beitrag despina

36
demand: The situation in Greek schools today, with a view to possible implementation D. M. Garyfallidou, G. S. Ioannidis and A. Lotsaris The Science Laboratory University of Patras

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Page 1: Beitrag Despina

Streaming video on demand: The situation in Greek schools today, with a view to possible

implementation

D. M. Garyfallidou, G. S. Ioannidis and A. Lotsaris

The Science Laboratory University of Patras Greece.

Page 2: Beitrag Despina

Local IT history or rather pre-history - In the early 80’s few teachers in Greece knew how to use a personal computer. - School labs were very rare- First labs appeared in high-schools around 1990 - A computer course was added

Page 3: Beitrag Despina

The attitude of the high-school teachers towards computers was “sceptical” to

outright “negative”. This attitude is understandable and it was due to the

following reasons: 1) They thought it would be very difficult for them to

learn how to use computers properly. 2) They could not see the advantage in using them as

administration tools at school. 3) They could not foresee the impact of computer

usage during the years that followed. - In addition all the prevailing operating systems at the

time were lacking a GUI seemed too abstract and remote for non-scientists to follow.

Page 4: Beitrag Despina

The revolution came in the 90’s with the appearance of Windows 3.0 (and all that followed) with their friendlier environment on the one hand, and the emergence of cheaper “WINTEL - compatible” PCs on the other. It was not a revolution planed by anyone in particular: the market forces did it by themselves, in a chaotic fashion.

Page 5: Beitrag Despina

The current situation

When they thought it was the right time the E.U. and then all the [national or regional] Ministries of education in European countries decided to act [although they were late] to serve education. Therefore they decided to incorporate computers at every school level and to train all teachers to the use of ICT. Appropriate funds were allocated for this purpose.

Page 6: Beitrag Despina

The current situation

The Greek ministry of Education about one and a half years ago worked out a plan to train all local teachers (both primary and secondary) to use computers.

In accordance with the most optimistic forecasts available at that time, the ministry assumed that a 60% of the teachers would be interested in taking the program and, therefore, they planed the training according to this percentage.

Page 7: Beitrag Despina

The current situation

As an example of what followed we will take Achaia, a region with a population of 320,000 in the west south west of Greece

In Achaia region, with a total of 5,200 teachers there were 3,200 applications on the first semester of the training (whereas they had estimated that there would be no more than 1,000). Last semester, there were still 1,000 applicants of which only 300 were selected to attend. Demand is, therefore, still very high.

Page 8: Beitrag Despina

The current situation

Looking in a larger area, the figures are similar. It is now little more than a year from the starting of the training program, and already some 56% of the teachers have been trained while there is still great demand from the rest to be trained as well.

Page 9: Beitrag Despina

The current situation

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Page 10: Beitrag Despina

The current situation

The actual number teachers trained in the whole Greece can be seen. As we can see about 75,000 people out of 126,000 permanent staff have been already trained. This is a 60% rate, which falls to about 46% if we include the non-permanent categories, some of which include people shifting between different kinds of jobs.

Page 11: Beitrag Despina

The current situationTraining on such a scale could not be managed effectively using simply paper and pencil. - An MIS program was developed specifically for this purpose. - Greece was divided into small areas, and local administrators were appointed. -The schools organising the training can only apply via Internet to the MIS directly, which is then publishing the approved classes. - The program tests for conflict of hours amongst trainers and keeps the trainee data

Page 12: Beitrag Despina

Motivation for the teachers to participate

- All teachers that participated were given some cash in order to buy a computer

- All teachers that participated and all the educators, have a permanent e-mail address in the pan-Hellenic school network for free, as well as space for personal web-pages

- All teachers that participated and all the educators, will very soon have free dial-up Internet access

Page 13: Beitrag Despina

The problems faced

- The reading material offered was only in CD form, and was of limited use.

- Apart from that it refers to MS-Office 97, a version that is now hard to find even in school labs!

Page 14: Beitrag Despina

Evaluation

- The evaluation process of the level of knowledge achieved by trainees, has not yet started, but will follow shortly and will be of a form similar to ECDL. Those who pass the automated, web-controlled test will receive an official certificate to be used in education.

