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THE PROJECT-PLAN : "GIRLS ON THE NET"
1999/2000
"Girls on the net" is a test supported by the Ministry of
Education, Research. and Church Affairs (KUF) Our school has been a
project-school since 1996 and have got 175000, -nok all together.
Below we will give you a closer description of the project.
"Girls on the net" is the name we have chosen for the
project on girls and IT. The word net symbolizes cobweb and by that
also Internet.
Background
Hedmark College, department Rena, is situated in the county Åmot.
Information-technology is one of the most important studies at the
college. It is natural to use their competence to support our project,
and 5 of the female teachers will this year study ICT for teachers. In
this way we will improve our own competence.
Åmot ungdomsskole is a secondary school with 6 classes, 135 pupils
and 24 teachers.
In the project we want to look at the effect of ICT-education for
all the classes at school, especially how girls will use the
information-technology. We also wish to prevent the boys in getting
too domineering in this field.
We think that girls have a different way of approaching the use of
ICT, and this is important to consider when planning the introduction
of ICT in school.
We are intent on obtaining knowledge on how ICT can be taken into
use and which possibilities ICT gives to promote learning and
development to the pupils
We are conscious of organising the teaching in such a way that boys
don’t get advantages, more attention, better access to equipment and
so on.
The main goal for the project is to make pupils and teachers
personal ICT-users, and learn how to use ICT as a natural tool in the
process of learning all subjects. The pupils are going to learn how to
find information and how to evaluate information. We want them to
think critically and work effectively in groups. They are going to
present ideas and thoughts orally, in writing and by multimedia.
We will emphasize the pupils to feel as contributors when they make
homesites, net-paper and so on for Internet, and that they have their
own identity and their own local society as basis for communication
with other schools and pupils on the net.
Project-idea
What we want to do:
- Organise parts of the teaching in separate groups for girls
- The classes will be taught: word processing, spreadsheets,
presentation programs, graphic program and search on Internet
- Emphasize communication, not technique,
- Try "Net Meeting." Get in contact with other schools
on the net.
- Use e-mail. Get "pen pals".
- Use Internet actively.
- Examine
what girls are interested in on the net..
- Arrange girls-nights.
- Arrange mothers-nights
- Take part in Netdays99
- The pupils are going to learn how to make web pages
- The pupils will actively take part in editing and designing the
school's home sites.
- Build a local recourse environment at Åmot ungdomsskole.
- Class 10A and 10B are making an extended essay in literature,
using Internet actively to get information on Norwegian authors.
The essay is being presented using word processing
What we want to find out
We want to find out how this will affect the working-and
teaching-situation related to quality of teaching, learning and results.
- We will examine the gender perspective; how girls' and boys'
attitude to and use of PC changes
- We will follow the development of independence and social
interaction between pupils using this working-method.
- We want to examine which possibility ICT gives to promote
learning and development
Qualifications for the project
Pupils
All classes at school
Material
The school is connected to Internet, has its own server and 45 PCs
in a net. The school has 2 digital cameras and 2 web cameras for
videoconference.
Staff
All the teachers at school
ICT-competence
ICT responsible persons at school are engaged in management and
maintenance of the net. ICT responsible and resource teachers give
every-day -guidance to the pupils. 12 teachers have ICT education from
college.
Board of planning
This group consists of the headmaster and three teachers.
Contents and
methods
The project is going to find out how boys and girls use their
computer before the project begins, and how the usage develops and
changes during the project. As a basis for the project is an idea that
ICT will improve the pupils` learning situation, and that the
following factors will be emphasised:
- Individual adaptation instead of teaching from the teacher’s
desk
- An extended usage of information through the internet
- Active learning instead of passive
- More weight on independent work of information
- Computers will be a natural tool for work and communication
The project has to be centred on the pupils, and will more or less
be based upon the concept "learning by doing". You should
not teach by supplying each pupil the same content at any time. We
want to make use of the fact that children/youths are active in the
process of learning. The computers are not meant to be teaching
machines. We hope that the pupils will learn together with the
computer, not from the computer. The pupils have to give as well as
take. They are going to write and express themselves, but also search
and find. Briefly said, what Per Dalin called "from teaching to
learning".
The content of the project is inside of three categories: science
of education, organisation and technology.
Science of education
We want to find out if technology can stimulate co-operative
learning, contribute to better projects, critical and creative
thinking and, not at least, more motivated and interested pupils. Our
school is an ENIS school. ENIS is a network of European schools, which
can carry out projects about usage and development of ICT. An
international view is also important in our philosophy. The project
"Girls on the web" has shown that girls have another
approach to ICT than boys. This is important to bring further.
Organising
We want to examine if the use of technology makes it necessary to
look at the organising of the school day, such as time tables, when
the school is open, breaks etc.
Technology/tools
ICT can never be the main topic in school, but nevertheless it will
constantly bring us new challenges. We have to learn new technology to
be qualified to use it in school. For instance, we have wireless
network systems and portable computers as useful remedies in ICT. New
Internet technology, such as use of multimedia, is changing fast, and
constantly we have to value if we can make use of this. By
co-operating with private enterprises, we will be open to testing of
new technology and new Internet usage at secondary school.
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