Acer-EUN’s Educational Netbook Pilot Acer

European Schoolnet has launched recently an Observatory and as part of if a series of Briefing Papers The Briefing Papers aim to present the findings of the Survey of Schools: ICT in Education on a specific topic and to relate them to the results of European Schoolnet projects on the topic.

The second issue of the Briefing Papers looks into the 1:1 computing in Europe. There is growing interest in classes in which every student has continuous access to a laptop or tablet computer.

In the Survey’s teachers’ questionnaire, randomly selected teachers were asked if their school provided students in their class with a laptop for their own use. At grade 4 (i.e. around 9.5 years old), almost 20% of students are in a 1:1 class in Denmark, Ireland and Poland, with a EU mean of 8%. At grade 8 (i.e. around 13.5 years old), more students are in 1:1 classes than at other grades – 21% on average in the EU – but they are heavily concentrated in Spain, Norway and Sweden, with as at grade 4, a ‘long tail’ of countries where there are currently hardly any students in such classes.

• Download here the Briefing Paper Nº2: One laptop per child in Europe: how near are we? (PDF)
• Subscribe here for the EUN Briefing Papers
• For more information on the EUN Observatory and to view more results of the Survey in Schools, click here

The inGenious project is organising a series on online chats with representatives of industry and school guidance counsellors. These chats will display role models in industry, discuss career development in STEM and other topics connected with working in STEM careers and STEM education which will provide pupils a more informed image of jobs and careers in this area.

In an upcoming chat "Why choose a career in information technology?" with Acer the participants will know about some aspects on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and the importance of scientific studies for future jobs. The speakers from Acer will explain also tell about the what kind of skills IT companies like themselves look for in their staff and what kind of traineership opportunition the company provides. These and many other points will be addressed in the online chat which is free of charge and open to anyone. The inGenious chat will take place on Thursday 23 May 2013 at 14:00-15:30 CEST. If you are interested, please get registered through this link.

inGenious is the European Coordinating Body in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education. It is a joint initiative launched by European Schoolnet and the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT) aiming to reinforce young European's interest in science education and careers and thus address anticipated future skills gaps within the European Union. Acer is one of the project's Associate Partners.

Acer and European Schoolnet carried out a pilot study in 2012 on the use of tablet devices to enhance teaching and learning practices. During this study, Acer equipped 263 teachers in 63 schools from eight European countries with Acer Iconia W500 tablet computers. The countries involved were Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Additionally, 116 students received tablets as part of the pilot: one classroom set of tablets was provided to a UK school (26 tablets per class) and three classrooms were equipped with tablets (30 tablets per class) in Spain. The objectives of the project were to gain a better understanding of teachers’ use of tablets to enhance students’ learning. In cases where each student in a class was provided with a tablet, the project aimed to further investigate 1:1 teaching and learning approaches.

According to the study,  teachers have a positive opinion of the use of tablets. Teachers stated that they now understand the potential benefits of tablets in teaching, and that they know which content to use on the tablet and how to effectively integrate tablets into their teaching. More than half of the teachers know which software to use on the tablet, the availability of learning resources in their national language and have received support from other teachers.

Download the report here (pdf, 5.5 Mb)

The Executive Summary is available in eight languages.

The Executive Summary of the Acer-EUN Tablet Pilot evaluation report has been published. Within the pilot, Acer equipped 263 teachers in 63 schools from eight European countries with Acer Iconia W500 tablet computers. The countries involved were Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Additionally, 116 students received tablets as part of the pilot, one classroom set of tablets was provided to a UK school (26 tablets per class) and three classrooms were equipped with tablets (30 tablets per class) in Spain.

The objectives of the project were to gain a better understanding of teachers’ use of tablets to enhance students’ learning. In cases where each student of a  specific class was provided with tablets, the project aimed to investigate further 1:1 teaching and learning approaches.

The full report will be available shortly.

Download the executive summary here:

• DE - German
• EN - English
• ES - Spanish
• ET - Estonian
• FR - French
• IT - Italian
• PT - Portuguese
• TR - Turkish

European Schoolnet has published a set of practical guidelines following work with 1:1 computing initiatives; in particular the experience gained in the practical implementation of the Acer-European Schoolnet Educational Netbook Pilot and the Tablet Pilot. The guidelines are designed to be a starting point for school leaders, teachers, education advisers, policy makers and the research communities who are seeking to implement the use of 1:1 devices within learning and teaching. They will also support the work of commercial suppliers and industry.

The guidelines identifies fifteen areas that schools will need to consider as part of their implementation of 1:1 technologies. Under each of the main themes that are addressed, you will find a list of "Questions and Suggestions" that have arisen from our on-going work with teachers.

The publication offers also practical illustrations of some of the topics based on the experience of the teachers participating in the Acer-European Schoolnet Educational Tablet Pilot. 

The guidelines are available in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Estonian and Italian. All the reports are also available in a paper version.

