Blended learning in Primary School

Blended learning in primary school

a case of a learning process between
the physical classroom and online environments

by Francesca Ravanelli, PhD University Bolzano

something about me...

I live in Mezzocorona, a village in North-Italy, amongst
mountains and vinyeards.

I have been a teacher in primary school for several years.
I will introduce you to my class, 20 children from different
countries of the world (1 from Sri-Lanka, 1 from Brazil, 2 from
Romania, 1 from Togo).
I have been a teacher in this class for 5 years.

I have always updated my teaching(knowledge and practices)
in the last years to make them more suitable to the needs of
new students and new society.
2006-I attended higher education courses on teaching and
learning with the help of technology;
2010-I graduated in “Theories and methodologies of e-learning
and Media-education”, at the University of Padua;
2012-I have started a PhD at the University of Bolzano;

An experience of integrated learning environment:
classroom + Moodle Platform
in order to
enrich learning process
(increasing times/spaces/involvement/motivation/collaboration...)

Where? In a primary class

When e How long? From 2007 to 2012. It has been a ﬁve
years long project

Who? My students and their parents, any other
colleague and obviously myself

Why? I wanted to take advantage of the opportunities
that digital tools give in order to enrich learning
processes and to break down the boundaries between
school and home, expanding times and spaces of
learning, taking the school at home and in the family.

The questions...
How can we enhance and extend learning
in order to bring the school into the life
of students?

How can we adapt Multimedia to
enhance human learning?

How can technologies help build
learning communities?

The theoretical premisis of this
work
Our Students : Digital Natives

Collaborative construction of knowledge

The signiﬁcance of metacognition

The multiple intelligences

Learning enviroments and learning communities

Multimedia learning

Emotional Intelligence

IV ES
LN AT
DIG ITA
Marc Prensky calls young
people “digital natives”, as
they have developed speciﬁc
and different ways of
learning and
communicating.

Derrick de Kerkhove calls
young people “Google
generation”, since
they can multitask and use
multimedia as an electronic
pen.

COLLAB ORATIV E CONSTRUCT ION
OF KNOWLEDGE
According to Vygotskij, learning is an act distributed amongst
people, tools and rules in context. It is also an act mediated by
the collaborative ways and by the interactions with the
community.
(social origins of higher mental processes, cultural mediation, zone of
proximal development)

MULTIP LE INTELLIGENCES
In the 90s, H. Gardner developed his theory of the 7 forms of
human intelligence. Knowledge can be acquired through
multiple ways and channels (language, logical-mathematical
analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, body use...)

RN I NG
“Multimedia learning” refers speciﬁcally
I AL EA
to dual code, or dual channel learning
IM ED
(Mayer).
M U LT
Cognitive psycology explains the
multimedia learning as a process of
acquisition and integration of stimuli that
are acquired through two different sensory
channels: the visual channel for pictures
and words, and the auditory canal for
narratives and non verbal language sounds
(Paivio)
Mayer’s studies show that it is necessary
to follow some principles in the design of
multimedia objects to avoid producing
cognitive overload in students (7
principles)
Learner-centered approach design

LEA RN ING COMMUN ITY
Learning community is a group of people who share an interest, a
problem or a passion for a topic... (Etienne Wenger)
Community of practices give a solution to the conﬂicts, support
common memory, help newcomers, create a welcoming
atmosphere (Varisco B.M.).

LEARNING ENVIROME NTS
Learning environment is “a place where people can learn
to work together and support each others as they use a
variety of tools and information resources in their efforts
to achieve the learning objectives and to solve
problems“ (Wilson)

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

D. Goleman deﬁnes this kind of intelligence as “the ability to
recognize our feelings and those of others from motivating
ourselves and to manage our emotions positively, both
internally and socially”.

T H E SI G N IFICA NCE OF M ETACOG N IT ION

Metacognition is an awarness that the student has about
learning and about certain strategies available to solve
problems.

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP SKILLS defined by
the European Union

Communication in the mother tongue

Communication in foreign languages

Mathematical competences and basic competences in science and technology

Digital competence

Learning to learn

Social and civic competence

Sense of iniziative and entrepreneurship

Cultural awarness and expression

Digital competence
Digital competence is a complex skill in which these four
dimensions overlap
Tecnology Meta-cognitive
to use tools for ﬁnding info to select and evaluate sources

DIGITAL
COMPETENCE

Ethics Social-partecipatory
to follow rules and to relate constructivly,negotiate,
respect people collaborate...

