Annex 2) Summaries of training contents of various organizations
ActDEN is an interactive website with multiple purposes – very software-oriented with no clear links to teaching/learning. The entire website targets teachers and students. ActDEN is sponsored by Microsoft and the content for teachers is predominantly a “point and click” demonstration of how fictional Flash media animations use Microsoft products in the classroom.
Indeed, while the web site is weak on curriculum content for skill development, the site does help people envision the future and what may be possible if they develop computer literacy for use in the classroom and apply their skills toward use of Microsoft’s products in their teaching and learning environments.
The website is available as an open source tool, requiring no log on password or fees. The content is in English.
A user can choose to view the content using Flash media or not using the rich media, as a result access due to infrastructure limitations can be minimized to a certain degree. The viability of this website for higher end skill development or pedagogy study is quite limited. As a tool toward creativity and motivation the website has some use. When you can log on the Internet, the site is free, but the products discussed are not free and may not be affordable to people who want to learn more. ActDEN is one of the inventory sites that have online modules.
South Eastern Regional Computer Training SERCT Centre
The Australian government through the Colombo Plan and further through the Learning Technologies Teachers Capabilities has set in place a plan to build the capacities of their teachers and students. Part of that effort has developed centres for training of which SERCT is one of them. They provide face-to-face instruction to people through the centre of the educational institutions that contract for their services.
Their curriculum is comprehensive including technical literacy and pedagogy. In their training programme, teachers are first taught the various software per se and then the use of such software in teaching. The curriculum appears to be largely oriented towards technology and software – focusing on Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, email, Dreamweaver, FrontPage, scanning text and graphics, etc. with few sessions on how to use ICT in the classrooms; how to create student reports using Word; how to search the Internet for teaching/learning; how to publish a newsletter for the classrooms, using software for science, physics, preparing webpage for classroom use: developing a digital portfolio; etc.).
The training provided through the centre is not free, but rather schools hire SERCT to provide professional development to parts of the faculty or individuals pay to learn through the centre as part of in-service professional development or pre-service credits.
The iTrain Bellanet programme is an effort on behalf of several international aid agencies to create content for training in technology literacy. The effort provides curriculum content in five languages for over 20 courses, consisting of basic computer software, emailing using Eudora, MS Outlook, Pegasus Mail, MS Access, Coldfusion, MS Access, Netscape, Internet, ICQ.
This is a very software oriented kind of training, rather poor in pedagogy. It is considered open source and the iTrain Bellanet organization encourages anyone to use and adapt the content to suit the needs of their own organization. All training curriculum modules for instructors and students are available by download over the Internet or by request through the mail. The open access of this resource and wide applicability because of the variety of languages available make it a very good resource for basic technical literacy curriculum materials.
Coca Cola Philippines Edventure
Coca Cola Philippines Edventure is being implemented in partnership with combination of organizations, including a quasi-governmental foundation, corporate funding and support, universities and corporate foundation support.
The strategy to develop a quasi-governmental foundation has been used several times, including the government of the Philippines and Australia’s Curriculum Corporation. This strategic organizational development gives implementing agencies greater freedom to achieve policy goals while not being constricted by governmental regulations that sometime inhibit slow reform or change.
Currently they are providing three courses including information for administrators, as well as teachers. They approach curriculum content development in a manner that seems to blend technical learning with pedagogy, which would seem to promote motivation as learners would begin to understand why learning technical skills has relevance in the development of their teaching skills.
What is distinct in the content is they teach the teachers with online communication tools and project-based learning and telecollaboration. The contents for administrators try to equip them with knowledge, strategies and tools for setting up a school technology plan, technical and technology sustainability, policies on use, community mobilization and resource generation, monitoring and evaluation.
The teachers are given background/motivational information such as using computers for teaching/learning and the rest are on basic computer fundamentals and software (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, Internet for use in teaching). They are also taught online communication tools, project-based learning and telecollaboration, designing a school website. A true professional development model, in-service high school teachers are taught by university faculty members.
Coca-cola e-learning for Life, Malaysia
The objectives of the Coca Cola E-Learning for Life programme in Malaysia are directly responsive to the national and educational policy initiatives of the government. Collaboration between government, a corporate foundation and technology industry leaders, the programme is a secondary initiative to the Malaysian Smart Schools project, which stressed the development of educational software for use in the classrooms along the technology super corridor.
