Emica Škrinjar, OŠ Selnica ob Dravi

Our school has been in an e-project about using iPads for 2 years. We can say that history repeats itself. About 150 years ago an article by F. Stergar was published. It was about tablets for schools and their purpose, usage, materials and prices. By taking part in this project we got a chance to use modern tablets during school lessons. Pupils compared 150 years old tablets to modern ones. Especially we were interested in their usage at history classes for making mind maps and at geography classes for using the geography maps and photographies. We were using our virtual classroom. At history lessons we were creating ming maps by using both: old tablets and modern ones. We were searching for differences, then we analysed them. Students should be able to present mind maps to their school mates, teachers and lesson observes. This is the way they learn how to talk in public. At geography lessons we used pictures, photographies and geography maps during all the lessons stages. The presentation is based on the concrete lessons. Our work was monitored and we checked and analysed teaching goals as well as digital literacy. The lessons were analysed and we came to different conclusions. Our 7th grade students were asked to do a questionnaire where they wrote their opinion about modern tablets usage. The capacity of the old and modern tablets depends on skills and abilities of their users.

Sabina Grabar, OŠ Martina Konšaka, Maribor

Cooperative learning, web page browsing, use of electronic dictionaries, critical thinking, reading learning strategies, web classroom – the forms of work I have included, when I discussed Prešeren’s poem Apel in čevljar with my eighth-grade students. The students worked in pairs and they received the instructions for work in the web classroom. First they went online (they were given links) to read about Jernej Kopitar and familiarize with the story behind the poem. By applying a comparative matrix they compared Prešeren’s and Kopitar’s views of language and literature. By using electronic dictionaries they explained unknown words they came across in the poem. After second reading they analysed the poem, whereby one half of the class analysed the poem in terms of its content, and the other half explored the language and the construction of the poem. After that, a student from the first group worked with a student from the second group. They showed their findings to each other and learned about all elements of interpretation. This was followed by critical thinking. On the forum the students discussed the contemporary character of the poem’s message. At the end they engaged in some creative work. They used the reversed dictionary in an electronic form to find rhymes and write poems about Prešeren. Reflexion has shown that students as active participants of class realized the planned objectives through their cooperative work and by modern technology.

Karmen Posedel Golob, II. OŠ Žalec

I am a special education teacher, who works with students dealing with moderate and severe mental disabilities and disorders. As their teacher, I am aware of the fact that my primary mission is to prepare my students for an independent future and a selfhood. The quality of their future endeavors depends on it to a great extent. Utilizing ICT, I aspire to demonstrate learning process and ensure that students benefit from each others learning experience. Individuals who have moderate to severe mental disabilities and disorders benefit from a non-abstract, repetitive, and overly explicit verbal instructions. Students perform better in training skills if they have illustrative demonstrations and are able to do multiple repetitions. With this conclusion I came up with the idea that the more able pupils would make videos of their regular activities with a mobile phone, which could then be shared / posted on the school website. Recordings could then be used repeatedly and play and when they learned, practiced less able pupils. Mobile phones are used as recording devices, a video-cast is made available via video.arnes.si, schools web portal and personal computers. Since students lack ability to read, video demostrations of fellow students who successfully accomplished specific tasks is very likely to benefit the remaining audience and ensure their consequent success. With a surveying of their parents I did measure the influence of these recordings to independence in their home.