Iztok Škof, OŠ Toma Brejca, Kamnik

Many interactive whiteboards can be found in Slovenian schools. Therefore we wanted to prepare materials that could potentially be used during school lessons. At the same time we wished to show examples of use of individual elements of software. Students used interactive whiteboard software to create interactive exercises in their geography lessons. They had to study certain subject matter on the own in advance and prepared thereto related interactive exercises which were then presented to the rest of the class, giving other students the chance to try and do the exercises. In doing so, students who had prepared the exercises also revised the content of the lesson. When making interactive materials, students had to study parts of subject matter and extract the gist that their students would need to learn while doing the exercises. Such an activity demands a certain level of understanding the subject matter, summarizing and linking everything into new knowledge. The students’ classmates revised and upgraded the subject matter that was new to them. In order to make such a presentation in the classroom students experience the role of a teacher.

Vesna Kropivšek, OŠ Toma Brejca, Kamnik

To make art lessons more interesting, I wanted to show students the link between classic drawing and drawing by means of ICT tools. A camera, a tablet PC and a PC were selected as the school ICT tools. These tools were then incorporated into an art assignment for 8th graders in the non-compulsory subject Artistic Formation II. The assignment was titled Lines by Movement. Since our students often come across using tablet PCs in various other subjects at school, they already have lots of experiences. Therefore, in this assignment I wanted them to share knowledge with each other and with me. Students were given assignment instructions that included an artistic problem – a line that is made by movement of a point. The goal was for students to learn artistic concepts: what is a point, what is a line and how does a point become a line. A chair motif was presented to students in the course of their work and they had to express it artistically by means of four different tools. Drawing on paper with a pencil and drawing on the blackboard with chalk. Both drawings were photographed. The third tool was the use of ICT – students drew with their fingers on a tablet PC in an application called ArtStudio. The last tool was drawing with a lamp in the dark, whereby the drawing was captured on camera. While drawing in all of the mentioned ways, students also had to be blindfolded. Then a computer was used to make a collage in the PowerPoint programme. All artworks were collected in a common PowerPoint and were crosschecked to see which way of drawing brought students the best results. In the assignments students developed a feeling for the connection between movement, a point, a line, space and use of several ways of artistic expression. A successful and useful combination of classic and ICT drawing methods and successful cooperative learning (student-student and student-teacher) was put forward by the assignment.

Marica Domitrovič, OŠ Belokranjskega odreda, Semič

I am going to present the comparison of data processing without the use of ICT and with the help of ICT. It is an example of cross-curricular integration of Slovenian, maths, science and technology, geography and P. E. in the accordance with the learning objectives from the class 5 curriculum. The first example shows how the pupils carried out the survey about dieting and activities among their classmates. The data was collected with the help of a questionnaire, compiled and shown with the bar, line and pie graphs. For the comparison they created another questionnaire which related to the past time activities. They signed in the Google accounts and entered the questionnaire in the Google drive form on their computers in the computer classroom. The questionnaire was sent to the emails of at least fifteen classmates. Each individual also got the questionnaire on their mail, fulfilled it and submitted. They examined the responses in Google drive and in the form tab chose show the summary of results where they found out the processed data. The example shows the cooperative learning within the class and the responsibility of the individual to perform their part in the entire process. The pupils realised how the use of ICT makes the work easier and mainly shortens the time to achieve the same objective. The pupils’ motivation was high, especially when they used ICT. At the same time they helped and gave advice to each other.

Mojca Janžekovič, OŠ Toma Brejca, Kamnik

In the light of using acquired knowledge, a decision was made by teachers of geography and 5th grade class teachers to link geography and society vertically. Such linking enables students to acquire complex knowledge that can be used in practical situations. When students teach one another, student who have the role of teachers deepen their knowledge, and in order to be able to explain the subject matter to peers, they must know the contents of a particular subject very well. Students were put in 5th-9th grader pairs. Two lessons were then spent together in the course of one month. The aim of the first meeting was to revise and recall subject matter that had previously been dealt with. Students from the 5th grade taught the 9th graders everything they should have known by the time of the first meeting. Afterwards, the 9th grade students upgraded their knowledge in their geography lessons. After a month, a second meeting followed with the aim of 9th graders teaching the 5thgraders new subject matter. Computers were used during the joint lessons. Each pair of students got a document with questions to be answered. During the course of the second meeting they reopened the document to write in the missing or correct the existing answers. The use of computers enabled students to make corrections, write faster and more legibly, save all the answers in one place, test their knowledge online and do an online survey.

Lilijana Petek, Prva gimnazija Maribor

In this contribution How a pupil becomes a teacher I will present chosen samples of lessons, which were performed by pupils teaching each other math contents. Pupils were using math e-textbook with iPads, program Geogebra with desktop computers and different math aplications (Quick Graph, Free GraCalc, Math Solver) with iPads. Pupils became teachers during the cooperative learning. They were exploring mathematical contents in groups. Pupils divided each other in first groups, where each pupil got different task. All pupils with the same task formed new groups. Divided this way they were researching mathematical contents with e-textbook Vega 1 and math aplications with iPads. All pupils were active because, they returned to first groups and had to explain their task to each other. So every one of them became a teacher. Gifted pupils made a research paper where they drew geometric objects with program Geogebra. They introduced their research paper Euler line to their peers. They thaught their classmates how to use Geogebra in the computer lab with desktop computers. They prepared tasks for their classmates, guided them and helped them.

