ISBN: 978-972-8924-31-7 © 2007 IADIS GEMINATION WITH EDUCATION – A CASE STUDY OF OUTCLASS António Batel Anjo Department of Mathematics University of Aveiro batel@ua.pt Alexandre Mota Silva Department of Mathematics University of Aveiro alex@pmate.ua.pt Rita N. Gaspar Department of Mathematics University of Aveiro rgaspar@pmate.ua.pt ABSTRACT Outclass is an e-community project of informal education for children of elementary educational levels. The project intends to develop the Portuguese language and digital literacy, increase the use of computers and Internet as a tool for teaching Mathematics and others sciences. The Portuguese Cooperation jointly with the Education Minister of Mozambique created a different way to use and put the Internet in the centre of the education process. KEYWORDS Assisted learning, informal learning, e-community, intercultural competencies. 1. INTRODUCTION Nowadays, with the exponential growth of web information and the number of users accessing and working over the Internet, the appearance and implementation of Communication Learning Platforms (CLP) on the web [1] became possible. In a CLP, the knowledge is characterized by flexibility of training and development of interactive learning processes. Thus, the web is not defined just as a technology of transmitting and accessing information, but also as an interactive and edification learning platform for users. Along with these conditions, and having the information and communication networks as support, learning is developed from the creation and interaction of e-communities where new pedagogic perspectives of learning are focused [3]. These perspectives can be described as an informal education that is defined as a non institutional, non programmed and unexpected model where people learn in according to their needs, time and will. This type of education is created outside the normal system of teaching (schools), where activities are organized according to the user needs, in a natural way. The Outclass Project [4, 5] is integrated logistically within PmatE and Pensas@moz projects, and defines very well this type of informal education, while using a Communication Learning Platform. The social interaction and group identity describes very well this type of “web community”. Intcultnet (EU project 2003-2005), SNOWBLOG (Middle East 2003-2006), and other pioneering educational projects are being implemented, but this project intends to introduce, in Portugal, a new form of cooperation where e-communities are present and creates germination threw education and threw science. 58 IADIS International Conference on Web Based Communities 2007 The main purpose of this learning platform is to adapt the contents of learning strategies for children from distinct countries, Portugal and Mozambique, who share a common language, the Portuguese language. Other specific objectives are the indicators of knowledge, development of language proficiencies, math knowledge and digital literacy (prior condition in this project). The intercultural interaction developed by this project, provides children not only with new knowledge and skills, but also a deeper understanding of their own cultural identity and background, which is regarded as an important element of inter (cultural) competence. This paper is organized as follows: in section 2 we will give a short indication of Outclass partners, Pensas@moz and PmatE projects. In section 3 we intend to describe Outclass Project, its contributions and practical results. Finally, in section 4 the conclusions and in section 5 future work. 2. OUTCLASS PARTNERS Outclass project has the contribution of two other projects, PmatE and PENSAS@moz projects, that we describe as follow. 2.1 PmatE PmatE is a project regarding Math education, which develops educational software available only over the internet. Since 1990, the purpose of PmatE is to create a platform of computer-aided teaching from primary schools to undergraduate studies. PmatE is also involved with higher education. Through TDmat, a diagnosis test in University of Aveiro, all first year students in sciences and technology are submitted to a test to verify obtained knowledge and the basic competences acquired. It also diagnoses the gaps and fragilities that they reveal. It supports disciplines like Calculus I, II and III, the discipline of Numerical Methods and digitalises contents of the discipline of Digital Systems. It also maintains three projects for Primary and Secondary School levels: the Gulbenkian EXI@mat, the INmat and the viver@matemática, an e-manual for the 6th degree that allies the traditional concept of school manual to a system of information in the Internet. Decided upon internationalization, activities in African Portuguese Speaking countries (PALOP) like Mozambique and São Tomé e Principe have been developed. Currently, and accordingly with Portuguese Cooperation, there are plans to extend the project to other African Portuguese Speaking countries like Angola, Guiné-Bissau and Cabo Verde. In Mozambique, PmatE develops a project called pensas@moz – Platform to Assisted Learning of Mozambique. 2.2 PENSAS@MOZ PENSAS@moz [5], project has the following objectives: 1. teaching Mathematics; 2. development of Portuguese language; 3. increase the use of computers and Internet as a tool for Mathematics teaching; and 4. Building learning objects – so called models generated questions - to different classes. Other specific objectives are the indicators of knowledge, teacher’s training and qualification. The Portuguese Cooperation jointly with the Education Minister of Mozambique created a Network of schools with at least one major school in each Mozambican province. To characterize these major schools we developed the concept of “dynamic school”. A “dynamic school” has a laboratory with up to 20 computers connected permanently to the Internet and works as a gateway to the neighbour’s schools – so called “satellite schools”. The dynamic school teachers must support the training of satellite schools teachers and maintenance of the laboratories. The students and teachers of satellite schools should regularly use the laboratory and learning materials. 