A Tool to Support Students-to-Teacher Feedback in Asynchronous Online Contexts

In recent years, the world of education has become increasingly Hybrid (online / on location) and Flexible (synchronous / asynchronous). One of the risks of these mixed environments is the distance between teacher and students that can make interaction, a crucial component of the teaching / learning process, more difficult. This paper introduces Evoli, a tool to support the “HyFlex model”; more specifically, the component dealing with online / asynchronous mode. Evoli enables teachers to receive precise, time-stamped feedback by their students on educational materials (typically videos). Students go through the materials and express their level of understanding as well as their questions and comments. Dashboards with the students' data allow the teacher to know, topic by topic, what is clear and what is not and thus how to organize the synchronous sessions. The tool was evaluated in a real-life setting, involving 63 graduate students in a course on Plasma Physics. The students filled in a System Usability Scale questionnaire and some questions regarding the perceived usefulness of the tool; the teacher's opinion was gathered via a semi-structured interview. Results show that students found the tool both usable and useful; the teacher's opinion was that the tool allowed prompting more reactions than a normal setting and an optimization of teaching organization

Distributed TPACK. What kind of teachers does it work for?

Technology at school can be either integrated as an everyday support to normal, curricular activities or as a trigger for special projects. Drawing on the distributed cognition theory, the distributed TPACK (Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge) model (Di Blas et al., 2014) claims that, at least in the latter case, the knowledge required does not reside in just the teacher’s head but is rather distributed within a complex system of resources that includes students, colleagues, relatives, experts, the internet, etc. After introducing the distributed interpretation of the TPACK model, this paper focuses on the profile of the teachers who “enact” it within their classroom, based on data from a large case-study with digital storytelling at school. Results are quite surprising: most of the teachers are quite aged, with more than 20 years of teaching experience, with a background in humanities rather than science; many admit a poor command of Technology Knowledge. Yet, they succeed: benefits for their students are substantial, over a wide spectrum. What lesson can be drawn? That contrary to what may be expected, PK and not TK is probably the issue when introducing technology at school

Multi-User Virtual Environments Fostering Collaboration in Formal Education

This paper is about how serious games based on MUVEs in formal education can foster collaboration. More specifically, it is about a large case-study with 4 different programs which took place from 2002 to 2009 and involved more than 9,000 students, aged between 12 and 18, from various nations (18 European countries, Israel and the USA). These programs proved highly effective into fostering a number of transversal skills, among which collaboration (both remote and in presence), stood out as prominent. The paper will introduce the four programs, the way they were designed to foster collaboration and the data on their impact. Overall, the conclusion is that a technology-based educational experience can be successful only if technology is seen as a “mediator” and all the activities that go with it are carefully designed in view of the educational goal and taking into consideration the whole context into which the experience will be embedded. This means that designers of technology-based educational experiences must be ready to make changes and adjustments according to how the experience (which can be compared to a living “creature”) thrives and reacts to the “environment” (the school, the teachers, the students…) in a sort of “evolutionary” life cycle quite different from an engineered blue-print

Prima e durante la pandemia: pratiche didattiche e di formazione degli insegnanti nei diversi ordini e gradi scolastici

How did the teaching practices of teachers change during the Covid-19 emergency? How did the teachers train to deal with it? The case study presented in this article is based on data collected through an online questionnaire administered to a sample of almost 1000 teachers (from kindergarten to upper secondary school) participating in a MOOC (“massive” online course) made available by HOC-LAB of the Politecnico di Milano between March and June 2020. The results tell us that remote teaching is significantly adopted when the pandemic arrives, with an increase in the synchronous mode compared to the asynchronous one as the school level increases. New forms of interaction between teacher and pupils are born (individual meetings, small group meetings in extra-school hours); there is a correlation between the commitment to guarantee synchronous lessons and the availability for these further meetings (proactive approach), as well as between the sharing of videos (found on the internet) and the sharing of asynchronous materials compared to synchronous meetings (more “traditional” approach). As for training, teachers have resorted to forms that are not particularly institutionalized (MOOCs, web resources, colleagues...), confirming an already existing pre-pandemic trend.Come sono cambiate le pratiche didattiche dei docenti durante l'emergenza Covid-19? Come si sono formati i docenti per affrontarla? Lo studio di caso presentato in questo articolo si basa su dati raccolti tramite un questionario online somministrato a un campione di quasi 1000 docenti (dalla scuola dell’infanzia alla se-condaria di secondo grado) partecipanti a un MOOC (corso online “massivo”) reso disponibile da HOC-LAB del Politecnico di Milano tra marzo e giugno del 2020. I risultati ci dicono che la didattica remota viene significativamente adottata all’arrivo della pandemia, con aumento di quella sincrona rispetto all’asincrona al crescere del livello scolastico. Nascono nuove forme di interazione tra docente e allievi (incontri individuali, incontri a piccoli gruppi in orari extra-scolastici); si riscontra una correlazione tra l’impegno nel ga-rantire lezioni sincrone e la disponibilità per questi incontri ulteriori (approccio proattivo), come di contro tra la condivisione di video (rinvenuti su internet) e la condivisione di materiali asincrona rispetto ad incontri sincroni (approccio più “tradizionale”). Quanto alla formazione, i docenti hanno fatto ricorso a forme non particolarmente istituzionalizzate (MOOC, risorse web, colleghi...), confermando una tendenza già esistente pre-pandemia

