Overview of ICT-related activities at KHÍ 1997-1998

General background

The technical and human resources regarding MICT, ODL

• WWW in teacher education
• Carry out the policy for IT in teacher education
• Courses (B.Ed., teacher license programs, in-service, M.Ed.)
• Student activities and actions
• Various activities to encourage good use of ODL/MICT

• Carrying out the policy for IT in teacher education
• Courses (B.Ed., teacher license programs, in-service, M.Ed.)
• Various activities to encourage good use of ODL/MICT

General background

The technical and human resources of the institute regarding MICT, ODL

• Assistant professor in ICT in Education
• Assistant professor in Distance Education with emphasis on educational technology, information technology and multimedia.
• Other professors and staff members, whose positions are not directly related to MICT/ODL but have used MICT/ODL extensively with their students within their own fields (including math, pedagogy, and curriculum & instruction). Some are pioneers within the institution regarding use of ICT in education.

The Teachers’ Centre. The centre has people in two full-time positions. The role of the centre is to provide information and training for Icelandic teachers and access to various educational materials. In the center are technological equipment and several computers. Two of them are internet-connected and three have the entire range of educational software produced by the National Center for Educational Materials.

Ismennt (The Icelandic Educational Network). Ismennt has a nine member staff and maintains the College network and computer systems (e.g. servers, computers of staff, printers, connections). However, the principal objective of the Icelandic Educational Network is and has been to encourage the utilisation of interactive communications for educational purposes. Its role is to:

• provide the staff of educational institutions with access to the Internet, serve as a forum for discussion of scholastic and educational matters,
• accommodate the web pages of educational institutions,
• develop an educational web in co-operation with other parties,
• provide distance learning services on the Internet for schools,
• provide educational institutions with technical advice concerning the Internet and Internet connections.
• support the development of interactive communications and experiments in this area.

Other technical resources

• Four computer labs, one for each major department, the largest in the main building with about 20 computers.
• Computer lab for students has 10 new computers (owned by the college student association).
• Computer (multi-media) for the arts and crafts teacher educators.
• Computer for the music education students.
• Computer room for adjunct teachers.
• Computers in the reading center.
• Computers for all other faculty member (assistant, associate, and full professors).

WWW in teacher education

• An Icelandic APPLAUD web site.
• A -web for educational games.
• Web sites with PowerPoint presentations given in teacher education programs (at KHI, University of Iceland) and/or at primary schools for teachers and administrators.
• Web site with answers to questions from master’s students at KHI.
• Standardised web pages for all primary schools in the country.

Carry out the policy for IT in teacher education

• The establishment at KHI of a new teaching and research position ("lektor" or assistant professor) in distance learning with emphasis on educational technology, information technology, and multi-media.
• The employment of a new director of the In-service department, with a strong background in distance education thus aiming to increase the use of ODL within the in-service courses.
• Strengthening the Icelandic Educational Network, including the employment of several new people with expertise in technology, education, or web design.
• Staff development initiatives include: a series of workshops in the fall on the use of computer software in research (reference library, statistical and qualitative analysis); a series of seminars in the fall on ODL methods to improve and/or increase distance education practices at the college. Providing training and advice for teachers in the distance education program at the Icelandic College for Pre-school Teachers to help improve ODL at the school. Developing skills among staff (innovators in the use of ICT) in the use of videoconferencing with students and colleagues abroad.
• A mandatory IT-related one-credit course for B.Ed. students (in the regular and distant education program) and for students in the distance education teacher license program.
• Internet-based methods to be adopted by the one-year distance education teaching license program for teachers at the upper secondary level, and examine ways to improve the distance education methods employed.
• Increase ICT/ODL knowledge and skills of teachers and Internet use among students in the B.Ed. distance education program at the college.

