a distributed multicultural network for teaching information society: cultural diversity aspects...

A Distributed Multicultural Network for Teaching Information Society:

Cultural Diversity Aspects

Kerstin V. Siakas

Alexander Technological Educational Institution of Thessaloniki, Department of Informatics

This work is carried out as part of the

NETIS (Network For Teaching the Information Society)

project, sponsored by the Leonardo daVinci Programme.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

Networked Learning Conference 2008, Halkidiki 5-7 May 2

Agenda

• Aims & Objectives• Challenges - the NETIS approach• Cultural Diversity• Greek Educational Culture• NETIS in Greece• Conclusions & Further work


Aims & Objectives

• This paper

– Analyses the NETIS Approach with regard to the actions required of the EU member states

– Reports on the Greek experiences from

• the collaborative development of the Network for Teaching the Information Society (NETIS)

• teaching the NETIS project in the department of Informatics at ATEI Thessaloniki

– Emphasizes the importance of taking the existing cultural particularities into consideration in order to adapt to local environments


Particularities and differences

• National ICT environment

• National Information Society adoption levels

• Institutional regulations

• Disciplines (students from informatics & social sciences)

• Language

• Attitudes and values

• Operational issues, such as numbers of students that will participate in the Information Society course in the different countries


Continuous improvement

• The main aims of the project are to contribute to the emerging EU requirements of promoting an inclusive information society by developing a life-long open networked technology-based teaching-and-learning environment

• The NETIS approach combines classroom experience and research evidence aiming for continuous improvement

• Experiences, both from students and from educators are evaluated and reported


Today’s challenges: Lisbon Objectives

• In today’s rapidly changing and highly competitive global environment,

governments, organisations and citizens face more challenges than ever

• These challenges are closely related to the Lisbon objectives, launched in 2000, of evolving Europe to “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion” are closely related to the Information Society (IS)


Society attributes to education and training

The Education Council (2001) • “the development of the individual, who can

thus realise his or her full potential and live a good life”

• “the development of society, in particular by fostering democracy, reducing the disparities and inequities among individuals and groups and promoting cultural diversity”

• “the development of the economy, by ensuring that the skills of the labour force correspond to the economic and technological evolution”


Today’s challenges: the Bologna Process

• In addition to – political cooperation on the future

objectives of education and training systems in Europe,

– developments in ICT, – the globalisation – the objectives of the Bologna Process

have also set new demands on education, requiring a new paradigm of educational systems and pedagogic processes


The NETIS approach conforming to EU requirements

(1)

• Promote the European dimension of the joint development of Higher Education (HE) curricula:

• The interdisciplinary, intercultural online course provides a European education experience and promotes the dimension of joint development of HE curricula

Council Resolution of 13 July 2001 on eLearning, Official Journal C 204 of 20.07.2001 available at http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/cha/c11052.htm



(2)• Capitalise on the potential of the Internet,

multimedia and virtual lifelong learning environments:

• The Open Source teaching-and-learning platform Moodle, is used to allow asynchronous user-centred lifelong learning possibilities

• The platform will be available for download, use and eventual further development after the end of the projectCouncil Resolution of 13 July 2001 on eLearning, Official Journal C 204 of 20.07.2001

available at http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/cha/c11052.htm



(3)

• Encourage the development of high-quality digital teaching and learning materials to ensure the quality of resources available online:

• The digital teaching and learning materials in English, Greek and Hungarian are enriched with learning objectives, squeezes and self-assessment possibilities to motivate learners for active involvement and increase learning effectiveness




(4)

• Support the development and adaptation of innovative teaching that incorporates the use of technologies:

• The NETIS approach comprise blended learning by integrating different degrees of technology based learning with traditional education for facilitating political and cultural divergence as well as different learning preferences




(5)

• Take advantage of the communication potential offered by ICT to foster European awareness:

• Digital libraries and electronic online European information and statistics are actively used for the performance of the tasks aiming to increase awareness of European and Information Society issues




(6)

• Support virtual forums for cooperation and exchange of information:

• Both project members and students use virtual ICTs for cooperation and exchange of Information.

• In addition they are encouraged to use social networking tools included in Wiki 2.0, such as blogs and chats, for knowledge transfer (see e.g. http://netis.edublogs.org/ and http://socializeit.gr/)Council Resolution of 13 July 2001 on eLearning, Official Journal C 204 of 20.07.2001

available at http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/cha/c11052.htm



(7)

• Monitor and analyse the process of integration and the use of ICT in teaching:

• The use of ICT in teaching is monitored partly by the Moodle teaching-and-learning environment

• The results are analysed together with metric data from other sources, such as number of emails, blog-posts etc.



Cultural Diversity

Two views:

1. The internet creates converge values and managing and operating ICT in a global context is largely the same as managing and operating ICT in a domestic localized context

2. There are differences depending on cultural aspects, different business and legal environments, different languages and varying technology availability


What is culture?

