Context eLearning with broadband technologies

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Main results are the pedagogical advice sections within the demoportal. The sections are: 1) General advice and support, 2) Advice for teachers, and 3) The Lesson Bank. The first section is meant to inform and support teachers in a general way. It includes an introduction to learning objects specifically designed to distinguish between the different pedagogical types of learning objects, which is reflected in the metadata. Every type is explained, followed by an example plus a link to the Learning Object within the repository. The general section as a whole offers a wide range of different information for content developers, teachers, and other users. The second section is geared towards teachers starting with using the repository and its learning objects in actual educational contexts. It includes extensive information on how to start by offering different scenarios, four case studies in which blended learning and teaching scenarios are sketched, and a pedagogic library with theoretical background information. The section concludes with a specification of technological requirements. The last section is a database of lesson ideas and plans, provided by teachers for teachers, this stimulating the emergence of a community of practitioners. All information within the demoportal is supported by scientific deliverables.

Both public and private sector partners in CELEBRATE created a critical mass of standards' compliant Learning Objects for use in both primary and secondary schools. By the start of the pilot phase (November 2003) approximately 350 LOs were available to schools and by June 2004, approximately 1350 standards' compliant LOs (all language versions) were available via the CELEBRATE Demonstration Portal. A further result has been the development and testing of 25 "authoring templates" that will allow teachers and pupils to create their own Learning Objects. Development of these tools was not foreseen in the original project proposal but it is hoped that their availability will help CELEBRATE to significantly expand the number of resources available to schools. The templates became available in the second half of the main pilot phase. Over 2400 tagged Learning Assets were also available on the Demo Portal at the end of the project. These resources (images, audio files, etc.) were provided mainly to assist teachers wishing to develop their own LOs using the CELEBRATE authoring templates. The first LOs (around 50) from external content providers (Intel, Young Digital Poland) were added to the Demonstration Portal in April/May 2004.

The evaluation showed LOs can be successfully distributed and selected by teachers in schools. The provision of a portal to access LOs allowed them to compile resources for students. Teachers wanted to be able to store LOs for use with particular groups of students and wanted them to be able to use LOs directly from the portal. Thus the portal was acting as a primitive virtual learning environment, shared with classroom activity. But there were some difficulties in their use in the classroom. Firstly teachers require ICT skills and experience in using them. Secondly, the ease of integration of LOs into a blended learning situation has problems. In particular teachers were able to use LOs for different purposes and in some cases in different ways from those designed, but they needed expertise to ensure they can match the affordances of the LO to the requirements of their teaching. Thirdly, to enable teachers to explore more advanced pedagogy in their teaching (associated with constructivist ideas), LOs need must facilitate this work. The development of such LOs will require a combination of the skills of all those involved, LO producers, teachers and pedagogic researchers.

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