Page 15: Beitrag Despina

Current ICT conditions in Greek schools high schools (hardware)

- All secondary schools have a computer lab.

- The computers in the lab normally are connected on a LAN, sharing a printer, and an ISDN Internet access.

- They all have a beamer, a digital camera and a scanner

-There is an e-mail account for each school for administration purposes.

- There are some secondary schools that have more than one computer lab.

Page 16: Beitrag Despina

Current ICT conditions in Greek schools primary schools (hardware)

- There was a program whose aim was to equip with computers primary schools that asked for it, but the paper work needed was so complicated that many headmasters could not deal with it, and they avoided the effort. -There are also various practical problems such as space to locate the lab, the security of this space, and the employment of a person responsible for lab operation and maintenance.- Anyway, and despite all these problems each primary school should have at least one computer for administration purposes, ISDN Internet access and an e-mail account.

Page 17: Beitrag Despina

Current ICT conditions in Greek schools high schools curriculum

Computers as a subject are included in secondary-school level curriculum and there is a specialised teacher for this subject. The curriculum contains training in many different computer programs such as:1. Programs lacking educational target per se, such as - Word processors- Spreadsheets - Data Base Management Systems (DBMS).- Encyclopaedias, dictionaries, geographical atlases, thesauri.- Internet browsers- Presentation software. 2. Educational software3. Programming languages

Page 18: Beitrag Despina

Current ICT conditions in Greek schools primary schools curriculum

The curriculum for primary schools is not very clear. The ministry-run “pedagogical institute” has only published some guidelines for anybody who might be interested.

Curriculum is not defined strictly, and usually it is a teacher hired by local authorities or parents’ associations who teaches computers after-hours.

Therefore, the quality of the tuition depends on the qualifications (and the interest) of the person hired.

This is in no way reflecting the money offered to him/her. It is only related to his/hers knowledge of the subject and his/hers teaching abilities.

Page 19: Beitrag Despina

Current schoolteachers’ ideas and attitude

-Schoolteachers are now convinced that computers and computer applications are very useful for every one

-They also start to believe that it is possible for them to learn how to use them, at least at a basic level

-They believe that their students should learn how to use the computers (as they have to learn reading and writing), that computers will be very helpful as a teaching tool and that it gives new horizons to teaching and learning.

Page 20: Beitrag Despina

Current schoolteachers’ ideas and attitude

but they still feel afraid to use the computer in their class

- Windows O.S. and packages like MS-Office change in appearance or functions and it is difficult for teachers to follow.

Page 21: Beitrag Despina

Current schoolteachers’ ideas and attitude

Many other questions of a more “practical” nature arising, such as:

- How can we install and set-up a new program?

- What should we do when we receive a message that we haven’t seen before?

- What should we do when the screen freezes?

- What should we do when a virus enters?

- How a virus enters?

Page 22: Beitrag Despina

Suggestions for improving computer acceptance and computer usage in

schools

First of all teachers should not be expected to be responsible or even to spend time dealing with PC lab maintenance.

If enough such persons could be found, it would be highly desirable if the people responsible for maintenance were computer experts/pedagogists

Page 23: Beitrag Despina

Suggestions for improving computer acceptance and computer usage in schools

-There is a lack of good educational software, good encyclopaedias, as well as Internet pages written in our language.

-Some (limited but quite remarkable) effort has been done recently but the CDs have not reached the school labs yet (due to licence issues)

-We should also mention the frequency Microsoft programs change. We need new licenses in order to install the new version of software and the total cost could be rather high.

Page 24: Beitrag Despina

Pedagogical scenarios for streaming video on demand

- An observation that came out of the discussions with teachers is that most of them have accepted and already have used video presentations (in their classical VCR form or even film form). In fact most teachers have used them at one time or another.

- Streaming video is not common, yet.

Page 25: Beitrag Despina

- It is well known that the economic strength, the progress and the wealth of all modern societies is based on Science and Technology. Therefore the education should, also, aim to attract a greater number of young pupils to study science and technology, so as future scientists and engineers emerge from them. Therefore more emphasis should be paid and more time should be devoted to science and technology lessons at school.

