Discuss ICT - a Netdays 2000 Project - Report June 2001 General A new kind of language project was carried out in Vihti, entitled Discuss ICT. Students of Vihti and Nummela Sixth Form Colleges collaborated with a group of students from Nkurenkuru school in Namibia and with students from the Centre of Language and Communications, Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) to enhance their distant learning and computing skills. Special attention was paid to the cultural awareness of the participants and to their use of computing English. The project was given the status of a Netdays 2000 project, and was supported by the Board of Education in Finland. The first part of the project took place in October - November 2000, and the second part was performed in April - June 2001. There was a pilot project, the Customer Service Project, with participants from the Sixth Form Colleges and HUT in February - March 2000 (http://www.vyl.vihti.fi/csmodule/csreport.htm), a customer service simulation where the sixth form students played the role of the customers and the university students were the Help Desk. Organisers The Discuss ICT project was based on the distant learning experiences of a HUT English teacher, Mrs Ruth Vilmi (http://www.ruthvilmi.net), and a Sixth form language teacher in Vihti, Mr Ilpo Halonen (http://www.ilpohalonen.com). Both teachers have practised education on the Internet for several years. Mrs Kirsti Kiiskinen from OPEKO Finland was consulted on 26th June 2000 about the project. She advised the organisers up to the end of the first part of the project in November 2000. Part of the curriculum At HUT, the project was one of several modules Mrs Vilmi offered her students in the autumn term of 2000, as part of a two-credit course, English on the Internet. In Vihti and Nummela 6th form schools the project was part of the curriculum planned for the school year 2000 - 2001 comprising one computer science course in both schools. In the schools the project did not require any extra financing outside the normal budget. The extra costs, caused by a new bulletin board program, five web cameras and headsets for students, were awarded by the Board of Education. Coordination with other projects The Discuss ICT module was one of the subprojects of Mrs Vilmi's International Writing Exchange (IWE), a project which was founded as a global project in 1993. The IWE has achieved a lot of international recognition, and it has become well known among English teachers who run projects on the Internet. Mrs Vilmi was an invited speaker at the TESOL 2000 conference in Vancouver, Canada, and also presented her projects to international audiences in Paris, France and in Cyprus in the spring 2000. Besides being part of Netdays 2000, the Discuss ICT project also belonged to the events of the European eSchola Week 7th - 13th May 2001 (http://www.eun.org/cn/eschola/index.cfm). In the Open Doors of eSchola Week guests of the Discuss ICT project were invited to chat online in http://www.ruthvilmi.net/irc/, and the schedule was given to the possible participants. Platforms for audio and video chat were also available. Inviting participants Participants were actively looked for. Information was sent to mailing lists of organisations such as TESLCA-L, ESP and KIELO. Both organisers also used their personal contacts in order to find participants, which proved to be difficult. Preparations for the Discuss ICT project to be held in October and November 2000 were started as soon as spring 2000, when the first contacts were made with potential partners. The Namibian and Swedish partners confirmed their participation in summer 2000, and others showed interest. Despite these early contacts, there were failures with participation. John Burgess from Cyprus was not able to participate after all, and Maria Kjellgren from Sweden cancelled her participation only after the project was running. Mr John Gaga, the computer science teacher from Nkurenkuru school Namibia, and his students participated in the discussions via the Internet in http://www.ruthvilmi.net/forums/ict.html. The partners in Finland were students of Vihti 6th form school. A few students from Helsinki University of Technology participated too. Many efforts were made to invite participants for the second round. Unfortunately Ms Alessandra Talamo from Rome, who had committed herself in the project in spring 2001, had to cancel her participation due to a case of death in her family. Students of Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) and students of Nummela 6th form participated in the discussions about ICT, and some online chat took place with occasional partners. Information about the project Information about the project was sent to the mailing lists mentioned above. A press conference was organised in Vihti 6th form on 24th November 2000, and a four- column article was published in Vihdin Uutiset 30th November 2000 about the Discuss ICT project. Mrs Ruth Vilmi presented the Discuss ICT project in the MindTrek conference in Tampere on 16th November 2000. She also discussed the project in several publications including an interview with Barry Bakin in the American Language Review, November-December 2000. Mr Ilpo Halonen told about the Discuss ICT project in the seminar of the Goethe institute in Stockholm 8th - 10th November 2000, in the Telemaatika conference in Tartu 