The distinction between the Smart Schools programme and the Coca Cola Malaysia E-Learning for Life programme is the education of teachers who will in turn promote the use of technology as a means to learning rather than the end.
The programme is delivered face-to-face. The curriculum is skills and pedagogically based, teachers work in teams and are grouped by subject matter.
This training course approaches ICT use from a specific lesson plan building and enriching it not only with ICT but with the right pedagogy/teaching and learning principles; and then integrated into a subject. It starts by revisiting existing lesson plans and based on this, the rest of the training is built around how the lesson plans can be improved using ICT. Thus it provides guidelines and techniques for building lesson plans, structuring thematic and topical lesson plans, building templates, enriching the lesson plans through incorporating effective learning principles.
This is followed by empowering the lesson plans with multimedia technologies (PowerPoint, video, computer products, etc). and finally planning how this lesson can be integrated into a teaching unit for a specific subject.
As a train the trainer programme, the effort is meant to engage teachers from multiple subjects and areas of the country. Those teachers will be responsible for training other teachers. The content for this programme is not in English and not widely available, as the observation was made in discussions with programme counterparts that face to face seemed to be the more successful approach for them to pursue.
Intel® Teach to the Future is a worldwide effort to help both experienced teachers and pre-service teachers integrate technology into instruction and enhance student learning. Participating teachers receive extensive training and resources to promote effective technology use in the classroom. Teachers learn from other teachers how, when and where to incorporate technology tools and resources into their lesson plan. In addition, they are instructed on how best to create assessment tools and align lessons with educational learning goals and standards. The programme incorporates use of the Internet, Web page design, and student projects.
The way Intel approaches ICT skills development is from the teaching and classroom perspective, in an integrated way. The main goal of the training is for teachers to develop a Unit Plan Template on a particular subject, a portfolio rubrics and a sample unit portfolio of ICT-based lessons. To build this, the teachers are then taught the various software and applications like Internet searching; developing multimedia presentations, publications, support materials; creating a website; and developing and showcasing the portfolios.
Thus, all of these tools and outcomes (multimedia presentation, publications, website, assessment tool, handouts, templates, worksheets, classroom management documents) developed are integrated into the teaching of a Unit Plan of a specific subject.
Intel Teach to the Future works with the governments in the nations they serve. Both those governments who want to work with Intel to provide in-service training, and educational institutions in those nations that want to provide pre-service training in partnership with Intel must apply to become active partners. As a result, programme delivery assures coordination with governmental policies for the training of educators in core pedagogical issue related to technology in the classroom.
Intel has a set of core programme components including the development of a train the trainer model where teachers rather than technologists become the future trainers. Also they demand a 40-hour face-to-face hands-on learning training with an additional 20 hours of homework. Finally, they work with the governmental offices to develop the curriculum content to be localized for the country in which it is being implemented.
A key issue for Intel Teach to the Future is their focus toward improving the teaching of in-service teachers who use technology rather than the development of their technical literacy skills.
The Intel Teach to the Future worldwide leadership was very forthright in their effort to share as much information as possible with UNESCO, including the curriculum and also spreadsheet files related to the actual numbers of teachers trained in each country they serve.
They have a worldwide goal to train over 1,000,000 teachers by the end of 2003.
World Links’ training course (previously funded by World Bank) is strongly geared towards the use of the Internet for teaching/learning, as well as for tele-collaborative learning projects both within the school and globally. It also links pedagogy and integrated ICT use in the curriculum, focusing again on the integration of telecollaboration and online discussion forum into existing curriculum and producing a technology integrated lesson.
The training goes beyond the classroom by providing schools and community leaders with the value of having a school-based Telecentres and covers not only the teachers but also the policy makers to provide them with skills on the planning process and support to ICT.
World Links is updating their training modules and what are included here might have changed by this time. This analysis is based on their old training contents which were accessed in outline form.
SEAMEO INNOTECH Technology Applications in Education for teachers and trainers is geared towards more media design, development and production in order to develop a package of both print and non-print materials that can be used for teacher training.
