It is no mystery that technology is changing the world around us, including the way our students learn in schools. Assistive technologies facilitate learning skills, while ICTs, and especially the internet, open wider doors to knowledge in terms of access and resources.
Yet, it seems that the possibilities of putting ICTs to the benefit of students are being continuously extended.
Laptops replace all textbooks
In Italy, two schools have just ditched their textbooks for mini-laptops, which have been distributed to two groups of primary students. Almost 60 students attending Don Milani di Rivoli and Alfredo D'Andrade di Pavone Canavese, two primary schools in Turin, will take part in a project - spanning a whole scholastic year for students attending the former school, and a semester for students attending the latter - in which researchers will assess whether computers on their own can improve the learning process in school.
The students are expected to follow all the curriculum through their laptop. They will also be doing their schoolwork and homework on their laptops.
The project is a wide-reaching experiment developed by Intel, in collaboration with Italian hardware company Olidata, and Microsoft who is in charge of the operating system and software.
The laptops, named JumPC, have been designed with schoolchildren in mind. In fact, they can withstand accidental drops and scratches, and are waterproof. A password has also been set for parents to control access to the Internet and to monitor their children's address book and messaging applications. Without a password, the student can access only a limited number of websites.
However, the technological advancement is not in the laptop itself, which has already seen similar versions in Europe. Rather, it is the ambitious project which aims at discovering the extent to which computers on their own can help children achieve better results at school.
'New literacies' should be learnt
In a different, yet ICT-related scenario, a British think-tank has reviewed the Internet penetration rates of several European countries - including Malta - and has looked into the popularity of "content creation" websites among the younger generation.
The research of think-tank Demos, which has been reported in British newspapers, suggests that an educational response that goes beyond issues of safety is required.
The think-tank referred to websites such as YouTube and blogging spaces, which have gained tremendous popularity. It said that this escalating popularity should be addressed by schools to help students develop skills in these "new literacies".
"Over the past century the schooling system in Europe has been orientated towards developing classical 'literacy skills' and other forms of literacy have been confined to the realm of informal learning. It is now widely accepted that unless formal education institutions intervene in this 'informal' sphere, new social inequities will emerge." The younger generation is growing up in a digital culture in which their reputation precedes them. The growing video-making and blogging culture which is pervading youth circles should be addressed in lecture rooms, the think-tank suggested.
"In this respect those in this generation of young people are guinea pigs...
"While the education system has long recognised the value of viewing film as an educational tool, across Europe we need to make the leap into seeing children as producers of film, not just interpreters. Schools' "cultural offer" should include enabling young people to build creative portfolios of this type of work as much as organising conventional trips to museums, and offering painting and art history classes." In its report, Demos said that educators had a responsibility to help young people to become fluent in audiovisual forms of communication from an early age. The formal education system should draw on the expertise of arts-based initiatives to unlock the potential of the video making currently taking place in the informal sphere.
"We need an educational response that extends the focus beyond safety, towards broader questions of privacy and intellectual property. The EU's approach to media literacy should not only emphasise the importance of being literate in decoding media, but also in being active in content creation."