18th - 19th November 2000 and in the conference of the European Schools Project (ESP) in Rendsburg 22nd - 25th March 2001. The web site of the project is announced in http://www.netdays.fi/projektit.html, and the main results of the project can be browsed in http://www.kolumbus.fi/ilpo.halonen/english/ .and http://www.ruthvilmi.net/forums/ict.html The course of the project is presented in http://www.kolumbus.fi/ilpo.halonen/english/ict/Discuss ICT_files/frame.htm and the students' messages are at http://www.ruthvilmi.net/forums/ict.html. Arrangements The Discuss ICT project was mostly designed through email correspondence between the teachers Mrs Vilmi and Mr Halonen from August 2000 to June 2001. Before the first and second rounds of the project there were face to face meetings. At the end of the course, both rounds of the project were assessed in real meetings. The virtual collaboration in the Internet between the partners was provided by the learning environment Discuss IT of Ruth Vilmi Online Education Oy Ltd at http://www.writeit.to/forums/categories.php. The asynchronous conferencing was done using the discussion forum program WWWThreads. For synchronous conferencing, an IRC client was used :http://www.ruthvilmi.net/irc/ The project work was made possible by the positive and flexible attitude of the school administrators, in both Vihti and Nummela sixth forms. All facilities available in the schools (including a modern computer classroom) were available for the project. There were 24 students in the working groups of the sixth form schools in Vihti and Nummela. The students were 17-19 years of age. Six students of Nkurenkuru school Namibia under the moderation of their teacher, Mr John Gaga, took part in the first round of the project. Several university students from HUT participated in the project as part of a 2 credit course, Kie-98.505 English on the Internet. . The work of the sixth form students was mostly done in computer labs of the schools, and computers were used continuously. 28-29 effective lessons were held during the learning period. Students were given credits for performing the course but no marks (grades). HUT students had one class meeting with the teacher, when study plans and organisational matters were discussed. The rest of the course was done at a distance. Most of the students had full-time jobs and could not have attended a regular classroom course. The project activities The course of activities was basically the same in both parts of the project, even if the forum environment changed from http://www.ruthvilmi.net/forums/ict.html into http://www.writeit.to/forums/categories.php. The basic instructions were given to all participants orally in class and in the second part of the project also via the Internet in http://www.kolumbus.fi/ilpo.halonen/ict/Discuss ICT_files/frame.htm. The instructions included the schedule and the agenda of the project, instructions on how to use the bulletin board program and advice on how to write and to send the essays, and how to give peer feedback, as well as how to do the evaluation. First the students registered in http://www.writeit.to/forums/ and made their profiles for the project. Next they learned to know the profiles of other participants, and they looked for partners they wanted to know better. After finding a partner they were advised to meet the partner in the chat http://www.ruthvilmi.net/irc/. Only after that they were asked to write an essay of about 200 - 300 words about one subject out of a dozen.. All subjects were related to ICT. The texts of the participants were uploaded to the discussion forums in http://www.writeit.to/forums/categories.php. Student profiles, essays, comments and evaluations could always be immediately read and commented on through the Web interface.. Essays and comments on the texts were sent to different topics of the ICT forum in http://www.writeit.to/forums/wwwthreads.php?Cat=&C=4. The subjects of Round I were : ? Mobile Phones and the Internet, ? Microsoft vs. Linux, ? Women and Computers, Net Addiction, ? Computers of the Future, ? Human Relations in the World of Computers, ? Computer Games, ICT and the World of Differences, ? Computers in Schools and Your Choice. Some topics were changed for Round Two. Human Relations in the World of Computers was replaced by Winners and Losers in the World of Computers. ICT and the World of Differences was replaced by A Better World with Computers? A new title Censorship in the Internet was added, and the title Your Choice was replaced by Miscellaneous in the Round Two. In addition, there was the title Evaluations for project evaluations in the forums. The purpose of the forums was to facilitate asynchronous discussion for the participants, to provide a space for comments and personal opinions. Many interesting texts were written and sent to the forums. Ruth Vilmi, an expert of international writing exchange, spontaneously reacted after reading the first texts from Namibia:" Some Namibians have started writing! Unusual posts!" And later she added: "It's wonderful to see that some Namibian students have started to write:-) Congratulations on such good work!" Every student wrote an essay and commented on two or three texts written by the international students, according to his or her own interest. Due to the comments, a lot of discussion arose.. The IRC in http://www.ruthvilmi.net/irc/ was used to complement the work in the classroom. In Round II some sixth form students were given permission to participate in the lessons at home where they had Internet access, and the teacher gave them instructions via IRC. The same IRC was the meeting place for other online contacts in Round II. Audio and video chat opportunities were planned in the project. Audio chat took place in http://www.wimba.com where there was a room for audio chat contacts. Video chat took place in ils.eunet.fi, which is a general service of the Finnish Eunet for audio and video contacts in the Internet. Both opportunities could be exploited only little, as it seemed to be almost impossible to find partners in an organised way. The Discuss ICT project was announced for eSchola Week 7th to 11th May 2001, but even if the schedule of our presence was widely publicised by the organisers of the week, there were no outside visitors to our IRC meeting place. The students of Nummela 6th form experimented with audio and video chat spontaneously, looking for partners online, and some video contacts could be created both at home and abroad using the program Netmeeting, web cameras and headsets. This technology proved to be quite functional for instant chatting at least. Eventually the participants evaluated the project. For the sixth form students, there was an interactive form in http://www.saunalahti.fi/pohalone/csmodule/evaluate.htm, which produced some help for writing evaluations. The interaction was achieved by using 'hidden rows' in the form. The texts finished by the students were sent to the forums. Evaluations can be read in personal WWW pages of students in http://www.kolumbus.fi/ilpo.halonen/english/. Some of the other students wrote free evaluations. They can be read at: http://www.writeit.to/forums/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=ICT2eval Classroom activities For the sixth form students, the Discuss ICT project was only part of the Computing English course. There were also some other activities performed in the classroom. First, the students were asked to study the texts of the course book, Backup, a computing English lesson book by Teknolit, 1999. Those who needed to improve their vocabulary in computing English also did traditional exercises from the book, and they were given the correct answers at proper times. In addition, the students were taught to use some authoring tools to create online exercises on their own. The exercises were published on the Internet, and the students were able to immediately work on the exercises made by their classmates. The exercises can be seen at URL http://www.kolumbus.fi/ilpo.halonen/english/. Finally, students were asked to make a web page of their own using an HTML editor. They were instructed to make their own web pages, either individually or together with a partner. All material they had produced in the project was also collected and saved on a diskette as a portfolio. The web pages were transferred to the project web page in http://www.kolumbus.fi/ilpo.halonen/english/. The HUT students who participated in the project only had one classroom meeting, right at the start of the project. Pedagogical value The Discuss ICT was a grass-root project lasting six weeks for each round. It was carried out within the framework of educational program of the school year. For the sixth form students the module was one course out of a total number of 75 courses required. The presence of partners outside their own school made a great impact on motivation, and the essays and the comments were written spontaneously and without delay. It seemed to be very encouraging for the 6th form students to discuss with university students. The deeply thought out content of the texts of the Namibian students caused surprise in some students of Vihti 6th form. The partnership may have deepened the cultural awareness of the Finnish students. The experience of the project confirmed to the teachers that this kind of simulation was useful for students, and their own evaluations confirmed the same. The project also verified the assumption that 'learning by doing' and similar ideas of constructivism were a natural approach in this kind of learning. The role of the teacher at Vihti was one of a facilitator who took care of the hardware and software, and gave counselling during the learning process. The teacher could not take the role of a lecturer. Controlling meant checking that the learning process runs smoothly, and not checking behaviour or similar things. The learning process resembled more a kind of creative workshop working than traditional classroom studying. The HUT teacher was the chief co-ordinator of the project and thus felt responsible for seeing that students behaved and wrote appropriate messages for a virtual classroom. Students need to be even more considerate and sensitive when writing in a virtual environment than when in the classroom. Fortunately there were no problems when it comes to the content of texts. There were also very few technical problems. . All students had a chance to evaluate the course, and they also did it. The sixth form groups were very heterogeneous. This fact was reflected in their evaluations. Many students of the sixth forms found this kind of learning rather demanding, and only a few said that it was easy for them. Almost all students found the course