Vesna Kolenc Potočnik, Bogdan Škof, DOBA Fakulteta za uporabne poslovne in družbene študije Maribor

The masters study programme at DOBA Faculty, which runs fully online, is faced with numerous challenges on how to enable distance teamwork and ensure a high quality of such teamwork. Students work using synchronous and asynchronous communication. In this respect, we focus on the challenges that accompany the implementation of team tasks at a virtual meeting with the teacher, which were solved by including additional tools to the ones offered by the Blackboard learning environment (Forum, Blog, Wiki, Tasks, File Exchange), i.e. tools offered by Blackboard Collaborate and Microsoft Office 365. Blackboard Collaborate is a virtual classroom that allows for video, audio and chat communication between the teacher and students in the team. The teacher can assign students (or they can assign themselves) to individual virtual rooms where they communicate in teams, while the teacher can move through the teams and monitor their work, provide advice and answers their questions. The students prepare their assignments in documents that are saved in their cloud (OneDrive) and that can be simultaneously edited by using Office Online tools (Word, Excel, OneNote). When the assignment has been completed, the teacher can return all students to the main virtual classroom, where they can present their products to all teams. The introduction and integration of new tools, which enable greater efficiency (time), better communication and better text formatting and editing options, has thus ensured higher quality of virtual teamwork.

Marjeta Borstner, ZRSŠ, Nataša Kralj, Prva gimnazija Maribor, ZRSŠ

In the article, the implementation of formative assessment into the instruction of foreign languages in the grammar schools and the elementary schools will be presented. In the processes of formative assessment different tools are used and so teachers can gather evidences for learning processes, students understanding and progress. Formative assessment also stimulates interactions between teachers and students and among students themselves. What is more, formative assessment enables teachers to adapt and develop teaching strategies according to the students needs. The examples of good practices will be presented with the implementation of digital tools for different phases in the instruction processes: testing pre-knowledge (Clickers, Poll Anywhere), common planning of goals and objectives (virtual classrooms, Wiki), fostering peer co-operation (Google Docs, Poll, Padlet) and giving feedback and evaluation of learning processes by teachers and students. For guiding and self-regulation of students learning processes, the use of ePortfolio created in the web application Mahara will be shown, whereby we will focus on the content tab My learning which enables students to plan their learning, improve it with regular teachers and peers feedbacks, reflect on it and evaluate it. The use of digital tools in instruction prooved to be benificial, because students motivation and responsibility for learning and knowledge have grown. At the same time gathing of evidences, checking understading and evaluation of learning processes were carried out in a more transparent and accessible way.

Simon Dražič, OŠ Šmarje pri Kopru

ICT can speed up our work and make it easier when gathering information about knowledge and understanding of our students. That is why we need a tool that is free, efficient, with many additional options and easy to use. The presented tool is designed by a teacher and meets the above criteria. With it, we can speedily evaluate tasks, quizzes, tests …  A lot of teachers and students are already using Google drive. With a Flubaroo add on, and a questionnaire in Google Forms teacher can • quickly review the results of every student and • figure out which one of them needs extra help. • Get an average score on each question and • histogram of the distribution of results. • Discover a question or task in which students had the most problems (or it was too easy), and • sent students an e-mail with their achievement and optionally an additional message for the wohle gropup or individual student. In addition to this learning analytics, which can be used to improve our work as teachers and students achievements, it is important that (unlike in the most other LMS) students can make quizzes on their own: individually or in a team and so become an active partner in learning process, learn form each other … Tool is also appropriate for younger students, since the application is not required for solving quizzes.

