Postcard+(giugno+2012)

=Third postcard from Guercino School (Bologna, Italy)= = Project Review - Outcomes and next steps =

1.1. The project
 The project has continued following the lines drawn in the second postcard. Since we could use only one tablet per lesson, it was assigned to a group of students at a time and they took turns. Working in a small group of between two and five individuals is a typical activity for many students in our school; however, most of the time all the groups work on the same task simultaneously. Having just one tablet forced the teacher to assign different tasks to the different groups: while only one group of four or five students was working with the tablet, the rest of the class was doing something different, getting together at the end of the lesson.

The students were kept actively busy in a variety of independent activities that reinforced and strengthened basic skills. The group of pupils with the tablet joined the class activity carrying on a specific task, which could be:
 * researching data, images or websites relating to the topic of the lesson on the internet;
 * documenting the activities of the class with recordings, images and videos (see figure 1);[[image:Senza titolo 3.jpg width="360" height="202" align="right" caption="Figure 1"]]
 * using special software to create exercises or examples of the same activities done in class using the IWB or the book;
 * practicing English with the extra activities of the digital book;

Small learning groups from three to four have been an important component that makes a more personalized education possible. While searching for educational resources on the Internet or recording the activities could also be done using the school equipment (PCs, IWB, cameras), the personalization of education with specific tasks assigned to different pupils was the natural consequence of having just one tablet. A summary of their activities, as an image, a concept map or a list of points was then projected for the whole group to see on the IWB at the end of the session.



The special educational needs teacher exploited the tablet to work with a mentally retarded student who uses Augmentive Communication Devices to communicate with others (tables created with Boardmaker software, see figure 2). The use of the tablet has been very useful for the disabled student and has facilitated his integration. The student could easily access his communicative tables saved on the desktop to communicate with his classmates and teachers.

Unfortunately, due to a series of earthquakes occurred in the area, our school was closed and lessons have undergone an abrupt halt, so that certain activities could not be accomplished. Relating to that, we would like to mention that on May 29th, after a strong earth tremor we were ordered to evacuate and to stay in the school yard for the whole morning. Outside, while the mobile phones were not working, thanks to the Wi-Fi connection of the school the tablet was used by the class to read the news site @http://www.ingv.it/ and by one of the teachers to write on the school website that everybody was safe!

‍‍‍‍1.2. The product
The operating system that the tablet uses is the same as the other equipment (PCs and IWBs) of the school, and this has allowed the use of the software commonly used in our school activities (Geogebra, Open Office, Paint, Windows Live Movie Maker and so on) and has facilitated the transfer of files from the tablet to other devices without the need of conversion. During the various activities it was possible to comprehend which were the most appropriate having a tablet, and which were better suited for effective teaching practices. We particularly appreciated the two USB 2.0 ports, and the HDMI port.

The tablet also presents some limitations. Some of these (weight, limited storage) have been already reported in the second postcard. Here it is worth emphasizing the limitations of audiovisual production: the position of the microphone is on the opposite side of the front facing camera, with its consequent loss of audio recording during capture live video. The video quality was poor, and the limited storage did not allow to work on a project on an continuing basis, having to download the videos in an external HD. The low light of the screen turned out to be another limitation, especially for students with visual impairments. Finally, since Windows is not really meant to run on a touchscreen device, we very often wished we had a mouse with us while using the tablet.

1.3. Resources that you have found particularly useful
Many of the resources used during the school year are listed in the second postcard.

The **teachers** who participated in the project have used a mailing list devoted to the project and they used a wiki (http://www.wikispaces.com ) to write or collaborate on documents. Dropbox (@https://www.dropbox.com/) was used to store and exchange resources and work done by pupils.

The **students** were encouraged to use resources already listed in the sites selected by teachers, for example wikimedia commons (@http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page). It was necessary to explain how to use a browser and the importance of copyright: in most cases, in fact, when the students looked for an image using a search engine, they did not consider that the image could be copyrighted, since it was inserted in a website. In the site Wikispecies the pupils could find some images for the science activities that could be used without copyright (@http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page).

Some websites have been found by the pupils. For example, when they were asked to find remedial math materials, students have found @http://www.scuolaelettrica.it/quiz/media/matematica/seconda.htm and http://www.robertosconocchini.it/didattica-con-la-lim/2741-matematica-con-la-lim.html. The links were then added to Moodle (@http://www.ic9bo.it/Moodle - the Virtual Learning Environment that all the school uses) along with those chosen by the teacher. (@http://www.teachingfractions.co.uk/).

2. Links to other projects/evidence
Since the beginning of the ‘90s, ICT has been integrated into the overall strategy of school-life, transforming it into an ICT rich environment. In particular, a three-year project "Cl@ssi 2.0" (Classroom 2.0) has just finished. It was a national project promoted by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, which intended to experiment the introduction of ICT in the daily didactic. This project had its roots in the Digital Classroom of Tomorrow (DCOT) Project, which included a 1:1 experiment. In September 2011 the students of one class were given free Internet-ready desktop computers thanks to the funds of the project Cl@ssi 2.0., so that these 25 students worked with laptops in the class for two years.

During this last school year, the Tablet Pilot Project and other initiatives on educational technologies were introduced, such as the conference "IWB-Day" ([]). All these projects are easily integrated with eachother, creating a fruitful ground for research, experimentation and learning, and establishing contacts with other schools interested in educational technology.

3. Top Tips for using 1:1 devices
Unfortunately, our school was not choosen for a 1:1 computing experimentation.