59 ISBN: 978-972-8924-31-7 © 2007 IADIS 3. OUTCLASS PROJECT Outclass Project have the following objectives: Development of Portuguese language; 1. Increase the use of computers and Internet; 2. Increase the use of computers and the Internet as a tool for teaching Mathematics and the Portuguese language; 3. Development of digital literacy. Other specific objectives are the indicators of knowledge, teacher and student training. The Portuguese Cooperation jointly with the Education Minister of Mozambique and Portugal created a web community with students of two distinct schools (one in Portugal and the other in Mozambique). Like, PENSAS Project, OutClass creates in Mozambique a different way to use the Internet and put it in the centre of the education process. In parallel with the installation of the Outclass Network Infrastructure we started, in a first phase, to test the acquaintance of the students and teachers with the technological infrastructures within their classrooms. During the second phase, we work together with teachers and scientific investigators to create contents and applications of these activities. In a near future, we plan to continue the training of teachers and educators to expand this project. One recurrent question in Projects like this is the sustainability of the infrastructures. Outclass used one infrastructure installed by INclass enterprise, in Portugal, and other infrastructure installed by PENSAS project in Mozambique. This is a good example of cooperation between a University, Government and Enterprises. 3.1 Contributions The intentions of this e-community project are: a) Improve the writing, therefore the activities proposals are followed of close by the teachers; b) Develop new ways of expression, the students are obliged to express themselves through the writing, having as immediate effect of structures of the ideas and capacity of synthesis; c) Develop social and cultural competences, this is one of the aspects most important and that it exceeds, in many aspects, the socialization objective. The contact with different realities can bring to these students a different agreement of the world; d) Add children satisfaction of life. e) Develop the interest of Portuguese language and sciences. Other contributions to relate are: a) The familiarization of the students with new information technologies, learning to use tools of communication in real time. b) Develop the interest for sciences and the capacity of work in group. 3.2 Practical Results This project has been developed and applied in two schools, a Portuguese and a Mozambique school, with students of elementary levels. In these schools, students are distributed in groups, and every week different activities, within their educational content, are proposed to them. All weekly activities involve the use of computers and internet by students to accomplish the proposed tasks. Activities are illustrated and adequately applied to students, in a gradual form and with a strong component of technological infrastructures. In the beginning, the primary aim of these activities was to test the acquaintance of the students with technological infrastructures in order to identify the deficiencies and ability to develop the content of the activities. The participative method (PM) is used with frequency in this CLP; its concerns are student needs, self-respect and new opportunities to share experiences. The intentions of applying this PM method to this e-community are to benefit: social welfare of the children, capacity of communication and analysis of the students, ability to express ideas and solve problems. When correctly motivated, students can successfully obtain the basic abilities of education by means of any learning material available. The identification, evaluation and recognition of learning with informal education from this project are basically based on a natural approach. The evaluation of this learning system attends the following objectives: 1. Measures the level of informal learning. In a practical sense, no system can work well if no information of it evolution is know or considered. 2. Measures the interest level of users in e-community. 60 IADIS International Conference on Web Based Communities 2007 3. Measures the enthusiasm level of users by working with new information technologies; 4. Measures the capacity level of users to work in group; The activities developed for implementation and learning of this CLP involve: 1. The knowledge of the places where these e-communities are to be installed; 2. Content adaptation to previous knowledge and student experiences; 3. Content adaptation to student knowledge of the Portuguese language; 4. Content adaptation with the propose to motivate and stimulate students to continue learning after the occurrence of the activities; For all this, we created a survey with eleven simple questions to evaluate if the initial goals are being achieved, if teachers and students like this type of learning method and how they see their evolution in working with new information technologies. The questions 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 measure the interest level of users in OutClass project; questions 4, 7, 8 and 9 measure the enthusiasm level of users by working with new information technologies; questions 2, 3, 11 measure the capacity of users to work in group and finally questions 5, 6 and 10 the level of informal learning (see survey in Appendix A). A statistic analysis was made from these results. For example, measuring the level interest of two types of users (Portuguese and