Digital learning in the Danish ”grundskole”

Towards a new national strategy for the “grundskole”

In 2010 the ”fælles mål” for IT and media competency was introduced

4 themesFrom the viewpoint that pupils are seen as users of IT, and the changes that web 2.0 has brought, the following 4 themes have been identified for teaching practice.

1. Information search and collection2. Production and publishing/sharing3. Analysis4. Communication, knowledge-sharing and cooperation

The 4 themes are used to achieve the following:• Facilitate learning process• Produce better results through learning• Help students become digitally literate

The themes will be used in different formats in subject-specific teaching.

The owners arrive …

March 2011”Grundskolen must be digitalised” – Local Government Council

The new IT-strategy - October 2011

1. Financing for buying digital educational material2. Effective distribution of digital educational material3. Wireless internet connections at all schools by 20144. Access to pc’s or handheld units for all pupils by 20145. Further development of the national test system and

qualifying exams6. Clear objectives for the use of digital educational material

and digital educational objectives7. Research and development of IT-based ways of learning

Financing of the strategy

• DkKr 500 mil. From the Ministry of Education over a 4 year period

• DkKr 10 mil. in 2012 in a pool for digital educational material

• Xxx mil. From Local Governments

Why does this IT strategy come now?

Jan Brauer - CFU Aabenraa - November 2011

DIGITALISING SCHOOLS - CURRENT TENDENCIES

Jan Brauer - CFU Aabenraa - November 2011

Digitalisation is upon us …

• From knowledge society to networked society• The public domain has become digital• Our day to day lives are digitalised

Jan Brauer - CFU Aabenraa - November 2011

Technology accelerates …

• Development since the mid 90s .

– Stand alone pc’s >– Pc’s in networks >– Pc’s grow in computing power >– Laptops became common >– Followed by Smartphones >– And now we believe that tablet computers are the next

dominant technology within a few years …– Prices keep on falling …

Jan Brauer - CFU Aabenraa - November 2011

Educational material to the ”cloud” -e- and i-books into schools

• Publishers have online portals – CFU provides access• /skole and /gymnasium becomes free of charge• CFU is streaming tv-broadcasts• e-Books are a success - CFU has started lending out e-books• i-Books are used together with traditional books• School handbooks are under threat by WWW

Jan Brauer - CFU Aabenraa - November 2011

Production of shared knowledge is increasingly happening in the cloud

• Monkey Jam - Jay Cut - SkoleTube - SkoleBlogs - Wix - Glogster - Vuvox - Delicious - Prezi - Drop Box - Google Apps - Slide sharing…

• This provides many advantages:– In principle you only need a browser on your pc– Programs function more and more integrated/together – Pupils have already arrived there ...

• This poses new demands– Fast internet connections

CHALLENGES

For teachers - headmasters - local government educational sections – and in-service training

• Technology must be made to work• Teachers must gain a digital mind set• Teachers' IT-competences must be improved• More focus on new media to develop new

learning strategies • We need to learn that pupils need to master

the art of designing their own learning