Katja Završnik, OŠ Vransko, Tabor

If we take a look at the geography textbook for 6th grade, it can quickly be noticed that there are very few photos in the chapter on universe. Due to insufficient picture material pupils have problems imagining very abstract concepts of universe. Therefore I decided to prepare a website together with pupils. The website would contain a lot of picture and video material which pupils will find online and use for their tasks. In this way they will gain the knowledge on the topic that is contained in work programme for geography lessons in 6th grade. The fragments of knowledge will be connected by a worksheet at the end of website preparation which will lead the pupils through questions and tasks to the final solution. Three classes of pupils were included into this project. Pupils from class 6 C helped to prepare website during the geography lessons. It was intended to provide insights to topic of universe and solar system with help of Google application Sites. Every pupil contributed a piece to the mosaic of the common website. Through making of website pupils got to know the preparation of the website as well as online browsing, since they were looking for interesting material on universe, photos, interesting facts. Two other classes (6 A and 6 B) tested the website and evaluated its strong and weak sides and identified the parts that need improvement to enable better understanding.

Romana Kolar, Zavod za gluhe in naglušne Ljubljana, Tadej Kolar, OŠ Pod Goro, Slovenske Konjice in ZGNL

The articles authors were wondering how to further motivate pupils/students and how to present the teaching content in a different and interesting way, and so we found solution – VOX conferences and the multimedia presentation topic in joint lessons with two classes from different schools – elementary school Pod goro Slovenske Konjice and ZGNL Ljubljana. While preparing lessons, we noticed, that kind of work will solve many, problems and fears. Due to their specific problems (deafness, speech and language disorders and autism) students from ZGNL, often have problems with communication, public speaking, making contacts with others, etc. With VOX conference all of these difficulties have almost vanished. Students have become more confident with each additional lesson and we also noticed the progress in communication. The various methods of work – surveys, chat, conversation, different opinions caused that both, pupils and students, were highly motivated, which resulted in better learning outcomes. Also, they all started to take into account the basic rules, such as raising arm, when they want to say something. Homework was also well done and everyone wanted to present it to their classmates. Although there was no interest to present their work at the beginning it has changed because of healthy measure of competitiveness among the students.

Bernardka Radej, Zavod Antona Martina Slomška, Škofijska gimnazija

During the interdisciplinary excursion to Italy, organised for the 3rd year students, our classic paper workbooks were replaced by the students competition that involved the use of smart phones. Riddles and puzzles involved various areas (art, Maths, history, geography, direction, architecture, religion). What they demanded form students is the use of different skills (the use of smart phones, different applications available for iOS and Android phones, team work, fast adjustment to the situation, thinking outside the box, creativeness and searching for different ways of solving problems and finding solutions) and competences (digital, interpersonal, social and intercultural), which replaced students writing in the excursion diary. We would like to encourage students to look for information independently and look for answers with each member contributing his/her talents and genuine ideas to finding solutions. We would also like to show that not only students can learn from each other but also mentors can learn from them. Students motivation was achieved by different methods (rewarding them was not the only source of motivation as they admitted) which gave them the opportunity to find answers on their own using different technical aid and helping each other.

Maja Kosmač Zamuda, ŠC Ljubljana, Gimnazija Antona Aškerca

The article deals with active participation of teachers and students of the Anton Aškerc Grammar School in the Erasmus+, Strip Identity, Project; teachers and students from nine countries take part in the project At the meeting of the participants in the Project the students prepared their presentation of Slovenia and its culture in PowerPoint. What followed was getting acquainted with and learning Pixton, a computer programme in a cloud, which enables students to make comics (http://www.strip2id.eu/). The Pixton for Schools programme (http://www.pixton.com/schools/comic/m7x6vrck) enables preparation of online classrooms for a teacher and in the online classroom the students made a comic. Since the aim of the Project is also searching cultural identity in literature the students made an online and a library research of stories which, in their opinion, present the folklore tradition of Slovenian nation. The selected stories Peter Klepec and Martin Krpan were used as a setting of the comics scenario the students made by using Pixton. Pixton makes it possible for a teacher to monitor the students’ progress of work, make comments on their choice of characters, tools, exchange of opinions. The downside of the programme is its being free of charge only to a certain extents as we had to pay an annual fee in order to be able to print the comic. Since the programme allows the use of own photographs the student had taken pictures of tourist attractions and sights in Slovenia and added them to the background of the stories about Peter Klepec and Martin Krpan, which increased their creativity.

Vesna Gros, Renata Krivec, Petra Mikeln, OŠ Polje

At our school we have been noticing for a while that our students are quite unrealistic in their expectations and unable to plan their work and take responsibility for their learning. The main objective of the EUfolio project is to equip our students with skills for planning, monitoring and evaluating their own progress, which are the core principles of formative assessment. In the project we use the Mahara e-portfolio, an online application in which students can upload their blogs, files, pictures and videos. It also contains a forum; however, its main advantage is that users decide themselves which parts of their portfolio will be visible to other users. The most useful tool for formative assessment is the “My learning” tab, where students plan their work. Teachers can monitor and guide them towards their goals by means of constructive feedback. Students can also be critical friends to each other and evaluate their own work and the work of their peers. We will present what our students have learned in the past two years (from us and from each other) and what we have learned from them and from our colleagues.