Mozambique) in e-community we obtained the following results (see figure 1): Level interest of Mozambique users in CLP Level interest of Portuguese users in CLP 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 16 16 16 15 No Yes Q1 Q2 Q3 Q5 No 0 0 0 1 Yes 16 16 16 15 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 16 16 16 16 No Yes Q1 Q2 Q3 No 0 0 0 Q5 0 Yes 16 16 16 16 Figure 1. Interest level of users in OutClass Project. As you can observe in figure 1, the level of interest of both users in this e-community is positive. In a general way, students and teachers are strongly motivated. Until this moment, four activities were carried out (consult Appendix B) with these students, concerning the context of the knowledge acquired in the school. While measuring the level of interest of these activities we obtained the following results (see figure 2): Most interesting activity for Portuguese users Most interesting activity for Mozam bique users 2 1 1 3 Act ivit y 1 13 4 Act ivit y 2 Act ivit y 3 Act ivit y 3 Act ivit y 4 7 Act ivit y 1 Act ivit y 2 Act ivit y 4 13 Figure 2. Interest level of users in activities The last activity carried out with these students resulted in a greater level of interest developed by them. This activity had a component of drawing that induced a very strong interactivity between students of the two schools; they had to paint their country flag and guess how and what colours consisted the flag of their colleague’s country. 61 ISBN: 978-972-8924-31-7 © 2007 IADIS In a general way, we consider this work to have positive results. The interactivity with computer and internet, the learning of different cultures and social aspects, the innovation in learning (formal and informal) created a good ambient of friendship and knowledge. 4. CONCLUSION Looking to become possible the informal learning of contends, Outclass project was developed with the objective of training the Portuguese language in Portuguese official language countries. This system of e-community is being used with a peer-to-peer network, and because of its simplicity and easiness of sharing archives makes this mission more sophisticated and simple. At this moment, Outclass is in an experimental state with positive results. The students interact with the CLP in an increasing and efficient way, having a strong relationship group. The natural curiosity of these children makes this e-community a strong and important method for children formal education. 5. FUTURE WORK The Outclass is a learning project of formal and informal education that we desire to develop for new educational areas and enclose on all levels of education. Its main goal is to stimulate the searching for a mathematical, physics and biologics challenge to group a great e-community of informal education for Portuguese language and sciences. REFERENCES BRUSILOVSKY, P., 2001, Adaptive Hypermedia. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, no. 11. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 87-110. Alcântara, Fernanda; Martins, Isabel (Dezembro de 2000). “Intercompreensão na Educação Formal e Não-Formal em Ciências – O Desafio Actual”. Revista de Didáctica das Línguas, nº 8. Ferreira, Ana Fialho (1987). “Material como Auxiliar na Motivação da Aprendizagem”. Noesis, Dezembro 86/ Janeiro 87. http://pmate.ua.pt , last visit 23-11-2006. Anjo, António Batel, Pinto, Joaquim Sousa, Oliveira, Maria Paula, "Pensas@moz", IST-Africa 2006 Conference Proceedings Paul Cunningham and Miriam Cunningham (Eds), IIMC International Information Management Corporation, 2006, ISBN: 1-905824-01-7. Spector, M. et al. (2002) Networked Learning: Perspectives and Issues, Springer-Verlag, ISBN 1-85233-471-1, pp.93– 109 APPENDIX A: Quiz Read carefully all these questions and answer each one of them, using a cross (X) in the box of your choice. 1. Do you like writing to your colleagues using the internet? Yes No 2. 3. 4. 5. 62 Do you like working as a team with your friends at school? Yes No Do you like working as a team with your colleagues from the other school? Yes No Do you find it hard to work on the computer? Yes No Have you been learning with these tasks? Yes No IADIS International Conference on Web Based Communities 2007 6. 7. 8. Which was, until now, the task that you enjoyed the most to do? 6.1 The game 6.2 The favorite menu 6.3 First aid rules 6.4 World flags Do you enjoy the software that you use to talk with your colleagues by the web? Yes No Would you like to work more often with the computer? Yes No APPENDIX B: Activity 1 Title: The Game Objective: x Foment the understanding of the structure and the basic functioning of Portuguese language (verbal and writing); x Recognize that Portuguese language is an instrument of transmission and creation cultures; x Gradual domain of the expression and communication ways with children’s. Material: Computer, Internet, world map, digital camera, pen, etc. Activity 2 Title: The favorite menu Objective: x Recognize the importance of a healthful feeding; x Identify the most important foods for a normal and greets life; x Recognize the different types of food ( Portuguese and Mozambique food); x Develop the Portuguese language. Material: Computer, Internet, pen, etc. Activity 3 Title: First aid rules Objective: x Recognize some first aid rules; o Prick of animals; o Hemorrhages; x Recognize the first aid rules material; x Develop the Portuguese language and new technologies of information. Material: Computer, Internet, pen, etc. Activity 4 Title: World flags Objective: x Recognize national symbols: flag of Portuguese and Mozambique countries; x Recognize world flags applying theories of group of mathematics ( World flags, PALOP flags and flags of countries with Portuguese language with official language); x Develop the Portuguese language and new technologies of information. Material: Computer, Internet, pen, paper, etc. 63