The project's 1st Mainstreaming Workshop took place on 21 May 2013 in Brussels and it defined national policy challenges (concrete policy concerns) related to 1:1 tablet integration and considered possible approaches (measures) to remove existing barriers to further encourage the innovative use and wider uptake of ICT.
Evidence from the literature review
The initial findings of a literature review of published 1:1 studies suggests various points. There seems to be positive evidence of 1:1 computing on pedagogical impact including motivation, attention, self-directed learning, etc. Also, the use of tablets in the classroom make teachers to rethink their role and relationship with the learners. Furthermore, there is a grown interest in the “Bring-Your-Own-Device” (BYOD) initiatives but there are also concerns about the “side-effects” of such programmes. In all, there seem to be only few opponents to the tablets in classroom, but on the other hand, hard evidence on tablets impact on academic attainment is very limited currently.
Policy challenges related to 1:1 initiatives and measures
The participants discussed challenges and issues policy makers and teachers in the participating countries face in implementing 1:1 computing initiatives including tablets. The identified challenges, which policy makers in all countries currently face at the systemic level are: to sufficiently provide the necessary infrastructure and continuous professional development (CPD) for teachers implementing a 1:1 initiative, as well as the availability of suitable high quality content for tablet devices. Moreover, the assessment of ICT based competencies as well as using tablets in exams are important issues to tackle. Policy makers, as well as teachers ask for evidence on the effectiveness of tablet devices. Important questions to address at school level infrastructure include (security issues), how to relate the use of tablets to the curriculum and to ensure sufficient communication between teachers and parents.
Policymaker scenarios
Each of the partners worked in groups on poliy scenario for the use of tablets that could be addressed by teachers during the first round of pilots. Policy makers worked in groups to develop a narrative, a short description of the implementation of the scenario by teachers and students highlighting their specific role, pedagogical activities, technologies to be involved and the different learning environments in which the tablets can be used . All the scenarios are linked to one of the four key topics identified by the partners. The topics were:
- Content Creation (Belgium Flanders, Italy)
- Collaboration (Austria, Belgium Wallonia, Slovenia)
- Personalisation (UK, Czech Republic, Lithuania)
- Flipped classroom (Italy, Portugal)
The identified key challenges and draft scenarios will serve as a reference framework for the pedagogical scenarios the project’s lead teachers will work with during the Scenario Development workshop on 7 June 2013.