1. Introduction - ORT Argentina’s background
ORT Argentina's academic programmes are intended to cover the educational and training needs of the community, and, by means of a vast range of tracks and careers, to ensure that our students receive first-class training according to their own personal and academic interests.
ORT Argentina has a long and proud tradition. Founded in 1936, and backed by the 125 years of World ORT's rich experience in the field of education and training, it has grown and won recognition in local, national, and international educational circles. ORT Argentina is fully committed to giving our students the highest possible level of education and services.
ORT Argentina currently holds two educational complexes, two technical high-schools with over 4000 students, a post-secondary junior college with 2000 students; a department that develops joint cooperation projects and training programmes with other institutions and enterprises, and around 1000 teachers and support personnel.
ORT Argentina has a long and proud tradition. Founded in 1936, and backed by the 125 years of World ORT's rich experience in the field of education and training, it has grown and won recognition in local, national, and international educational circles. ORT Argentina is fully committed to giving our students the highest possible level of education and services.
ORT Argentina currently holds two educational complexes, two technical high-schools with over 4000 students, a post-secondary junior college with 2000 students; a department that develops joint cooperation projects and training programmes with other institutions and enterprises, and around 1000 teachers and support personnel.
2. State of affairs
Information, knowledge, and culture are central to human freedom and human development. How they are produced and exchanged in our society critically affects the way we see the state of the world as it is and might be; who decides these questions; and how we, as societies, come to understand what can and ought to be done.
An educational organization increases and utilizes its intangible assets by creating, sharing, and leveraging knowledge to create economic value and enhance organizational performance. In that sense, one of our main tasks was to incorporate the concrete and practical aspects of open knowledge management.
Following this scenario, ORT Argentina decided that its structure, its schools and teachers must be more open and flexible, not only to become a sustainable organization, but also to prepare our students to deal with this context of accelerated change and innovation. It is essential for ORT Argentina to be aware of disruptive innovations that appear with increasing frequency into the technological and educational field, and to focus into science, creativity and culture shifts of paradigms.
An educational organization increases and utilizes its intangible assets by creating, sharing, and leveraging knowledge to create economic value and enhance organizational performance. In that sense, one of our main tasks was to incorporate the concrete and practical aspects of open knowledge management.
Following this scenario, ORT Argentina decided that its structure, its schools and teachers must be more open and flexible, not only to become a sustainable organization, but also to prepare our students to deal with this context of accelerated change and innovation. It is essential for ORT Argentina to be aware of disruptive innovations that appear with increasing frequency into the technological and educational field, and to focus into science, creativity and culture shifts of paradigms.
3. Initial achievements and levels of Innovation
During the first few months of this experience, we focused on the creation of a set of weblogs oriented towards different goals (see a classification into the universe… below). Later, we needed to solve a double challenge related to maintaining the production of contents over time and strengthening the networks of collaborative work among the different actors.
For that purpose, looking forward to aggregate the collective production, we have incorporated a series of Web 2.0 tools, on which we will comment here. These tools needed be flexible, easy to learn, available to every person in the community, and built using free Internet services. They were called the ORT Argentina Virtual Campus.
As a starting page, and to organize and systematize the 300+ weblogs of the Digital School, a universe of weblogs was implemented, at http://redblogs.ort.edu.ar/, which aggregates RSS feeds from most of the others Digital School’s weblogs, showing, simultaneously, the reach and the growth of the project.
To outline at least interim results, at least after only twelve months, it is mandatory to mention the jump of productivity of teachers. More activities, more study material, and essentially, more creativity is shown and used into classes and other teaching opportunities. Some innovations, going much further that what was suggested in the start of the project, (and created by suggestions of teachers, students and administrators) are:
Multimedia Blogs:
With the proliferation of cell phones and digital cameras, video is an everyday language. An innovative metaphor is used in homework for selected classes. Examples can be found in http://naturales2c.blogspot.com/ and in http://tepepe.blogspot.com/ (where 14-year-old students explain to their parents what they are learning in engineering class)
Thematic Universes of Weblogs
There are like portals where the user can access all the blogs of a specific category:
English Language Weblogs Network http://redblogsingles.blogspot.com/
Spanish Language Weblogs Network http://redblogslengua.blogspot.com/
Jewish Ed. Weblogs Network http://redblogseducacionjudia.blogspot.com/
Universes of Weblogs of Students Graduation Projects
All the students of ORT in his final year must develop a Graduation Project, depending on the track they have chosen. They have academic hours dedicated to the project and a tutor. The weblogs help them to log the advances and challenges that they must solve. And also, as a marketing platform, they show the level of accomplishment of ORT Argentina’s Students, and work as an online CV for the students.
