Abstract:

Recent educational reforms around the world have been heavily colored by the ‘technology’ imperative. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the educational process is considered a transforming agent and a necessary prerequisite for quality teaching and learning.

Current national initiatives for integrating technology in education in Greece include the development of media-enriched textbooks in primary and secondary education in (almost) all subjects and the development of the national learning object repository ‘Photodentro’. These are considered important agents for change in teaching and learning in Greek schools.

This paper will present the results of the development of media-enriched textbooks for music and visual arts in primary and secondary education in Greece. The aims for this enrichment and for creating the various original learning objects for each subject will be analyzed and connected to the aims and objectives of the recent educational reform in Greece as well as current trends in teaching, in learning and with the arts. Also, challenges and obstacles faced by the creative team will be presented in order to complete the picture.

Finally, teachers’ perceptions and practices/uses in relation to the media-enriched textbooks and ‘Photodentro’ learning object repository (LOR) that were collected during a small scale research that took place in selected schools in Greece, will be analyzed and connected to future opportunities.
This paper touches upon two main topics within the scope of this conference:
- Technology-Enhanced Learning, as it presents the results of a large scale national project to enhance teaching and learning with the use of digital technology. More particularly it focuses on teaching and learning of music and arts in primary and secondary education in Greece with the use of media-enriched textbooks.
- Research on Technology in Education as it draws conclusions from a research-based inquiry on teachers’ perceptions and use of the new digital technology-based resources, namely the media-enriched textbooks and ‘Photodentro’, the national learning object repository.

Acknowledgement:
This work has been supported by the Greek National project “Digital School Platform, Interactive Books, and Learning Object Repository” (Contract Νο 296441/2010-2015) that is co-financed by the European Union (ESF) and National funds in the context of Operational Programme “Education and Lifelong Learning” of the Greek National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), and is being coordinated and implemented by “Computer Technology Institute and Press "Diophantus" (CTI)”.

Keywords:

Technology in education, music education, art education.