A SMALL TOWN’S STREET AS AN EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

A Case Study: Asynchronus Interdisciplinary Education between

a Greek University and Two Secondary Schools

Xesternou Maria, Melina Iliopoulou

University of Peloponnese, Department of Philology, Kalamata, Greece

Geitonas school, Athens, Greece

Despina Ino Pagoni

Psychico College of the Hellenic American Educational Foundation, Athens, Greece

Keywords: Synchronus and asynchronus learning, Collaborative learning served by ICT, Secondary and higher

education, Interdisciplinary education, Virtual learning environment, Supervising and managing students

projects.

Abstract: The increasing demand of distance education and the growing degree of diversity of learner groups have

created the practice of e-learning which takes place in virtual learning environments (VLEs). The present

case study has joined a Greek university of periphery (University of Peloponnese, School of philology) with

two private secondary schools (Psychico College of the Hellenic American Educational Foundation and

Geitonas School) of the capital. The cognitive material is the history and profile of a commercial street in a

historic town of Peloponnese (Kalamata): Aristomenous street. A group of secondary students attending

courses of mathematics or sociology do team work in order to visualize the complete “image” of the street,

its’ shops and houses, the architecture of the buildings serving the commercial needs in the 19

century,

their cultural remainings, etc. A group of university students, undertaking their role of future educators,

collaborate with them as tutors in order to provide material from their inhabited town, Kalamata, to search

and propose references, to give advice, etc. The project has adopted several pedagogical theories of

education and respects late tendencies in ICT educational practice. It is questioned how students of different

ages and educational levels can work together in order to find more meaningful and efficient type of

learning. The nature of their communication, their roles during the learning process and their commitment

are being studied. A pilot project is being discussed during the academic year 2010-2011 before launching

the application of the project for the three following academic years; a mixed evaluation method is planned.

1 INTRODUCTION

ICT activities in education are lately widely applied

in order to enhance the development of cognitive

and social skills, by changing the curriculum and the

models of teaching (Hargreaves, 2005). In addition,

interdisciplinary and collaborative theories of

learning are well served by ICT-centered teaching.

Most universities use discussion boards supporting

long-distance collaboration among learners. Further

more secondary schools get technologically

equipped and apply ICT courses.

Is it possible for the computer communication

between different ages and backgrounds to offer

cognitive and meta-cognitive goals? How can social

skills and life aspects be cultivated between some

teams of complete strangers? The present case study

has joined a Greek university of periphery

(University of Peloponnese, School of philology)

with two private secondary schools (Psychico

College of Hellenic American Educational

Foundation and Geitonas School) of the capital. The

cognitive material is the history and the profile of a

commercial street in a historic town of Peloponnese

(Kalamata), Aristomenous street. A group of

secondary students taking courses of mathematics or

sociology do team work in order to visualize the

street: the special architecture of the buildings, the

291

Maria X., Iliopoulou M. and Ino Pagoni D..

A SMALL TOWN’S STREET AS AN EDUCATIONAL PROJECT - A Case Study: Asynchronus Interdisciplinary Education between a Greek University

and Two Secondary Schools.

DOI: 10.5220/0003344302910296

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2011), pages 291-296

ISBN: 978-989-8425-49-2

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

commercial history of the street in 19

century, it’s

current role in modern Kalamata. A group of

university students, exercising their role of future

educators, collaborate with them as tutors in order to

provide material from their inhabited town,

Kalamata, to search and propose references, to give

advice, etc. A Blended Learning initiative will take

place between persons of different age and

background.

Will it enable the learning procedure? Can social

skills and teaching abilities be cultivated via long-

distance communication between strangers? Can

some tackling gender issues concerning female

teachers of philology and their skills in new

technologies, be reviewed? What are the motivating

elements for each group and is it possible for them

to evaluate their work?