• A shared system of meanings that guides– How world is perceived– How self is experienced– How life itself is organised

that dictates – what groups of people pay attention to

• Individuals of a group share patterns that enable them to see the same things in the same way


Culture

• Culture is a collection of shared characteristics caused by similar background– similar socialisation practices– educational procedures, and – life experiences

• “Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another”


Three levels of human mental programming

Personality

Culture

Human Nature

Specific to individuals

Inherited and learned

Specific to groups

Universal

Learned from social

environment

Biological


Culture

Two different views:

• The anthropological view considers that culture is static and the fundamental values are inherited from generation to generation and change only slowly

• The sociological view considers that different values in society interact with changing economic and political conditions, and thus the culture is believed to be dynamic and evolving by culture negotiation/formation through intercultural interactions, multiple cultures perspective and multilevel cultural dynamics

In both views the underlying basic values are considered to remain unchanged


Culture and learning

Recent research indicates that

• Culture creates the context for social interaction and shapes the processes by which new knowledge is created, legitimated and distributed

• Communication, knowledge sharing and learning are profoundly influenced by cultural values of individual stakeholders


Greek educational culture (Geert Hofstede)

• In Greece education traditionally is about learning how to do things opposed to learning how to learn

• Education is teacher centred, praising the excellence of teacher. Students depend on teachers, who initiate communication in class, and are seen as gurus who transfer personal wisdom. Self-efficacy is low rated by students, who seek structured learning situations and right answers supposed to be known by teacher. Students expect to be told what to do, individual initiatives are discouraged and they do not speak up in class or large groups.

• Motivation factors are security and fear of failure. Task preferences are those with clear instructions and sure outcomes.

• The diploma provides social acceptance and honour to the holder and to his/her in-group and is considered to provide entry to higher status groups

• Students’ performance is important and good students expect to be rewarded


NETIS in Greece Autumn Semester 2007 - 20082h contact time in laboratory class per week – 13 weeks

– Approx. 1 hour power point presentation by teacher / students

– 1 hour discussion in class room

In the beginning • Students were very reluctant to the new way of

teaching/learning • They felt enormous insecure about what was expected

from them

After a few classes and having repeatable explained the new way of working the students made their choices of way they wanted to participate in the course


NETIS Teaching in Greece Autumn Semester 2007-2008

Blended Learning

Clear learning goals and expectations on learners were announced in the beginning of the semester

• Traditional teaching/learning (1 hour theory presentation by educator per week with final exams in the end of the semester)

• Active learning (1-2 students produce in total 7 papers (chosen from a list including 7 groupings and totally 35 subjects) written according to conference requirements; present the papers and take part in discussions).

• Research (preparation of an Information Society subject to be included in the textbook of NETIS


NETIS Teaching in Greece Autumn Semester 2007-2008

Enrolled students: 143 Participation in theory classes is optional: weekly 10 - 20 students

• Traditional teaching/learning – traditional teaching with exams– Students read the learning material (books, notes etc) and give a final

exam in end of semester. If they fail they have a second chance

• Active learning – 7 assignments – 11 groups (7 groups with 1 student, 4 groups with 2 students) -15

student

• Research – full chapter for text book– 5 abstracts accepted in end of November (1 drop out)– 4 final chapters written in English under the supervision of

lecturer• Outcome and Impressions:

– Frequent meetings with students – Some students wrote first in the Greek LanguageDifficulties– English language – How to write scientifically– Professionalism / ethics (sources, references)– Time-tables (Big pressure put on students to finalize during Christmas holiday

because laboratory exams start immediately afterwards)


Conclusions

• The educational system in Greece does not embrace open-ended teaching methods, in particularly not on pre-university level.

• The transition from the traditional pedagogic environment towards more participative, active and open-ended learning situations based on adaptive project-based learning and collaborative activities, with exercises supporting reflective thinking, problem-solving skills and productivity entail a fundamental cultural change

• The results from the NETIS approach was encouraging – The students liked the new way of working – The students considered that they learned more than by

traditional approaches– The new possibilities were interesting & challenging for teacher– The workload of the teacher was increased considerable


Further work

The Informatics and Society course at the department of Informatics at ATEI Thessaloniki

• is included in the department curriculum

• will continue to be taught with the NETIS learning material in the future

• the pedagogic approach will continuously be improved to meet student needs – emphasis on flexibility

– A student centred approach is adopted

– Student requirements and learning outcomes are balanced

– Knowledge sharing and reflective thinking are highlighted

– Student satisfaction of course are continuously measured t

– The course is adapted to student needs


Thank you…

Kerstin V. Siakas, [email protected]

ATEI of Thessaloniki, Dept. of Informatics

a distributed multicultural network for teaching information society: cultural diversity aspects...

Documents

information society

teaching information

information society

networked learning conference

inclusive information

information society

development of society

netis project