Boštjan Ravnjak, OŠ Janka Glazerja Ruše; Franc Jakoš, OŠ Janka Glazerja Ruše in OŠ Selnica ob Dravi

This paper describes an introduction to learning computer programming in a multi-user virtual world through educational game “Aladin and his flying carpet”. The novelty regarding learning environment is formative assessment, implemented in the educational game. For this purpose we used functionality of “Webintercom”, which is part of the plugin SloodleSet 1.2 for learning environment Moodle and virtual environment Opensimulator. Connection between the virtual and the educational environment was enabled by plugin. All text written in the virtual world by pupils is stored in the MySQL database of the Moodle environment. We had to write a program to print the written text on objects in the virtual world in form of textures. We chose to work with gifted children from 6th grade, which have not met with computer programming in the learning process yet. We integrated elements of formative assessment in the process, in order to assist us in monitoring pupils’ progress and in understanding of programming concepts. We monitored three key phases: previous knowledge, strategies and self-evaluation of pupils. Phases were placed in areas of the game where we wanted pupils to spend more time thinking about the rules of the game and solving programming problems. In these phases pupils were able to see what other pupils are thinking about and see other solutions of the same problem. By doing so, pupils gained deeper insight into the educational game. Pupils’ self-evaluations show that by using this method doing tasks and solving problems was easier for them.

Boštjan Resinovič,  Šolski center Celje

ICT is used in education for different purposes: to make concepts more graphical and interesting, simplify procedures, increase productivity and/or motivation, decrease necessary strain … This presentation shows how to use Nao, a humanoid robot, to increase students’ motivation and focus and consequently achieve better effects in learning new material and in knowledge consolidation. To demonstrate the possibilities offered by the usage of a humanoid robot a classical theme in learning foreign languages was chosen, namely English irregular verbs. In order to achieve this a program that enables a robot to recognize any form of an irregular verb and lets it say or spell all three forms, play a prerecorded irregular verbs rap, recite it or stop it after an infinitive to let students give the remaining two forms was written. The program running on the robot helps the teacher to introduce and consolidate new material as well as to grade students and at the same time demonstrates how teachers of different professions can learn from each other and create new educational products, in this case a robot students can learn from.

Gregor Skumavc, OŠ Poldeta Stražišarja Jesenice

We are witnessing a steady increase of pupils with reading and writing difficulties in the past years. Dyslexia is one of most commonly referred problems regarding reading and writing in the primary school as well as adult population. Taking notes and learning by reading are still main processes in education, although there are many options one can obtain information (e-books, multi-media etc.). Using a computer is normal in school nowadays and pupils with reading problems are able to use a simple tool to simplify their reading from the computer screen. We will introduce T-bar, a color “reading ruler” for the screen in the form of an application. It can be used to minimize the contrast between letters and the background and to simplify the visual tracking of letters and words. In the second part, we will introduce didactic opportunities for using the smartpen. It can be used to organize and digitize notes, to produce pencasts, a form of document through which teachers can effectively prepare and deliver complex explanations of various topics. With prior agreement from their teachers, students can record sounds during lessons, leaving nothing behind. The recording can then be played back infinitely.

Ines Celin, OŠ Antona Žnideršiča Ilirska Bistrica

The purpose of this article is to present through a case study the possibilities of using photographs and video recordings of classes in order to encourage the mutual learning of both pupil and teacher. By introducing photography and video recording as ways of monitoring the pupil’s progress I learned the value of technology as a means which provides insight to both pupils and teachers. During the learning progress, it is difficult for teachers to focus their attention to everything that is happening and they are often oblivious of their communication and reactions to pupil’s behaviours. It is necessary to first establish a good and trusting relationship with the pupil in order to achieve positive effects. It is essential to use technology in a positive way, to only analyse positive attempts at first and focus on what the pupil did well. Using this approach, we can observe quick progress in the child’s motivation (they try harder, they themselves propose recording). On the other hand, the recordings led me to valuable discoveries about my work and helped me make progress with students by changing my approach. For me, this experience was a test of maturity (to accept myself and my weaknesses) and it also made me aware of the meaning of ethical handling of material, which can either strengthen or, if used wrongly, aggravate the relationship between the teacher, pupils and parents.