2 PEDAGOGICAL

APPLICATIONS IN ONLINE

EDUCATION

The advantages of internet in education are of

unique significance. It allows the use and the

combination of a variety of Media in interaction, it

joins people world wide supporting synchronous and

a-synchronus communication, it can also be used to

provide education with material as a huge,

modifiable source (Federico, 2000). Lately the

possibilities of internet communication such as e-

mail, discussion forums, mailing lists and chat,

support the collaboration and human communication

in a frame of virtual class (Papanikolaou,

Grigoriadou, Gouli, 2005). In addition, school

population, as member of the information society,

“needs to get furnished not only with the basic but

the higher-order skills required to our digital

culture” (Pachler, 2001:15-23). ICT capability

therefore “involves an interaction between technical

facts and processes, strategic knowledge, meta-

cognitive self-knowledge and affective aspects of

mind including self-confidence and a disposition to

use technology” (Kennewell & als, 2000:19). All

these particularities of the internet use can be

considered as educational tasks. Loveless has

precised four aspects of ICT capability that should

be developed within the “wider context of a critical

evaluation of the impact of ICT on their own and

others lives: a. find things out from a variety of

sources, selecting and synthetising the information

to meet their needs, b. develop their ideas using ICT

tools to amend and refine their work and enhance its

quality and accuracy, c. exchange and share

information, both directly and through electronic

media, d. review, modify and evaluate their work,

reflecting critically on its quality, as it progresses”

(Loveless & als, 2001:68).

Internet courses usually apply four main

education models, -transmission model of teaching

and learning, constructivist model, socio-cultural

model, metacognitive model-, described by Rumble

(2001) who underlines that distance education

technology can influence in a serious way the

development of constructivist and socio-cultural

model. In fact the project described in this paper was

built to serve constructivist and social-cultural

models as learners follow interesting and important

work, not limited in the schoolbook, and interact

between the material and themselves in order to

establish knowledge. The “Aristomenous teaching

project”, by using educational material in on line

courses that are based in collaborative activities,

learning sources and group projects, follows the type

of the “Integrated Model”, among three categories of

distance education models (Content and Support

Model, Wrap Around Model, Integrated Model) as

described by Mason (1998). Online education is

mainly based in collaboration between tutors and

learners. Collaborative learning is an “umbrella

term” for a variety of educational approaches

involving joint intellectual effort by students, or

students and teachers together (Smith &

MacGregor,1992) and it is considered to achieve

several goals for education, such as social and

intellectual involvements, cooperation and teamwork

as well as civic responsibility. Such an educational

method enhances reposition from the typical

teacher-centered or lectured-centered classroom to a

profound research and cooperation between tutors

and learners who take responsibility of their personal

learning. Not only students receive information or

ideas but they are creating something new with

information ideas. In fact, on one hand, technology

in active learning allows the learner to be in control

of the learning by investigating information and

problems and on the other hand, technology in

interactive learning is mediating the interactions of

learners and allows learning to emerge (USDOE,

2009).

According to the above principles, students

participating in “Aristomenous project” are evolved

in a multiple research in order to represent the

history, the commercial value, the architecture of the

buildings of the street, serving to special commercial

and every day needs. Asynchronous communication

that strongly supports long-distance collaboration

CSEDU 2011 - 3rd International Conference on Computer Supported Education

292

among learners (Thurlow & als, 2004) is used in the

present project. In addition, advice e-mails

exchanging between group members, students of

school, of university in situ and tutors, provide the

personalized support that is needed.

The goals and processes of collaborative

activities vary widely. Hernández-Leo et als (2005)

propose the formalization of representative

structuring techniques in collaborative learning in

such a way that Computer Supported Collaborative

Learning (CSCL) systems could reuse the best

practices according to the requirements of a concrete

learning situation. Among several Collaborative

Learning Flow Patterns (CLFPs) proposed, our

particular learning scenario was based on two

popular techniques: Pyramid and Jigsaw.

- Jigsaw: An assessment is divided into parts and

given to students, firstly in an “individual phase”.

Then comes next “the expert phase” with all

students from each learning team volunteering to

become “experts” on one of the parts. They work

together in a team to master the part of the material

and also to discover the best way to help others

learn. All experts then reassemble in their home

learning teams where they teach the other group

members (“jigsaw phase”). In our learning scenario

this role was engaged by the faculty students who

firstly searched the right sources (references, photos

or others) to answer to each topic and then they

worked together in order to support the school pupils

in mastering the material.

- Pyramid: Pupils work in couples in order to

share their responses to the instructor’s question.

During the next step they share their opinions within

a four-person team, within a larger group and with

the entire class during a follow-up discussion. The

learning scenario of mathematics and sociology

secondary school courses follows this technique.