Page 26: Beitrag Despina

- It is also assumed to be true that, in the near future, all school leavers will be expected to change totally different jobs for three times in their working lives.-Therefore - the ability of the individual to search for new information, - to acquire new knowledge and, ultimately, - to train him/herself is vital for his/her career.

Schools should, therefore, give the skills to all pupils to proceed along such route. They should encourage pupils to search for information in the Internet and learn by themselves

Page 27: Beitrag Despina

Pedagogical scenarios for streaming video on demand

Streaming Video is a good method of introducing new ICT in everyday school practice, and by that we also mean schools that have limited or even no experience in introducing ICT in teaching their practices.

Most of them have already used video presentations (in their classical VCR form or even in film form of all types of format) and they were enthusiastic with the opportunity to easily find and use more high quality videos in class.

Page 28: Beitrag Despina

Pedagogical scenarios for streaming video on demand

One scenario could be that the teacher selects a single video, the whole class attends the video and:

– Then they discuss the subject presented.

– The class has to answer certain questions.

– They have to visit the school science laboratory and perform the experiment they show.

We can, of course, use one of the 3-abovementioned points or any combination of them.

Page 29: Beitrag Despina

Pedagogical scenarios for streaming video on demand

Another possible scenario is that the teacher suggests a number of appropriate videos in that case:

- The class can be divided into different groups and each group should find certain info and present it to the rest.

- The students could all have the same aim but they

can select how many of the videos they will use.

Page 30: Beitrag Despina

Pedagogical scenarios for streaming video on demand

Another scenario could be to use the videos in special hours after the normal class hours for self-learning. In this case, there might even be no common subject to be studied from all students. The teacher suggests thematic areas e.g. these videos are good for History, these for Physics and so on and each student (or groups of two) can decide what to see according to their interests.

Page 31: Beitrag Despina

Pedagogical scenarios for streaming video on demand

-In all these scenarios students can work by themselves, or can be divided into small groups.

-Working in small groups is, of course, most beneficial for the students.

-Teams can work either competitively or even cooperatively

-All the above didactical scenarios can also be easily realised in a day-long school or in locations that students can visit at any time (for example “houses of knowledge”).

Page 32: Beitrag Despina

Pedagogical scenarios for streaming video on demand

-Empirical Didactic Conclusion: Although streaming video-on-demand is relatively new as a technique, and although it does require greater amount of facilities (broadband links for start) it is, we feel, a lot easier to incorporate in schools, even of a traditional kind with little or no IT integration in their everyday teaching practices. This is due to the flexibility of the medium, allowing itself to be used in a variety of ways. Higher technology does not necessarily mean higher complexity in its usage (as we have experienced many times in the past). We strongly believe that there is a real case for streaming video-on-demand in schools now. This could lead to higher computer acceptance as both teachers and pupils become more familiar with ICT.

Page 33: Beitrag Despina

The practicalities of high-speed internet for Greek schools: availability and cost

- Internet where we can achieve a theoretical speed of up to 8 Mbps and practically about 1-2 Mbps. The starting cost is 420€ (including VAT). The cost of connection per month is related to the amount of data downloaded and is shown in the table below. If a user exceeds his monthly allowance there is a further charge of 0,05€ for every MB in excess.

Page 34: Beitrag Despina

The practicalities of high-speed internet for Greek schools: availability

and cost

DATA VOLUME Starting costCOST FOR MONTHLY

CONNECTION

512 ΜΒ 420€58 €

1024 ΜΒ 420€77 €

2048 Μβ 420€124 €

3072 ΜΒ 420€171 €

4096 ΜΒ 420€202 €

Page 35: Beitrag Despina

The practicalities of high-speed internet for Greek schools: availability

and cost

ADSL 

Activation cost

Maintenance cost

Downloading Uploading Monthly payment

384 Kbps 128 Kbps 435 € 121 €

512 Kbps 128 Kbps 435 € 205 €

1024 Kbps 256 Kbps 435 € 391 €

       

Page 36: Beitrag Despina

Conclusion

Due to all of the above, one cannot help but be hopeful that (despite the high initial cost) streaming media techniques will soon be tried out, on a trial basis at least, in Greek schools.