Evaluating the features of Museum Websites (The Bologna Report)

MiLE (Milano – Lugano Evaluation Method) is an innovative method for evaluating the quality and usability of hypermedia applications. This paper focuses upon the specific “module” of MiLE concerning cultural heritage applications, synthesizing the results of research carried on by a group of seven museum experts of Bologna (Italy), with the joint coordination of IBC (Institute for the Cultural Heritage of the Emilia Romagna Region) and Politecnico di Milano. The “Bologna group” is composed of different professional figures working in the museum domain: museum curators of artistic, archaeological and historical heritage; museum communication experts; Web sites of cultural institutions’ communication experts. After illustrating the general features of MiLE and the specific features for Cultural Heritage, we will briefly show a few of the results which are to be published in the “Bologna Report”

Italian teachers and Technology-Knowledge training

This article aims to answer the question “how are Italian teachers trained in technological skills (TK)?”, in the framework of the distributed TPACK model. According to this model, different supports and sources interplay in a learning context. The discussion is based on data collected through a questionnaire delivered to more than 1,300 teachers on the job; the focus is, in particular, on lower and upper secondary school teachers. The results show how teachers benefit from a plurality of sources, preferring the “informal” ones.   I docenti italiani e la formazione alle competenze tecnologiche Questo articolo mira a rispondere alla domanda “come i docenti italiani si formano alle competenze tecnologiche”, nel quadro di riferimento del modello TPACK distribuito, secondo il quale una varietà di supporti e fonti agisce in un contesto d’apprendimento. La discussione si basa sui dati raccolti attraverso un questionario erogato a più di 1300 docenti in servizio; il focus è in particolare sui docenti di scuola secondaria inferiore e superiore. I risultati mostrano come i docenti fruiscano di una pluralità di fonti, prediligendo quelle “informali”

Italian teachers and Technology-Knowledge training = I docenti italiani e la formazione alle competenze tecnologiche

Questo articolo mira a rispondere alla domanda \u201ccome i docenti italiani si formano alle competenze tecnologiche\u201d, nel quadro di riferimento del modello TPACK distribuito, secondo il quale una variet\ue0 di supporti e fonti agisce in un contesto d\u2019apprendimento. La discussione si basa sui dati raccolti attraverso un questionario erogato a pi\uf9 di 1300 docenti in servizio; il focus \ue8 in particolare sui docenti di scuola secondaria inferiore e superiore. I risultati mostrano come i docenti fruiscano di una pluralit\ue0 di fonti, prediligendo quelle \u201cinformali\u201d.This article aims to answer the question \u201chow are Italian teachers trained in technological skills (TK)?\u201d, in the framework of the distributed TPACK model. According to this model, different supports and sources interplay in a learning context. The discussion is based on data collected through a questionnaire delivered to more than 1,300 teachers on the job; the focus is, in particular, on lower and upper secondary school teachers. The results show how teachers benefit from a plurality of sources, preferring the \u201cinformal\u201d ones

Italian teachers and Technology-Knowledge training

This article aims to answer the question “how are Italian teachers trained in technological skills (TK)?”, in the framework of the distributed TPACK model. According to this model, different supports and sources interplay in a learning context. The discussion is based on data collected through a questionnaire delivered to more than 1,300 teachers on the job; the focus is, in particular, on lower and upper secondary school teachers. The results show how teachers benefit from a plurality of sources, preferring the “informal” ones. I docenti italiani e la formazione alle competenze tecnologicheQuesto articolo mira a rispondere alla domanda “come i docenti italiani si formano alle competenze tecnologiche”, nel quadro di riferimento del modello TPACK distribuito, secondo il quale una varietà di supporti e fonti agisce in un contesto d’apprendimento. La discussione si basa sui dati raccolti attraverso un questionario erogato a più di 1300 docenti in servizio; il focus è in particolare sui docenti di scuola secondaria inferiore e superiore. I risultati mostrano come i docenti fruiscano di una pluralità di fonti, prediligendo quelle “informali”

A virtual reality classroom to teach and explore crystal solid state structures

We present an educational application of virtual reality that we created to help students gain an in-depth understanding of the internal structure of crystals and related key concepts. Teachers can use it to give lectures to small groups (10-15) of students in a shared virtual environment, both remotely (with teacher and students in different locations) and locally (while sharing the same physical space). Lectures can be recorded, stored in an online repository, and shared with students who can either review a recorded lecture in the same virtual environment or can use the application for self-studying by exploring a large collection of available crystal structures. We validated our application with human subjects receiving positive feedback