• A one-credit course for students in their first year both in the distance education and the regular program: A web will be set up for this course in both programs. Students in the course will, e.g. learned to use e-mail and the www, to create their own home pages, and to use a digital camera.
• Examples of ICT-related activities within other mandatory courses will include the use of computer-assisted learning and electronic library search.
• Three to four credits will be offered in mathematics/math education courses with a variety of IT-related activities. (E.g. exploring different kinds of math-related software, e-mail discussion with students from another partner institution (St. Andrew college), and participation in a videoconference with other APPLAUD partners in December and later in the school year).
• A one credit course will be offered in art education on the use of computers in graphic design and their use in teaching and learning. More sophisticated software will be used by the students in the second semester.
• In music education courses, students will explore the use of Intelligent keyboarding to create digitised music.
• Several workshops (three hours each) will be offered in the Fall within a 3^rd year course on electronic communications. In addition, three optional courses out of seven that are offered in the Spring quarter for the 3^rd year students will be web-related: the game web; web design and web-based learning environment (including advanced design elements); and web for learning and instruction

• A one-credit IT-related course for students in the distance education teacher license program at KHI: A web will be set up for this course.
• A three-credit course in the the one-year teaching license program for teachers at the upper secondary level at the University of Iceland will be taught by two staff members at KHI. A web will be set up for this course (see http://www.rhi.hi.is/~soljak/arg98). Students will create their own educational web site with resources and materials related to several different subjects.

• An introduction to the Internet.
• An introduction to the web
• Web page design (level I)
• Web page design (level II)
• Design of web-based learning materials
• Problem-solving strategies and creativity in mathematics learning. An Internet-based collaborative project for teachers and student (2 credit).
• A 15 credit course in mathematics and mathematics education is now in its first year of two running for teachers in schools, partly using ODL techniques and in co-operation with the University of Iceland and the University of Akureyri.
• A course for foreign language teachers (Norwegian, Swedish) at the lower secondary level in Reykjavík on teaching these languages.

• Public lectures (with media coverage) will be given by staff members at the college, e.g., on elementary school computer culture and gender differences and on children and visual media literacy.
• A lecture (Moving from fashions to a continuous stream of change. Teacher developmment and IT) by the leader of the APPLAUD team in Iceland will be given in the 1997 fall at the IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) conference in Grenoble on Secondary school mathematics in the world of communication technologies.
• An introduction of APPLAUD will be written for the Newsletter published by the University of Iceland Office of International Education.
• Special guests: E.g., the Dean of Education of Memorial University of Newfoundland will visit KHI in October to explore a mutual interest in Telelearning
• KHI will participate in Nordic, European, and international IT-related co-operative projects.

The following were some of the pedagogical and didactic approaches adopted in the institute in relation to Applaud objectives and the appropriation of ODL and MICT at the institutional level. First we list the special actions that were taken to carry out the KHI IT-related policy, then we provide an overview of our ICT-related courses, and finally we present various other activities at our institute adopted to implement APPLAUD objectives and/or appropriate ODL and MICT.

Carrying out the policy for IT in teacher education

As described in an earlier report, an IT policy was approved and activated last school year for the college. The IT policy for KHI was translated into English and its main parts are published on the APPLAUD web site (http://www.ismennt.is/vefir/APPLAUD). Of particular interest for a wider European community within that policy is the structure connecting the general educational ICT policy of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (http://frodi.stjr.is/mrn/uppl/rit/i_krafti_upplysinga/index.html, with an English brief available at the Ministry's web) and the policy and action plans for KHI which is the main teacher education institution within the country. Another highly relevant part of the policy is a survey among professionals and divisions within the institute, which helped create a realistic policy based on the staff and student needs and expertise within the institution. Major effects of the policy include:

