Project Review - Results and Future Prospects

The following activities had a  good impact on learning and the development of our job training

• Multimedia presentations have been made by inserting Also Voices of comment (see link Content IN postcard No. 2). Also  voices have been incorporated in Presentations Alumni  that commented on the slides, the software used and Openoffice State. Working groups have been active in the mode of cooperative learning.
• Some of the potential of the platform Mindomo were studied (The Management Concept maps and diagrams using Freemind SI and proved impractical; Better Round with CmapTools) (http://www.mindomo.com/it/view.htm?m=2dd549a1885a4551a866dfe1db0eec3b)
  
• They were used in a useful way in the school year Software Control of LIM using the tablet (www.italc.it)
  
• Music: The use of tablet sequencer combined with a sound card was not experienced because none of the teachers involved in Project teaches music, but it could be very interesting to match to use  the tablet byof the teacher and remote control software to manage the LIM music notation and / or sequencer (http://ubuntustudio.org/tour/audio).
  

The product

• UN compressed class, equipment for teaching staff, very little change. What other course would be if all pupils had the tablet equipment, being able to simultaneously  the use of software with specific interaction teacher / pupils and interactive electronic versions (Sare then specifically for this type of interaction) of textbooks
  
• Slowness of OS Windows 7 (also needed to Install the Necessary Software Control of LIM and educational ones available on the Internet). The ideal thing would be to ensure the possibility 'of the dual boot: Android / Windows
  

The resources you have found particularly useful

• E-learning platform: http://www.claroline.net/
  
• Productivity software: http://www.openoffice.org/
  
• Music Software: http://ubuntustudio.org/tour/audio/
  
• Online Mind Mapping Software: http://www.mindomo.com
  
• Remote Control: http://italc.sourceforge.net/
  

The best tips

• We are developing a series of top tips for using the devices one by one. Please provide here your five top tips.
• Also using a wireless mouse United Nations. Considering the type of software and reduced the size of the screen, in some cases the United Nations and indispensable mouse is a need
• Ensuring the opportunity 'to configure the wifi card just for the home and school (Typically: at school and at home with Static IP with Dynamic IP)
  
• The tablet core and coupled is too unstable and lthe risk is to tip it over backwards. Different Way to distribute the weights.
  
• It would be very practical to offer the opportunity 'to close the tablet on the keyboard as a normal notebook.
  
• Dual boot Android / Windows 8 (and Maybe Also a Linux distribution)

Project Review - Outcomes and next steps

1. Feedback

1.1. The project

The project has continued following the lines drawn in the second postcard. Since we could use only one tablet per lesson, it was assigned to a group of students at a time and they took turns. Working in a small group of between two and five individuals is a typical activity for many students in our school; however, most of the time all the groups work on the same task simultaneously. Having just one tablet forced the teacher to assign different tasks to the different groups: while only one group of four or five students was working with the tablet, the rest of the class was doing something different, getting together at the end of the lesson.

The students were kept actively busy in a variety of independent activities that reinforced and strengthened basic skills. The group of pupils with the tablet joined the class activity carrying on a specific task, which could be:

• using special software to create exercises or examples of the same activities done in class using the IWB or the book;
• practicing English with the extra activities of the digital book;
• researching data, images or websites relating to the topic of the lesson on the internet;
• documenting the activities of the class with recordings, images and videos (see figure 1);

Figure 1

Figure 2

The special educational needs teacher exploited the tablet to work with a mentally retarded student who uses Augmentive Communication Devices to communicate with others (tables created with Boardmaker software, see figure 2). The use of the tablet has been very useful for the disabled student and has facilitated his integration. The student could easily access his communicative tables saved on the desktop to communicate with his classmates and teachers.

 Unfortunately, due to a series of earthquakes occurred in the area, our school was closed and lessons have undergone an abrupt halt, so that certain activities could not be accomplished. Relating to that, we would like to mention that on May 29th, after a strong earth tremor we were ordered to evacuate and to stay in the school yard for the whole morning. Outside, while the mobile phones were not working, thanks to the Wi-Fi connection of the school the tablet was used by the class to read the news site http://www.ingv.it/ and by one of the teachers to write on the school website that everybody was safe!

‍‍‍‍1.2. The product

The operating system that the tablet uses is the same as the other equipment (PCs and IWBs) of the school, and this has allowed the use of the software commonly used in our school activities (Geogebra, Open Office, Paint, Windows Live Movie Maker and so on) and has facilitated the transfer of files from the tablet to other devices without the need of conversion. During the various activities it was possible to comprehend which were the most appropriate having a tablet, and which were better suited for effective teaching practices. We particularly appreciated the two USB 2.0 ports, and the HDMI port.

The tablet also presents some limitations. Some of these (weight, limited storage) have been already reported in the second postcard. Here it is worth emphasizing the limitations of audiovisual production: the position of the microphone is on the opposite side of the front facing camera, with its consequent loss of audio recording during capture live video. The video quality was poor, and the limited storage did not allow to work on a project on an continuing basis, having to download the videos in an external HD. The low light of the screen turned out to be another limitation, especially for students with visual impairments. Finally, since Windows is not really meant to run on a touchscreen device, we very often wished we had a mouse with us while using the tablet.

1.3. Resources that you have found particularly useful

Many of the resources used during the school year are listed in the second postcard.

The teachers who participated in the project have used a mailing list devoted to the project and they used a wiki (http://www.wikispaces.com) to write or collaborate on documents. Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/) was used to store and exchange resources and work done by pupils.

The students were encouraged to use resources already listed in the sites selected by teachers, for example wikimedia commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page). It was necessary to explain how to use a browser and the importance of copyright: in most cases, in fact, when the students looked for an image using a search engine, they did not consider that the image could be copyrighted, since it was inserted in a website. In the site Wikispecies the pupils could find some images for the science activities that could be used without copyright (http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page).