Chemistry Final Projects http://redblogsquimica.blogspot.com/
Electronics Final Projects http://pfelectronica2008.blogspot.com/
ICT Final Projects http://pfinformatica2008.blogspot.com/
Musical Eng. Final Projects http://campus.almagro.ort.edu.ar/produccionmusical/pf
Some statistics numbers also show the level of production, and the social impact reached by the project:
As recorded by Google Analytics, it is significant the growth of visitors to the weblogs, and the retention of viewers.
May 21 - June 20, 2007:
6,655 Visits
12,270 Pageviews
66.36% New Visits
May 21 - June 20, 2008:
93,613 Visits
150,608 Pageviews
47.36% New Visits
In terms of production, from May 20th to June 20th, 2008, 2060 blog entries were published by teachers (and students in classroom weblogs), plus other additional 320 by students in the Final Project weblogs
In terms of visibility, the project appeared, (from November 2007 to June 2008), five times into three of the main newspapers (Clarín, La Nación, La Razón) of Buenos Aires, and two more times into the most visited news site in Argentina (http://www.clarin.com/).
The project has helped to consolidate the institutional culture, has added value, capitalizing, the production and collective knowledge. Also, the project has allowed management to detect hidden talent, both of teachers and of students, who were otherwise out of sight, because of the departments or classrooms dynamics. Finally, provides scaffolding for different ways to teach, to learn, and to produce knowledge under a school environment.
For that purpose, looking forward to aggregate the collective production, we have incorporated a series of Web 2.0 tools, on which we will comment here. These tools needed be flexible, easy to learn, available to every person in the community, and built using free Internet services. They were called the ORT Argentina Virtual Campus.
As a starting page, and to organize and systematize the 300+ weblogs of the Digital School, a universe of weblogs was implemented, at http://redblogs.ort.edu.ar/, which aggregates RSS feeds from most of the others Digital School’s weblogs, showing, simultaneously, the reach and the growth of the project.
To outline at least interim results, at least after only twelve months, it is mandatory to mention the jump of productivity of teachers. More activities, more study material, and essentially, more creativity is shown and used into classes and other teaching opportunities. Some innovations, going much further that what was suggested in the start of the project, (and created by suggestions of teachers, students and administrators) are:
Multimedia Blogs:
With the proliferation of cell phones and digital cameras, video is an everyday language. An innovative metaphor is used in homework for selected classes. Examples can be found in http://naturales2c.blogspot.com/ and in http://tepepe.blogspot.com/ (where 14-year-old students explain to their parents what they are learning in engineering class)
Thematic Universes of Weblogs
There are like portals where the user can access all the blogs of a specific category:
English Language Weblogs Network http://redblogsingles.blogspot.com/
Spanish Language Weblogs Network http://redblogslengua.blogspot.com/
Jewish Ed. Weblogs Network http://redblogseducacionjudia.blogspot.com/
Universes of Weblogs of Students Graduation Projects
All the students of ORT in his final year must develop a Graduation Project, depending on the track they have chosen. They have academic hours dedicated to the project and a tutor. The weblogs help them to log the advances and challenges that they must solve. And also, as a marketing platform, they show the level of accomplishment of ORT Argentina’s Students, and work as an online CV for the students.
Chemistry Final Projects http://redblogsquimica.blogspot.com/
Electronics Final Projects http://pfelectronica2008.blogspot.com/
ICT Final Projects http://pfinformatica2008.blogspot.com/
Musical Eng. Final Projects http://campus.almagro.ort.edu.ar/produccionmusical/pf
Some statistics numbers also show the level of production, and the social impact reached by the project:
As recorded by Google Analytics, it is significant the growth of visitors to the weblogs, and the retention of viewers.