• The establishment at KHI of a new teaching and research position ("lektor" or assistant professor) in distance learning with emphasis on educational technology, information technology, and multi-media.
• Emphasis was increased on IT-related courses offered through the In-service department for teachers and others.
• Strengthening of the Icelandic Educational Network, including the employment of several new people with expertise in technology, education, or web design.
• Staff development initiatives include: (1) A series of workshops in the fall, repeated in the spring, on the use of computer software in research (reference library, statistical and qualitative analysis); (2) a series of seminars in the fall on ODL methods to improve and/or increase distance education practices at the college, and (3) a series of workshops on computer programs to use in distance education (e-mail, web, conferences, chat). In addition, KHI staff members have given talks and advice for teachers in the distance education program at the Icelandic College for Pre-school Teachers to help improve ODL at the college. Individual faculty members are developing skills in the use of videoconferencing with students and APPLAUD colleagues abroad.
• As from this year, the new policy at KHI required students to complete an equivalent of 3 credits in relation to IT in education, partly within existing courses and partly in specially designed courses focusing on the use of ICT (a mandatory IT-related one-credit course, which was run for B.Ed. students (in the regular and distance education program) and for students in the distance education teacher license program.).
• Internet-based methods were adopted by the one-year distance education teaching license program for teachers at the upper secondary level. Ways were examined to improve the distance education methods employed, integrating better ODL and a seminar held for the teachers involved in the program.
• Based on the IT-related national policy (and the KHI policy work), a working group at the college was formed on the request from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture to suggest ways to improve teacher education at the KHI (and in Iceland) with the aid of a potential budget of 500.000 ecus provided by the government. The group completed the work in the spring.

All of the courses described below were offered during the second year of the APPLAUD project and aim to enhance IT-related skills of teacher education students and at the same time the teacher educators. Some courses employ team teaching and peer coaching and most of them embrace a constructivistic view of learning. And one can also find examples of courses, which include supportive activities for interaction between school pupils, pre-service teacher education students, school teachers and teacher educators in a variety of ways.

B.Ed.

As from this year, the new policy at KHI requires students to complete an equivalent of 3 credits in relation to IT in education, partly within existing courses and partly in specially designed courses focusing on the use of ICT. Examples of the ways ICT is integrated in the coursework include the following:

• A one-credit course was run for students in their first year both in the distance education and the regular program: A web was set up for this course in both programs (see http://www.khi.is/~salvor/fjar/fjar971.htm , and http://www.khi.is/~salvor/upplys/menu1.htm). Students in the course learned e.g. to use e-mail and the WWW, to create their own home pages, and to use a digital camera.
• Examples of IT-related activities within other mandatory courses included the use of computer-assisted learning and electronic library search.
• Three credits course and an optional independent study have been run for several years within the mathematics education stream. A variety of software has been used and particular attention paid to a strongly integrated learning environments and changing roles of teachers. The students explore the situation in Icelandic schools in this respect and use the ICT possibilities to some extent. E-mail has for many years been used as a platform for continuous and frequently in-depth discussion both when sudents are in college and in schools. Special URLs which are rich of appropriate material for the course have been used frequently and in the year 1997-1998 e-mail discussion with foreign students and videoconferencing with APPLAUD partners was also on the agenda for these students with a following short report and their thoughts about the possibility opened up by such connections between schools.
• A one credit course was offered in art education on the use of computers in graphic design and their use in teaching and learning. More sophisticated software was used by the students in the second semester.
• In music education courses, students explored the use of intelligent keyboarding to create digitised music.
• Several workshops (three hours each) were offered in the Fall within a 3^rd year course on electronic communications. In addition, three optional courses out of seven that were offered in the Spring semester for the 3^rd year students were web-related: the game web; web design and web-based learning environment (including advanced design elements); and web for learning and instruction. These courses had participation of about 40% of the students enrolled in the 3^rd year.
• A one-credit course for 6^th semester students in web design was run (see, http://syrpa.khi.is/%7Esalvor/val98/)
• A one-credit course for 6^th semester students on the use of the web in education was run.

• A one-credit IT-related course was run for students in the distance education teacher license program at KHI: A web was set up for this course (http://rvik.ismennt.is/~salvor/uf.htm).
• A three-credit course in the the one-year teaching license program for teachers at the upper secondary level at the University of Iceland was taught by two staff members at KHI. A web was set up for this course (see http://www.rhi.hi.is/~soljak/arg98). Students created their own educational web site with resources and materials related to the teaching of several different subjects (see http://www.rhi.hi.is/pub/kfrnem/arg98).