...in order to integrate TECHNOLOGY
IN THE LEARNING PROCESS

Jonassen says “We think technology as a cognitive
tool”

This tool can help interconnect people and
knowledge, individuals with the groups, the speciﬁc
discipline with the complexity of thought

This tool can also help students to achieve a “well
built mind”, advocated by Edgar Morin

ON LINE CLASS
- every child has an Internet connection,
- every family accepts this experience,
- every student receives username and password to connect to the
platform,
- Children and parents were taught some simple steps in order to
work with Moodle

We (teachers, children and parents) called the on-line
space”Community in progress” because “this space will serve to
build our community...brick by brick...yours with mine...”

This is the macro-goal of our work

sub-goals
to learn to use technology in a safe environment

to expand times and spaces of learning

to create an archive of documents about activities in the classroom (photos,
ﬁlms...)

to give voice to all children and their parents (forums, questionnaires, surveys...)

to mediate the relationship between the students and Internet (in order to
develop critical thinking)

to increase the relationship between pupils and teachers (chat, messaging,
forums)

to increase the time of cooperative learning (wiki)

to integrate the educational resources with multimedia and interactive sources

to allow the sick students to attend lessons too (blended learning)

AN ON-LINE CLASS
HAS ALLOWED...

...to extend the time and the space
of COMMUNICATION
(with classmates and teachers)

...to extend the time and the space for...
COLLABORATION and MAKING things
TOGETHER

...to extend the time and the space to...
GET TO KNOW and HELP NEWCOMERS ...

...to allow the sick students to attend
lessons too (distance learning) ...

...to integrate traditional resources with
MULTIMEDIA and INTERACTIVE TOOLS and
SOURCES (multiple intelligences)

...to share multimedia contents produced
by children
(producers not only consumers)

...to learn by doing
in the real context and by thinking through
authentic tasks

...and by playing and enjoing oneself too!
and more...

and more...
...to involve actively parents in the learning path (fathers as
well)

...to go to school with less anxiety and fear, always ﬁnding a
teacher who listens to you

...to become aware users of Internet

...to support cultural development of the family, that becomes
an input for research, exploration, both in the network and in
the real context

...to personalize learning path for children with special needs

...to use technology in proactive and creative way

...in conclusion...
to become a learning
Community

work in progress: FEEDBACK 1
most interesting activity

to watch multimedia resources
reviewing and
rethinking to share with classmates experiences done
about classroom with parents
activities

FEEDBACK 2 : most usefull

to deepen
learning
activities

to have the opportunity to to share the learning
keep in touch with activities with
classmates and teachers on parents or friends
holidays too

What should the theacher do? ...some
suggestions of mine...

to pay attention to the design of the v.e. (simple and welcoming
atmosphere)

to arrange the resources and activities clearly

to be really present in v.e.(responding, supporting, providing
scaffolding, monitoring, helping...)

to pay attention to the communicative aspects (emoticons or
graphic features)

to document all of the physical classroom’s experiences (photo,
video...) and share them in v.e.

Some critical aspects...
teachers need some (simple) digital skills

teacher should extend their teaching time beyond the school
time

teachers should change their teaching method, from the
transmission of content to the organization of research and
relationships for the construction of knowledge

Internet connection is required

Conﬁdence and cooperation of parents are required

“We think of the changes as
small steps toward the big change
that will happen.
...and I think taht the best way to do
this is to create the situations in
which children follow their passions
with the heart, bring forward
projects that are really interested,
discoveries are made by taking the
information they need from the
Internet, working together, doing
important things...
The teacher advises them, guides
them. And then, the teacher must get
used to the idea of respecting
students as individuals who learn to
recognize that they produce...
Technology makes possible the
realization of the dreams of the old
pedagogues...

Seymor Papert

T E NT ION . . .
R YO U R AT
T HA NK FO
Questions?
francescaravanelli@yahoo.it

Comments...
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Conference Diverse2012, 4 luglio 2012, Leuven Be

Blended learning in Primary School

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