Some members have as a task to answer specific

questions others have to produce a product or

participate in a process of responding to each other

(Jonassen, 1996 & 2000). Students work together in

groups with the simultaneous help of their student

tutor described above (jigsaw) who answers their

questions, gives them material, directs and motivates

them. Their group is enlarged in a second phase and

it ends by containing the entire class.

The benefits are significant. As learners are

assigned issues and positions to argue and they are

encouraged to business simulation or role plays, they

are seriously involved. Jonassen (2000: 195)

explains that the most effective computer

conferences must have a specific purpose. Harasim

(1990) found that learners perceive themselves as

reflecting more on their thoughts while participating

in a computer conference than when engaging in

face-to-face or telephone conversation. Discussion

boards provide a communication space where the

members of the learning team can contribute ideas.

Since talk occupies a crucial position in the

classroom “in any consideration of principal agents

of learning” (Cohen, 1996:220) and is considered as

the “only readily available manifestation of the

extent and process by which mutual understandings

of what counts as knowledge in any context are

transacted” (Adelman and Walker, 1974), the

communication between members of different

education levels (highschool-university), ages (8

and 11

grade- second year students) and socio-

geographic areas (Athens-Kalamata) that makes that

“talk” rather interesting.

2.1 Description of the Learning

Scenario

Students of philology lack of educational experience

and practice. Teaching skills, as we know, grow by

communicating with learners. On the other hand,

teenage learners need to be fed with information in

order to cultivate their critical mind and with

encouragement for a more positive working attitude.

In order to answer to this problem, the instructors

have chosen a combination of physical presence and

asynchronus tools communication that found useful

to the educational tasks of the project. Their

approach took under consideration the best practices,

the specific student group to be served, the way the

learning should best emerge “using technology as a

tool to foster deep learning and critical thinking

skills” (Fink, 2003; Garrison, Anderson & Archer,

2000; Majeski & Stover, 2007).

There are three large groups of participants:

- Group A: about 26 volunteering students of

the University of Peloponnese, Kalamata.

They are second year students of philology

attending an introductive course of ICT.

- Group B: about 25 students, 8

grade, of the

Psychico College of the Hellenic American

Educational Foundation, a private secondary

school, attending a special mathematics

course in the frame of a curriculum of

learning activities that includes diversity of

practices in math teaching to respond to the

diverse needs of students: problem based

inquiry process, hands-on activities, minds-

on activities, team work, independent work

on open-ended questions, trans-disciplinary

A SMALL TOWN'S STREET AS AN EDUCATIONAL PROJECT - A Case Study: Asynchronus Interdisciplinary

Education between a Greek University and Two Secondary Schools

293

activities, showing relevance of science

content.

- Group C: about 14 students, 11

grade, of

Geitonas School, private secondary school of

Athens, attending a chosen course of

sociology.

As mentioned above, these groups follow

collaborative activities and Computer Supported

Collaborative Learning systems such as “pyramid”

and “jigsaw”. At the same time, students get

familiarized to asynchronous learning and

asynchronous communicating, through a V.L.E.,

Course Management System, platform. Their

teachers appreciate the opportunity to manage their

course, therefore a set of teaching and learning tools

designed to enhance a student's learning experience

is used in order to create the virtual learning

environment such as curriculum mapping, electronic

communication and Internet links to outside

curriculum resources as principal components of

V.L.E.

Group C, divided in smaller groups, is assigned

to answer to special questions about Aristomenous

Street:

i. What is the social and financial importance of

Aristomenous street (1871) joining the port

with the centre of the town of Kalamata?

ii. Street’s development: could it be related to

the development of urbanism?

iii. Form a catalogue of well known buildings of

the street and relate them to financial and

social powerful families of the Kalamata

society.

iv. Relate the special architecture of neoclassic

buildings to the inhabitants needs.

v. Describe the active commercial value of the

street nowadays.

Group B, also divided in smaller groups, explore

areas of mathematics such as statistics and

stereometry and is assigned to address special issues

as:

i. applying mathematical knowledge in

representing the characteristics of neo-classic

buildings of Aristomenous st., using 3d

designing software,

ii. applying mathematical knowledge in

elaborating statistics on group B’s research

findings.