Some websites have been found by the pupils. For example, when they were asked to find remedial math materials, students have found http://www.scuolaelettrica.it/quiz/media/matematica/seconda.htm and http://www.robertosconocchini.it/didattica-con-la-lim/2741-matematica-con-la-lim.html. The links were then added to Moodle (http://www.ic9bo.it/Moodle - the Virtual Learning Environment that all the school uses) along with those chosen by the teacher (http://www.teachingfractions.co.uk/).

2. Links to other projects/evidence

Since the beginning of the ‘90s, ICT has been integrated into the overall strategy of school-life, transforming it into an ICT rich environment. In particular, a three-year project "Cl@ssi 2.0" (Classroom 2.0) has just finished. It was a national project promoted by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, which intended to experiment the introduction of ICT in the daily didactic. This project had its roots in the Digital Classroom of Tomorrow (DCOT) Project, which included a 1:1 experiment. In September 2011 the students of one class were given free Internet-ready desktop computers thanks to the funds of the project Cl@ssi 2.0., so that these 25 students worked with laptops in the class for two years.

During this last school year, the Tablet Pilot Project and other initiatives on educational technologies were introduced, such as the conference "IWB-Day" (http://www.ic9bo.it/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=266&Itemid=181). All these projects are easily integrated with eachother, creating a fruitful ground for research, experimentation and learning, and establishing contacts with other schools interested in educational technology.

3. Top Tips for using 1:1 devices

Unfortunately, our school was not choosen for a 1:1 computing experimentation.

 Feedback on the project

The teachers from Konguta School, Estonia.

Abschlussbericht

Die Möglichkeiten, welche das Tablet bietet, wurden auch in der zweiten Phase konsequent versucht zu evaluieren.  

Die hauptsächlichen Einsatzgebiete waren:

=> Vor- und Nachbereitung des Unterrichte bei allen beteiligten Kollegen

Physik- und Astronomieunterricht

=> Visualisierung komplexer physikalischer Zusammenhänge

=> Nutzung in Verbindung mit dem interaktiven Whiteboard (elektronische Tafel)

=> Simulation physikalischer und astronomischer Abläufe

=> Vorbereitung von physikalischen Versuchen und astronomischen Abendbeobachtungen

=> kabellose Steuerung eines Teleskops

Geschichts- und Deutschunterricht

=> Verwendung der multimedialen Fähigkeiten zur Visualisierung geschichtlicher Dokumente

=> Einsatz bei der Begabtenförderung

=> interaktive Lernspiele in kleinen Gruppen

Biologieunterricht

=> Recherche in kleinen Gruppen zu spezifischen Themen

Sportunterricht

=> Einsatz zu Demonstrationszwecken von technischen und taktischen Fähigkeiten und

      Fertigkeiten (besonders Schwimmunterricht) durch Beispielvideos und eigene

      Dokumentationen

=>Darstellung besonderer Fallbeispiele im Sportunterricht (Schlagvarianten im Tischtennis und

     Badminton)

Unsere Einschätzung:

Die Möglichkeiten des Tablets konnten größtenteils ausgenutzt werden. Da nur immer ein Tablet pro teilnehmenden Kollegen zur Verfügung stand, waren Gruppenarbeiten immer nur bedingt möglich. Trotz alledem, können die Tablets unserer Meinung nach auch gut für die Binnendifferenzierung im Unterricht genutzt werden.

Da wir derzeit noch kein WLAN in der Schule haben (wird aber bald in Angriff genommen) ergeben sich nur eingeschränkte Möglichkeiten bezüglich Netzwerkzugriff und Internetrecherche.

Auch wenn wir derzeit noch keinen wesentlichen Vorteil der Tablets gegenüber Netbooks erkennen können, denken wir, dass perspektivisch dieses Medium doch unseren Schulalltag sinnvoll ergänzen kann, zumal die Schüler dass Werkzeug Tablet gern angenommen und auch zielstrebig damit gearbeitet haben.

Unsere Vorhaben für die Zukunft:

1.  Schaffung der Infrastruktur (WLAN) im Schulbereich

2.  evtl. Anschaffung von Tablets für alle Schüler unserer gymnasialen Oberstufe (da befinden wir

     uns noch in der Diskussionsphase) (Kosten/Finanzierung, … ???)

Unsere Positivliste zum Tablet:

- flexibel / gut transportabel

- gute Akkulaufzeit (bis zu 7h)

- gutes Display

- schnelles Arbeiten möglich

- gutes Werkzeug für binnendifferenzierten Unterricht

- durch Betriebssystem Windows gibt es ein großes Angebot an Standardsoftware

Unsere Negativliste zum Tablet:

- Windows 7 ist nicht unbedingt die gewinnbringende Betriebssystemoberfläche (auch wenn es

   zügig läuft) => Windows 8 wäre da die bessere Wahl

- relativ schwer gerade auch in Verbindung mit der Tastatur

- Eingabestift und HDMI-VGA-Adapter sollten zum Lieferumfang gehören

- zusätzliche Hardware notwendig (Eingabestift für bessere Bedienung, HDMI-VGA-Adapter

   für Beamer)

- 32GB SSD ist leider schnell ausgereizt / besser wären 64GB oder 128GB

- nicht für alle Fachbereiche ist immer die passende Software verfügbar

- Lernspiele müssen erst über Umwege von CD auf die SSD kopiert werden
 

Unsere Tipps:

1.  Akku nicht zu häufig aufladen aber auch nicht tiefentladen

2.  Beschaffung eines Eingabestiftes erleichtert die Bedienung sehr

3.  Beschaffung einer Bereitschaftstasche (Hardcase)