May 21 - June 20, 2007:
6,655 Visits
12,270 Pageviews
66.36% New Visits
May 21 - June 20, 2008:
93,613 Visits
150,608 Pageviews
47.36% New Visits
In terms of production, from May 20th to June 20th, 2008, 2060 blog entries were published by teachers (and students in classroom weblogs), plus other additional 320 by students in the Final Project weblogs
In terms of visibility, the project appeared, (from November 2007 to June 2008), five times into three of the main newspapers (Clarín, La Nación, La Razón) of Buenos Aires, and two more times into the most visited news site in Argentina (http://www.clarin.com/).
The project has helped to consolidate the institutional culture, has added value, capitalizing, the production and collective knowledge. Also, the project has allowed management to detect hidden talent, both of teachers and of students, who were otherwise out of sight, because of the departments or classrooms dynamics. Finally, provides scaffolding for different ways to teach, to learn, and to produce knowledge under a school environment.
4. A classification into the universe of weblogs
The following classification of the blogs that are included into the ORT Digital School does not intend to delineate isolated and watertight compartments, but to identify the main points of intersection of the network of blogs, by using the most representative cases as a base of analysis.
Blogs of a school subject, where teachers and students publish
This type of blogs emphasizes the productions of students, who are co-authors or contributors to the blog, and the interaction among peers and with the teacher by focusing on the activities that are carried out. In the first two cases, for example, the blog was used as a tool to elaborate, develop and publish a survey, by taking advantage of the potential of the blog as a tool. As examples, we can mention http://cordonesdesatadosencuarto.blogspot.com/, a Spanish language weblog, and http://level3-dmno-almagro.blogspot.com/, an ESL blog for 13-years-old.
Students’ Blogs
Not only do these blogs register the last version of the students’ projects and homework, which is equivalent to the coursework handed in class, but they follow up the elaboration process and, ultimately, the learning process. We should mention here the Final Project blogs, mandatory for all graduating high-school students. A good example is found in http://nikokapo.wordpress.com/ .
Blogs of Institutional Projects
The blog of the project is included in this category: it is a space to document and reflect on the experience. In addition, we have implemented a "support" blog where we comment on the new tutorials or tools available:
ORT Digital School Virtual Campus http://campusvirtualort.blogspot.com/
Tutorial Blog http://blogsoporte.ort.edu.ar/
Additional institutional blogs are:
ORT Entrepreneurship Center http://ceo-ort.blogspot.com/
News of ORT Argentina in Spanish at http://novedadesort.ort.edu.ar/ and the English version at http://ortargentinanews.blogspot.com/
School’s Health Department: http://deptomedico.blogspot.com/
Live blogs of events, competitions and school trips
As examples of the use of blogs as a communication tool we can mention an Olympic science competition in Korea, http://ijso2007.blogspot.com/ and the March of the Living trip to Poland http://ortmarcha08.blogspot.com/.
Collective blogs: from teachers to teachers
At these blogs teachers are encouraged to experiment and reflect on their own practice in relation to the new information and communication technologies (see, for example, this post http://cuadernodelengua.blogspot.com/2007/06/enredados.html published in the blog Cuaderno de Lengua, where a teacher suggests the metaphor of a "trip by train" to analyze her discovery of the blogs). Besides, blogs are a space to share and exchange reading material and activities
Collective blogs: from teachers to students
These blogs are not restricted to the curricula of a school subject or to the development of classes: they include issues of general interest, different school services and the daily news of the school. The blogs of the Students’ Counseling Areas have incorporated a calendar and a diary of the activities. Parents welcomed these blogs and left their comments on them. See http://primero2008almagro.blogspot.com/. The weblog of the library, in turn, is characterized by its comments on the last books received, and recommends different articles published on newspapers.