Iii forming links between classroom and the real

world

iv. tackling gendered patterns.

Realistic maths is considered as a human activity

and therefore a human value. They should try to be

connected with reality, with society and with

childhood (Freudenthal, 1973). Students get

interested in what they study since they easily can

see the direct relation with their societies and their

lives. They have the feeling they contribute to

community by applying their knowledge.

Group A is also divided in smaller groups who,

sometimes, as mentioned above, get the role of

future educator:

i. They exercise the educational material of the

course attended such as, using word

processors, typing, sending e-mails,

elaborate slideshow presentations, etc.

ii. They support as tutors the two other large

groups through their research by stimulating,

by giving advice, references and multimedia

material of their town, since many

departments are now starting to see the

possibilities in linking fieldwork and ICT

and turn fieldwork into a learning package

(Walsh, 2004: 126).

2.2 Evaluation Design

As described above, our position is that general and

special tasks are served by the present project: in

addition to the fact that a group in situ could provide

useful and creditable information to others,

communication between different ages and

backgrounds for educational purposes is the

demanding area.

The applied project is based on hypothesis that i. the

students will elaborate their teaching skills by the

contact of teenagers in a more relaxing environment

than classroom. ii. Learners of different age and

cognitive level and object will have a more clear

view about collaboration possibilities and age “gaps.

iii. Prejudice items concerning the “bad relations”

between female teachers and new technologies could

also be reviewed by the application of a blended

learning project. iv. A motivation air could be

detected in the university course and in the two

secondary level classes of mathematics and

sociology. v. Being evaluated by others, not face to

face but via distant computer communication, will

rather provide learners in a ‘more softly” way with

criteria and evaluating skills of self evaluation.

J. Walther (1992) has noted that “given sufficient

time and message exchanges for interpersonal

impression formation and relational development to

accrue, and all other things being equal, relational

[quality] in later periods of CMC and FtF

communication will be the same (1992:69); “given

sufficient time, however, people get used to CMC

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and develop ways of compensating for the loss of

non-verbal cues” (1992:51).

Evaluating tools: The application of

Aristomenous project is a rather interesting field in

searching the use of language between learners and

tutors of different age, level and areas, as it develops

during their asynchronous communication in the

VLE platform: it will be examined, for exemple the

type of the language, formal or not, phrases

indicating teaching or learning attitude, etc.

It is also interesting to see whether the cognitive

material for each large group has been sufficiently

acquired via interdisciplinary objects and if further

tasks such as higher-order skills in digital culture

and metacognitive self knowledge have been gained.

In similar cases, is adapted an application of a

mixed-evaluation method in order to combine social

network analysis with quantative and qualititative

analysis in order to study participatory aspects of

learning in computer supported collaborative

learning (Martínez & als, 2006). The project will be

applied for three school years in order to get the

maximum information and a satisfactory number of

research elements and will be based on the

information provided by the VLE platform.

Moreover, information provided by the VLE

platform will be helpful in the procedure of self

assessment:

- to maintain collaboration and social interaction

between students

- to promote a self-reflective environment

- to include current or immediate applications

(On line tests, On line queries).

Personal interviews, rubriques of self assessment

and quantative and qualitative analysis of the textual

communication among groups during each stage of

the planned learning procedure is hoped to give

several answers. During the academic year 2010-11,

a pilot project is taking place in order to prepare the

three years’ project.

3 CONCLUSIONS

Asynchronous communication supports long-

distance collaboration among learners. As

communication via internet supports the

collaboration and human communication in a frame

of virtual class, a project of interdisciplinary

(realistic maths, sociology and education) e-learning

is designed between learners of different ages,

education levels and socio-geographic areas. The

present learning scenario was based on two popular

techniques of Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns:

Pyramid and Jigsaw, applied in an a-synchronous

communication environment and designed to be

evaluated in order to get quantative and qualitative

analysis. The case study analysed suggests

optimistic results to the educational needs of

students. We must be cautious however, before

lounching the 3year project. For example, technical

difficulties have appeared in everyday use of internet

in classroom that affect the counts of frequency of

the users of the platform. The questionnaire given

and the personal interview have already suggested

small corrections in the form of the assignments

given. Finally, the language used between users

indicates teaching evolution.

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