rewarding, and there were actually no opinions where the results of the course would have been reset to zero. European added value The EU has focused on advancing the information society. This requires a large number of administrative changes, and a new pedagogical approach. The Discuss ICT project was a new kind of project for the organisers. It could be later adopted in international collaboration with European schools or schools outside Europe. Lessons learned The basic lesson learned is to find reliable partners. There should be more partners than only two or three, as some of the partners may drop out during the process. A project such as Discuss ICT needs partners who are ready to do things differently and who have a corresponding level of skills and experience in ICT. There were technical problems with the free Board Master forums used in autumn 2000, so it was decided to buy new software for the spring 2001 round. , The program, WWWThreads, was installed and maintained by Ruth Vilmi Online Education Ltd and worked well enough as the platform of collaboration. However, more technical help should be available for this kind of project. There were actually no attempts at disturbance. The attitude of the students was very positive and business-like. The use of photos is highly recommended, in order to help students to get to know their partners by their looks. If the partners have digital cameras available, it helps a lot. The students were extremely co-operative, flexible and helpful in their relation to the teacher and easily forgave all possible errors made by the teacher. Many students were very good with computers, and some were really advanced. The female students seemed to be very interested in making web pages. The idea of online contacts should be thought about thoroughly, and all means of online collaboration should be tested in advance. Inexpensive web cameras and headsets are good enough to put up the connection, and there are free programs for their use in online contacts. Dissemination of results Mrs Vilmi presented her projects, including joint projects with Vihti and Nummela 6th forms, at international conferences in Canada and France in March 2000. She also mentioned the project in several international publications, including an interview with Barry Bakin in the American Language Review, November-December 2000. Mr Halonen, the Finnish ESP co-ordinator, presented the pilot project Customer Service in the 14th conference of the ESP in Haugesund, Norway, 6-8th April 2000. The pilot project was also presented to two local newspapers in Vihti at a press meeting on Thursday 30rd March 2000. Both newspapers published articles about the project on their pages. So the inhabitants of Vihti and of some neighbouring municipalities were given information about the project in an effective way. A press conference about the Discuss ICT project was organised in Vihti 6th form on 24th November 2000, and a four-column article was published in Vihdin Uutiset 30th November 2000 about the Discuss ICT project. Mrs Ruth Vilmi presented the Discuss ICT project in the MindTrek conference in Tampere on 16th November 2000. Mr Ilpo Halonen told about the Discuss ICT project at the seminar of the Goethe institute in Stockholm 8th - 10th November 2000, in the Telemaatika conference in Tartu 18th - 19th November 2000 and in the conference of the European Schools Project (ESP) in Rendsburg 22nd - 25th March 2001. The web site of the project is announced in http://www.netdays.fi/projektit.html, and the main results of the project can be browsed in http://www.kolumbus.fi/ilpo.halonen/english/ . The course of the project is presented in http://www.kolumbus.fi/ilpo.halonen/english/ict/Discuss ICT_files/frame.htm .The students' writing is archived at: http://www.writeit.to/forums/wwwthreads.php?Cat=&C=4 Quality control The process of discussion and evaluation about the quality of the project both at HUT and in the 6th form schools will be continued. As the web pages of the project are open to everyone, the results of the project can be discussed and criticised by all interested persons. Plans for future developments The sixth form colleges of Vihti would like to develop their courses in the direction of the ICT also in future. They are also very interested in having contacts with colleges and universities both home and abroad. The Vihti sixth form maintains the educational web site of the ESPfi, the Finnish branch of the European Schools Project, and hopes to get contacts through this international organisation too. Multimedia was experimented with in the Discuss ICT project, but not as largely as planned. It is necessary to add multimedia into the future projects, as it plays an essential role in language education. The students are keen on experimenting with online audio and video contacts and also cordless connections, such as the use of cellular phones. Another addition to the future projects are digital cameras, digital video cameras and web cameras with proper software in order to carry out multimedia collaboration. Thanks to the funding from the educational authorities Vihti 6th form school was able to finance 5 web cameras and 8 headsets, which enables the school to put up online multimedia contacts with partners in future. Mentioned earlier What were the technical problems really? It would be useful to know, so we don't repeat them.