Last summer about a quarter of the in-service courses were either strongly IT-related or had some IT components and that is true for a similar percentage of courses next summer (or a total of 33 different courses are either offered almost free to schools or can be bought from KHÍ the next summer or coming school year. Six Internet-based courses were offered during the Winter. These include :

• An introduction to the Internet.
• An introduction to the web
• Web page design (level I)
• Web page design (level II)
• Design of web-based learning materials
• Problem-solving strategies and creativity in mathematics learning. An Internet-based collaborative project for teachers and student (2 credit). The 37 participating teachers were placed all over the country and worked on problems with their 700 students aged 10-16. The course-web is partly open to public as a service to the homes and other teachers (see http://www.ismennt.is/vefir/heilabrot).
• A 15 credit course in mathematics and mathematics education was in its first year of two running for teachers in schools, partly using ODL techniques and in co-operation with the University of Iceland and the University of Akureyri. As a part of the course some of the participants studied the effects of and possibilities with powerful software in mathematics for the lower secondary education and others using material from the web.
• A course for foreign language teachers (Norwegian, Swedish) was run at the lower secondary level in Reykjavík on teaching these languages.
• 20 short (ca. 20 hour) new, on-line courses related to the use of ICT in education were planned and were offered through the Icelandic Educational Network (see http://www.ismennt.is/abot/nam98.html). Not all of them were taught, however, due to limited enrolment but are offered again for Fall 1998.

M.Ed.

• An ODL course that was piloted last year (ran again as a constructive exercise where the individuals focused on effects of IT in various fields in learning and teaching. Last year, the participants worked on one major project studying from a variety of perpectives the influence of ICT on learning and teaching. Several of these projects were published on their webpages. This year the participants also chose a variety of studies, as an example developing ways to launch a Nordic CD-ROM on literature efficiently in the schools.
• A special 15 credit program with four new courses, focusing on MICT in education, was approved and is being planned as a distance education program for the school year 1998-1999. The program can be completed with a diploma or as a part of an M.Ed. degree.

• Public lectures (with media coverage) were given by staff members at the college, e.g., on elementary school computer culture and gender differences and on children and visual media literacy.
• A lecture (Moving from fashions to a continousou stream of change. Teacher developmment and IT) by the leader of the APPLAUD team in Iceland was given in the 1997 fall at the IFIP (International Fedaration for Information Processes) conference in Grenoble on secondary school mathematics in the world of communication technologies.
• An introduction of APPLAUD was written for the Newsletter published by the University of Iceland Office of International Education.
• Dr. Piper, the Dean of Education of Memorial University of Newfoundland visited KHI in October to explore a mutual interest in Telelearning.
• KHI staff members participated in Nordic, European, and international IT-related co-operative projects.
• Three staff members at KHI submitted in November an evaluation report on a parliament proposal to create a work group to suggest ways to strengthen and increase the number and types of distance education programs at all levels of schooling in the country with the overall aim to increase educational equity. Representatives from the college will very likely become involved in the work group if the proposal is passed through the parliament.

• Strengthening of the Icelandic Educational Network (Ismennt), including the employment of several new people with expertise in technology, education, or web design.

• Transfer of KHI network to Ismennt resulted in 200-fold increase in amount of transferrable data (19 kb line out was closed and the Ismennt 2Mb line out of the main college building used instead).
• Ismennt added a Seagate Cheetah 4.5 Gb disk to their disk space to use as a www server for the ca. 8000 Ismennt users and to free up space for the mail server.
• Video-conferencing tested with and without students.
• CuSeeMe tested with and without students.
• Tools for educational web-development installed and tested by staff and students.
• Renewal of personal staff computers (to enable web access and use)
• New computers added to the college computer labs, and the Wd 3.11 replaced by a Wd NT system.
• Digital camera purchased and used in courses.
• New software purchased, including 10 new licenses for Photoshop which was used in courses.
• Ten computers Internet-connected for students only (The student association purchased the computers but the college provided the connections and maintainance).
• Intelligent digital keyboarding used in music.