Download the reports here (PDF, 7Mb)

• EN - English
  
• DE - German
• FR - French
• ET - Estonian
• IT - Italian
• ES - Spanish
• PT - Portuguese
• TR - Turkish
  

The annual BETT Show at London provides an opportunity to anyone working in the educational field to discover the latest novelties and ideas for the classroom of the future. Acer and European Schoolnet will be presenting their projects in this event. Come to see us at stand E100!

Thursday 31 January:

• Acer stand E100 at 1:00pm: presentation on the inGenious project and Acer-EUN Tablet Pilot results 
• Intel stand B70 at 3:30pm: A joint inGenious presentation with Acer, EUN and Intel

Friday 1 February:

• Acer stand E100 at 1:00pm: presentation on the inGenious project and Acer-EUN Tablet Pilot results 
• Intel stand B70 at 4:30pm: A joint inGenious presentation with Acer, EUN and Intel

For more information:

• BETT Show, 30 Jan - 2 Feb 2013 at London

The Acer-European Schoolnet Tablet Pilot project ran from September 2011 to November 2012 with a piloting phase for teachers experimenting the use of tablets from January 2012 to July 2012. The project was coordinated by European Schoolnet at European level in cooperation with Acer, which equipped 265 teachers and students in 4 classrooms with 381 tablets in a total of 63 schools in 8 European countries.

Here is a small preview of some of the evaluation results which are based on replies from 221 teachers. The full report will be available in February 2013.

Tablet Based Activities

• 90% used the tablet for school based activities with their pupils in class.
• More than half of the pilot teachers (64%) used the tablet “1-5 times a week” for lesson planning and lesson delivery. Almost half of the pilot teachers used it for lesson follow up (47%), administrative tasks and professional development (45%) “1-5 times a week”.

Teaching and Learning Resources

• The majority of teachers (88%) mainly used material they found on the Internet when teaching their students or online material from established national/regional education sources (66%).

Professional Development

• At least once during the project period more than 60% of the pilot teachers received training in the development of ICT skills and device/equipment related use. Half of the teachers received training in teaching with the tablet.
• Around 60% of the pilot teachers  attended staff meetings, exchanged teaching material with colleagues, and discussed the selection of teaching resources.

Teachers Confidence in ICT integration

• At the end of the pilot, 2/3rd of the tablet teachers felt confident in integrating tablets effectively in their teaching and  knew which content to use.
• 70% reported now a better understanding of the potential benefits for teaching despite the short implementation period.

Picture: by Fulvia Lupo, IC Trofarello, Italy

In some schools, pupils sharing computers is a thing of the past. These schools have taken a bold step and adopted a policy of 1:1 computing. As the name suggests, 1:1 computing means students have their own personal devices, and it’s a growing trend in education, notes Valerie Thompson, chief executive of the e-Learning Foundation.
....
Diana Bannister, development director for learning technologies at the University of Wolverhampton has conducted extensive research on 1:1 computing, including work in eight EU countries. She has identified 15 areas that schools need to consider before adopting 1:1 computing, including sustainability and the role of the commercial supplier.

“Evaluation and research needs to be in place from the beginning, and teachers should have the opportunity to observe others using the devices," she says. "And funding should include the total cost of ownership of the devices.” Diana Bannister plans to publish guidelines on 1:1 computing on the European Schoolnet website in December 2012 and she is happy to hear from schools wanting more information about 1:1 computing.

Read the full article here (article published originally at agent4change.net website)

Picture credit: Mariano Lázaro (IES Tiempos Modernos, Zaragoza)
 

Acer have launched the first annual 'Incredible Green Contest', with the aim of creating a cleaner, greener, living environment. The campaign aims to raise awareness on issues around energy use and conservation by encouraging students to develop innovative and sustainable solutions to energy saving, and will be open to pupils at all levels worldwide.

The objective of the contest, which is being held under the theme '2020 Future TechLife enabled by green innovation', is for pupils to apply what they learn in class to inventions and innovations that reduce consumption, and help preserve the green environment.

The grand prize for the competition winner is $60,000. Participants can register as individuals, or as a team of up to five members, until 31 October 2012, while the deadline for submission of entries is 15 November 2012. Full competition details are available here.

European Schoolnet is carrying research on case studies that describe the implementation of 1:1 initiatives in Europe. The study, commissioned by Microsoft, aims to describe how 1:1 netbook initiatives can be successfully designed and implemented at various levels at policy making level (policy perspective) and at school level (practitioner perspective).

More specifically the study has the following objectives:

• to identify six 1:1 initiatives, which will be analysed through case studies;
• to provide a framework for describing and investigating the local, regional, national
  initiatives implemented;
• to provide in depth descriptions and analysis on the deployment of 1:1 initiatives;
• to identify the enablers and inhibitors regarding the successful deployment of local, regional, national initiatives implemented.

The final report will be targeted to high- level policy makers, who wish to implement a 1:1 initiative and/or to learn from other countries’ experiences. The project started in March 2012 and the final report will be available in October 2012.

Read more here