Blogs of a school subject, where only teachers publish
At these blogs teachers publish study materials, tasks or other contents in a new audiovisual format. See http://diosnojuega.blogspot.com/
Blogs of a school subject, where teachers and parents publish
Some parents are professional experts in some of the subjects. Recognizing this asset, teachers asked them to make a contribution. An example, in a social technology class, parents write articles related with the subject at http://cuandotodossaben.blogspot.com/
Blogs of School Projects
It is also worth mentioning those projects which deal with inherent problems of the community or the local context, which demonstrates the social and cultural nature of the construction of knowledge. The most representative example in this sense is the Oral History project, which began in 1993 with the aim of building the "Epistolary, Photographic, and Oral Archive of the migratory experiences of ORT families". The weblog of the project is available at http://historiaoralort.blogspot.com/
This blog along with the radio blog called "La Corneta" (i.e. “The Horn”), at http://radioeducativaort.blogspot.com/ have also incorporated new formats: geolocalization maps are used as another format to tell stories at the Oral History blog (http://historiaoralort.blogspot.com/2007/07/el-espacio-urbano-otra-representacin.html), as podcasts are at the radio blog (http://radioeducativaort.blogspot.com/2007/07/%20historia-de-la-msica.html).
Blogs of a school subject, where teachers and students publish
This type of blogs emphasizes the productions of students, who are co-authors or contributors to the blog, and the interaction among peers and with the teacher by focusing on the activities that are carried out. In the first two cases, for example, the blog was used as a tool to elaborate, develop and publish a survey, by taking advantage of the potential of the blog as a tool. As examples, we can mention http://cordonesdesatadosencuarto.blogspot.com/, a Spanish language weblog, and http://level3-dmno-almagro.blogspot.com/, an ESL blog for 13-years-old.
Students’ Blogs
Not only do these blogs register the last version of the students’ projects and homework, which is equivalent to the coursework handed in class, but they follow up the elaboration process and, ultimately, the learning process. We should mention here the Final Project blogs, mandatory for all graduating high-school students. A good example is found in http://nikokapo.wordpress.com/ .
Blogs of Institutional Projects
The blog of the project is included in this category: it is a space to document and reflect on the experience. In addition, we have implemented a "support" blog where we comment on the new tutorials or tools available:
ORT Digital School Virtual Campus http://campusvirtualort.blogspot.com/
Tutorial Blog http://blogsoporte.ort.edu.ar/
Additional institutional blogs are:
ORT Entrepreneurship Center http://ceo-ort.blogspot.com/
News of ORT Argentina in Spanish at http://novedadesort.ort.edu.ar/ and the English version at http://ortargentinanews.blogspot.com/
School’s Health Department: http://deptomedico.blogspot.com/
Live blogs of events, competitions and school trips
As examples of the use of blogs as a communication tool we can mention an Olympic science competition in Korea, http://ijso2007.blogspot.com/ and the March of the Living trip to Poland http://ortmarcha08.blogspot.com/.
Collective blogs: from teachers to teachers
At these blogs teachers are encouraged to experiment and reflect on their own practice in relation to the new information and communication technologies (see, for example, this post http://cuadernodelengua.blogspot.com/2007/06/enredados.html published in the blog Cuaderno de Lengua, where a teacher suggests the metaphor of a "trip by train" to analyze her discovery of the blogs). Besides, blogs are a space to share and exchange reading material and activities
Collective blogs: from teachers to students
These blogs are not restricted to the curricula of a school subject or to the development of classes: they include issues of general interest, different school services and the daily news of the school. The blogs of the Students’ Counseling Areas have incorporated a calendar and a diary of the activities. Parents welcomed these blogs and left their comments on them. See http://primero2008almagro.blogspot.com/. The weblog of the library, in turn, is characterized by its comments on the last books received, and recommends different articles published on newspapers.
