron, Eric Bruillard

UMR STEF (ENS Cachan / INRP)IUFM de Creteil

Some results No clear evidence regarding effects

of ICT on educational achievements Innovative ways of learning… but

innovations are seldom sustainable Question: effects of ICT?

Learning and teaching as situated and instrumented activities.

A new vision of informatics for users

From a processing chain…

The classical LISP : print eval read for functions

… to an interactive loop

A socio-cognitive approach Software execution combines human

activity and machine activity Set up a significant interaction for human and

machine Take into account the dynamics of the

process, temporal and situated. Cognitive and social questions are inherent

parts of technical problems.

Informatics: science of design and use of IT semiotic artefacts (Nicolle, 2002)

Three roles for ICT in education

A new instrumentation Educational technology General software tools

Communication, access, production Instruments in subject matters

According to each role, specific processes can be observed

NML learners Role 2 is mainly concerned, changes in

work environment of teachers and students

May be New capabilities but Strong opposition between school use

and home use of computer instruments Same technology Immature culture (immediate satisfaction)

vs distance and reflection

NML learners? ICT uses in school, at home… At the end of primary schools, no

very big differences How do they acquire ICT

competences? Their competences: what they do?

Hypothesis: a differatiation process during age 12-16 (grade 7-10)

Some works in progress

A PHD thesis (Fluckiger) Objective : how low secondary students

(grade 7-9) acquire ICT competences In schools, at home, with friends… Links between activities and competences

Method : Classroom observation Observation during inter-courses, at a local

center outside school, at home, interviews Analysis of student blogs, evolution of blog

structure, analysis of social networks…

Didatab project Analysis of the uses of spreadsheets in

schools by French students Three years project (2005-2007)

"The use of spreadsheets in business is a little like Christmas for children. They are too excited to get on with the game to read or think about the 'rules' which are generally boring and not sexy" in David Chadwick, Stop that subversive spreadsheet ! http://www.eusprig.org/eusprig.pdf

A fruitful business: errors in spreadsheets (see Panko, 2000).

Why studying spreadsheets?

Commonly used by a large number of professionals

More technical than word processors (programming)

Designed for end users Indicator of computer literacy In education, specific links between subject

matter and spreadsheets

Methods of investigation

Content analysis of official curriculum texts, educational websites and educational resources

Interviews of teachers and students Classroom observations in different contexts:

middle school, high school, vocational school Questionnaires Test of competencies (paper test and computer

tests) (Staff: 3 researchers, more than 10 master

students, teachers in different secondary schools…)

French educational system

terminale pro 18-19

17-18 terminale terminale première pro 17-18

16-17 première première CAP - BEP 16-17

15-16 CAP - BEP 15-16

general technological vocational

14-15

13-14

12-13

11-12

ages

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quatrième

cinquième

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labo

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…

TechnologyMath

Physics

EngineeringSocial sciences…

Objectives and results To identify the main “trajectories of use”

(Proulx, 2002) personal and social Process of differentiation Significant events / Role of curriculum,

activities, social factors Some comparisons: Greece, Belgium, Italy

Results Stream effect (gender, social background…)

No strict correlation Low use and low competencies

Methodological questions Is it possible to have a picture of a

seven or eight years process? Through examples With a mainly qualitative approach (and

some quantitative tests) And interpretative process (providing

ideal types?) But relationship with ICT is changing

Other reflections

EIAH : Environnements Imaginaires pour l’Apprentissage Humain

Jacques Walletwww.sticef.org

Non real environments for human learning

Albert Robida, « Les cours par téléphonoscope » La vie électrique le vingtième siècle, Paris, Librairie illustrée, 1892, page 25, bibliothèque Nationale

Importance of examinations

Generational Gap ?

Don’t shoot the teacher Teachers as « bouc émissaires » Or double bind

They have to be modern And to control precisely the

acquisition of a group of students Professional uses / few classroom

uses An official best pedagogy? (towards

dequalification of teachers)

Example of new teachersSesamath (www.sesamath.net) French association of teachers

main goal is to freely provide, via the Internet, pedagogical resources and professional tools to be used for mathematical teaching and learning.

a public service approach a commitment to the free software movement.

Many projects. Recently, they produced a mathematical textbook for 7th graders (Wikipedia like process)

Manuel Sesamath“Sésamath 5e is a complete

textbook, in accordance with new prescribed curricula for 7th graders, rather classical in its organization (in chapters, and in each chapter, in sections: methods, activities, exercises...) and in its editing quality (quality of the cover, of the setting and of the printing)”

(designers’ discourse)

Sesamath First, it is a textbook (form with great

resonance), a classical textbook Subject matter unique reference and

stable (few links with research) Recommended usage of computer

instruments Which innovation ? Reinforcement of control (see Cuban)

Bridging the gap

IFIP TC3 / WG 3.1, October 1997, Grenoble (Yvonne Buettner)

… Building the wall

Change school to adapt it to what exists outside?

Or do the contrary ?

School at home?