The training design is strong on creativity, elements of design and layout, fonts, graphics and other production techniques in developing both print and non-print materials including computer-based presentations and video production. It develops skills in the use of various software and tools for production such as Desktop publishing, presentation (PowerPoint), interactive multimedia software.
It also deals with appropriate selection of technologies for teacher training and various digital tools for teaching (Internet, Electronic discussion groups, creating a web page); integrating technology into instructional design and catering to special learning needs.
Institute of Computer Technology (ICT)
The Institute of Computer Technology or ICT is a non-profit organization which provides technology training and planning services schools, for example California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo or the University of California at San Diego and industry leaders like Intel. ICT is quite special for several reasons.
First, they have produced online learning modules that are accredited courses for university study within a degree-seeking programme in the California state university system of the United States.
Second, as one of the objectives for the ICT they are working with industry to gain intellectual capital so as to develop innovative, effective programmes. One of the industry leaders they have worked with is Intel. ICT developed the curriculum for Intel’s Teach to the Future Programme. The curriculum developed by leaders at ICT is being implemented in the education departments of nine Asian nations, which does not include some nations where the programme is being readied for implementation. ICTs work if not their online modules are reaching a broad number of educators throughout the region.
The online curriculum is not available for review, although an outline of the content is available. It directly develops skills of teachers in integrating ICT in teaching specific subjects such as Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, elementary grades as well as developing their skills in tools that will enable them to teach these subjects such as word-processing, desktop publishing, spreadsheets, multimedia presentations, then the skills for developing a technology-enhanced unit or lesson, using Internet, creating webpage for teachers, and creating multimedia presentations.
It is a good balanced combination of learning the various tools and software as well as using them for integrating ICT into various subjects teaching. They have an approach toward an integrated pedagogy that is very advanced as they outline courses for using technology on various subject studies, like Language Arts, Mathematics and Science.
ICT did not respond to repeated emails for information, yet through investigation, it becomes clear that ICT and their staff are the creators of curriculum content that is being broadly applied in Asia through the various governmental auspices for education.
PBS TeacherLine is a direct response and collaboration between the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Corporation for Public Broadcasting to provide educational materials for teachers related to the pedagogy for applying technology in the classroom.
Curriculum for this project is online and available to people in the United States who register through their local public broadcasting affiliate television station. International access is not currently available, but PBS TeacherLine representatives indicated they would like to expand a pilot beyond the borders of the nation sometime in the future.
The curriculum titles and expanded outlines provided by PBS TeacherLine show the most advanced pedagogical approach reviewed in this inventory, offering both pedagogy and integrated ICT approaches with two parts – teaching practices and technology integration. The value of developing the skills of teachers in the pedagogies is a recognized input to a more effective use of ICT in teaching.
The teaching practices/pedagogy sessions focus on building critical thinking; constructivism in the classroom; creating units to support differing learning styles; curriculum mapping; assessment and evaluation and utilizing technology in creating problem-based curriculum.
The technology integration sessions deal with communicating and collaborating online; use of computer for personal productivity; enhancing multicultural education with technology; searching, researching, evaluating and organizing Internet resources and content; integrating Internet into the K-12 language arts curriculum; acceptable use policy of the Web; publishing on the web; how to start putting computer in the classroom; teaching with WebQuests, etc.
IBM Reinventing Education: Victoria, Australia
IBM has partnered with the Department of Education in Australia, in order to assist in the implementation of technology in unidentified underprivileged communities in Melbourne. They are working toward the building of teacher capacities in order to achieve proficiency in student performance along key areas of development called strands.
They approach change in teaching holistically and encourage change throughout the learning community including teachers, administrators, students and parents as factors in the reinvention. The change is encouraged through an action research model, which is based more on a process of consideration and evaluation conducted through teamwork, rather than on classes for professional development in ICT.
If training modules exist they were not made available, however IBM uses a network system to provide ongoing structure and support through the computers to the learning community.
Furthermore, if teachers decide they need specific functional literacy related to computer operation or programmes, they indicate what they need and the skill development they require is provided. All subjects are approached as the whole school is involved. No specific programme participant numbers were provided by contacts for this project.