Blogs of a school subject, where only teachers publish
At these blogs teachers publish study materials, tasks or other contents in a new audiovisual format. See http://diosnojuega.blogspot.com/
Blogs of a school subject, where teachers and parents publish
Some parents are professional experts in some of the subjects. Recognizing this asset, teachers asked them to make a contribution. An example, in a social technology class, parents write articles related with the subject at http://cuandotodossaben.blogspot.com/
Blogs of School Projects
It is also worth mentioning those projects which deal with inherent problems of the community or the local context, which demonstrates the social and cultural nature of the construction of knowledge. The most representative example in this sense is the Oral History project, which began in 1993 with the aim of building the "Epistolary, Photographic, and Oral Archive of the migratory experiences of ORT families". The weblog of the project is available at http://historiaoralort.blogspot.com/
This blog along with the radio blog called "La Corneta" (i.e. “The Horn”), at http://radioeducativaort.blogspot.com/ have also incorporated new formats: geolocalization maps are used as another format to tell stories at the Oral History blog (http://historiaoralort.blogspot.com/2007/07/el-espacio-urbano-otra-representacin.html), as podcasts are at the radio blog (http://radioeducativaort.blogspot.com/2007/07/%20historia-de-la-msica.html).
5. Lessons Learnt
At this point, we would like to remark that the teaching and learning communities, based on projects and enabled by these new technologies, have become a fundamental pillar in our project and guide our practice.
We would like to highlight the natural way in which students and teachers incorporated these tools to their routine. Even more, enthusiasm and commitment was perceived by the challenging projects they suggested. In general terms, the content achieved a higher standard than the one expected. Students paid attention to the observations on spelling, writing style and design, which emphasizes the open nature of the production and its ‘permanent beta’ or improvement. Besides, it really caught our attention the fact that there were no complaints about additional workload.
It is also interesting to register, through visit counters, the different styles of teenagers doing homework, and the time of the day at which they produce and publish. Besides, certain "contagion" patterns have emerged: when quality productions are published, there is a need to make contributions following the same high standards.
Weblogs are friendly channels, where teachers publish relevant information for students, correct homework and they even make those corrections ‘public’ for the rest of the class at the comment’s section. Teachers from non-technological subjects have also made use of weblogs, especially Language teachers, who take advantage of them so that students can publish different tasks, such as tales, analysis of literary texts and research.
Parents, in turn, have shown their enthusiasm and attention towards these "productive" aspects of the use of ICTs, in contrast with what they perceived as an excessive recreational use of the Internet.
The institutional areas that have incorporated the project have discovered the potential of this direct channel with the educational community, where they can register the activities they carry out or can generate projects that promote a greater degree of involvement on the part of the different actors of the community. The institution has begun to open new spaces for dialogue and action with the different protagonists of the educational community through the blog. There is a clear reticular and non-pyramidal structure. Spaces for internal communication and production have been generated beyond the traditional formats.
Also, after one full year with the project, we can mention that:
- It is mandatory to create a space of Knowledge Development alive, flexible, active and pertaining to all, to be effective implementing a social framework.
- It is a strong marketing tool for an educational institution, to consider as a single process both action and communication.
- It is a key point to look for the innovator, the teacher on each department who has ideas and enthusiasm, to try new ways to do his job.
- It is very important not to fall into elitism, and asking only the supposedly best teachers to participate. This must be an open opportunity for everybody.
- It is crucial to consider “prosumers” to each one of the members of the community, and to each group.
- It is essential to convince people to work in networks, to create practice communities, (like the English teachers, the students who do charity work, etc).
And to create at atmosphere which allows experimentation, innovation, and the opportunity to make adjustments.
We would like to highlight the natural way in which students and teachers incorporated these tools to their routine. Even more, enthusiasm and commitment was perceived by the challenging projects they suggested. In general terms, the content achieved a higher standard than the one expected. Students paid attention to the observations on spelling, writing style and design, which emphasizes the open nature of the production and its ‘permanent beta’ or improvement. Besides, it really caught our attention the fact that there were no complaints about additional workload.
It is also interesting to register, through visit counters, the different styles of teenagers doing homework, and the time of the day at which they produce and publish. Besides, certain "contagion" patterns have emerged: when quality productions are published, there is a need to make contributions following the same high standards.
Weblogs are friendly channels, where teachers publish relevant information for students, correct homework and they even make those corrections ‘public’ for the rest of the class at the comment’s section. Teachers from non-technological subjects have also made use of weblogs, especially Language teachers, who take advantage of them so that students can publish different tasks, such as tales, analysis of literary texts and research.
