FRÅN WIKIS TILL MATTEFILMER
- om IKT i skolan
FRÅN WIKIS TILL MATTEFILMER- om IKT i skolan written by Annika Claesdotter et al and edited by Lena vestlin, is a small book containing 143 pages. The title of the book is rather confusing according to me. When one reads the title, one imagines that it is strictly about wikis and Mathematics films. Far from it! The book is about Information Communication Technology tools (ICT tools) in schools. It discusses several ICT ideas which several learners and teachers from different schools have worked with. I found it interesting and motivational. The book answers one of my research questions: Does ICT tools motivate learners to participate actively in learning?
The book is divided into three major chapters namely: I skolans värld, Vad säger forskarna and en digital utblick.
The first section “I skolans värld” contains four sub- topics among them are:
”IKT naturligt när eleverna gör tidning.” The writer writes about Njurunda a school in Sundsvall. In Njurunda, the students in grade 5 and 6 have been publishing magazines for several years and this is considered to be helpful when a school wants to integrate ICT in their teaching. The students are the ones who contact those who wish to be featured in their magazine and their teaching is only there to help them where there is need.
The second sub-topic which I intend to lift up in my paper is “Wikis utvecklar språket.” The students in Hammarnskolan in Hjo have published some texts using wikis. Doing this have helped them to improve their English language since they read each other’s texts. They also exchange ideas on how their wikis could be made attractive and interesting to the readers, by doing this they learn a lot. I found this section interesting because the learners rely on each other for their success.
A section which I found to be interesting but could be considered controversial is found in page 25: “Pennan får vänta när ettorna lär sig skriva”. Kungsgårdens skolan in Sandviken have decided to introduce computers to the first graders. Instead of using pens to learn how to write they use computers! They believe that learners learn faster if they use computers as compared to using pens. Using pens is introduced in grade 2. One might think that this is misleading, but having read their achievements I was convinced that it is a good idea. The fact that learners use Microsoft Office Word to write short stories at an early age tells me that they are motivated to learn.
A chapter which I found worth mentioning is “Mattewiki ger aktiva problemlösare.” It is interesting to note that several schools have been using wikis and some of their first works can be found on the internet for example the first mattewiki på Eklidens skolan is found here:
“Erik the Viking byggde e-samarbete” is found in pages 74 to 81. It discusses in details how a school in Sweden co-operated in a Viking project courtesy of e Twinning which is a part of EU- Commissions’ program Comenius. It is a project which enables teachers and students to work together even though they live in different parts of Europe. My thought after reading this section is that, the learners in both countries would not have gone in for a huge project if it were not for ICT tools. The learners from both schools looked forward to reading what the other school had written. The writer explains that both learners were fully observed in their project. I will use this section in my conclusion.
“Vad sager forskarna”, is a chapter with several opinions from ICT experts. I found this chapter to be very informative. One becomes open minded after reading it. Bodil Jöhnsson who is a professor in Lunds Technical College explains that learners of today are exposed to ICT tools at a very early age and are continually searching for information using computers and mobile phones. She continues to write that being a teacher today is not the same as it was before young learners were exposed to ICT.