Parents, in turn, have shown their enthusiasm and attention towards these "productive" aspects of the use of ICTs, in contrast with what they perceived as an excessive recreational use of the Internet.
The institutional areas that have incorporated the project have discovered the potential of this direct channel with the educational community, where they can register the activities they carry out or can generate projects that promote a greater degree of involvement on the part of the different actors of the community. The institution has begun to open new spaces for dialogue and action with the different protagonists of the educational community through the blog. There is a clear reticular and non-pyramidal structure. Spaces for internal communication and production have been generated beyond the traditional formats.
Also, after one full year with the project, we can mention that:
- It is mandatory to create a space of Knowledge Development alive, flexible, active and pertaining to all, to be effective implementing a social framework.
- It is a strong marketing tool for an educational institution, to consider as a single process both action and communication.
- It is a key point to look for the innovator, the teacher on each department who has ideas and enthusiasm, to try new ways to do his job.
- It is very important not to fall into elitism, and asking only the supposedly best teachers to participate. This must be an open opportunity for everybody.
- It is crucial to consider “prosumers” to each one of the members of the community, and to each group.
- It is essential to convince people to work in networks, to create practice communities, (like the English teachers, the students who do charity work, etc).
And to create at atmosphere which allows experimentation, innovation, and the opportunity to make adjustments.
6. Final Reflections
In the previous section, we have emphasized students’ and teachers’ motivation and enthusiasm towards working with these new tools, which they quickly and naturally incorporated, without greater difficulties. Weblogs –especially those where teachers and students publish- have become alternative spaces for socialization, characterized by a flat, informal style that favors communication between administrators, teachers and students. They have also connected the school environment to the student’s context (family and friends). This generates a greater sense of ownership, responsibility and belonging, thus facilitating the transfer of the contents learnt between both environments and, in a nutshell, delivers a better service to all the stakeholders involved.
We could say that rather than being passive recipients of mass consumer culture, they have spent time searching, reading, scrutinizing, authenticating, collaborating and organizing.
In this sense, it seems that the main changes of the “Knowledge Society” at school affect to a great extent two axis: teacher-student-task on the one hand, and teacher–parent–administrator-educational institution on the other.
We are advancing towards a knowledge management strategy which takes up not only the explicit but also the non-traditional, tacit knowledge that is incorporated to the routine practices. The starting point of this experience is based on these social networks of knowledge and it aims at incorporating them to the organization. What makes this project more complex, and at the same time, more valuable and fascinating is the need to permanently sense the environment, and recycle the old to develop the new.
The institution, and its management, is fully behind this project. To encourage this pioneering initiative, and in particular the adoption of online communication, ORT Argentina reviewed all of its operating procedures and structures, to ensure that its support was holistic. The cultural change is substantial, especially for a successful academic organization. Without such change, teachers and administrators who have sought to incorporate these new tools to their teaching methods would have been left stranded, and the students would have not received an effective service delivery.
We could say that rather than being passive recipients of mass consumer culture, they have spent time searching, reading, scrutinizing, authenticating, collaborating and organizing.
In this sense, it seems that the main changes of the “Knowledge Society” at school affect to a great extent two axis: teacher-student-task on the one hand, and teacher–parent–administrator-educational institution on the other.
We are advancing towards a knowledge management strategy which takes up not only the explicit but also the non-traditional, tacit knowledge that is incorporated to the routine practices. The starting point of this experience is based on these social networks of knowledge and it aims at incorporating them to the organization. What makes this project more complex, and at the same time, more valuable and fascinating is the need to permanently sense the environment, and recycle the old to develop the new.
The institution, and its management, is fully behind this project. To encourage this pioneering initiative, and in particular the adoption of online communication, ORT Argentina reviewed all of its operating procedures and structures, to ensure that its support was holistic. The cultural change is substantial, especially for a successful academic organization. Without such change, teachers and administrators who have sought to incorporate these new tools to their teaching methods would have been left stranded, and the students would have not received an effective service delivery.