Abstract:

During 2008-2009 university course, I had started teaching in the University of the Basque Country. I am teacher in the Philosophy and Science Education Faculty and I have been teaching new technologies applied to education and school organization. In the first semester I have had two groups and a total amount of 120 students with very different profiles. These students were graduates, and in general, they didn’t have enough knowledge of how to teach in secondary schools either about education in general. We started doing a test about knowledge, utility and value added of different technologies and applications. This test had brought me the possibility to understand their situation and adapt the rhythm of my classes and the subjects. During the 14 weeks, we learned topics about the Curriculum, Didactic, School Organization, Diversity and Technology, but this one I worked transversally.

When I started to teach in 2007-2008 course, I tried to do it in a methodology that I would like to take classes in my student time. I think that the theory is important but it is most important the practice and the discussion in little groups, the analysis of real cases and the thinking before.

Anyway I changed the classroom weekly, one week we were in the conventional classroom and one week in technology classroom. It was the first thinking I did: how I’m going to teach students new technologies if I don’t use the technology classroom? Every moment, I tried to make them understand the technology like a media and not the final objective. It was important to understand that the tools were a media to make the work easier and the way to collaborate working.

They valued very well the possibility to work in classroom with the members of their own group and use web 2.0 tools like blogs and wikis. They valued very well too, the possibility of use them to solve problems or situations in their every day practice like work, family and friend contexts. My proposal was to bring them the possibility to work in groups thinking and discussing about five basic terms and topics in relation with education (Curriculum, Didactic, School Organization, Diversity and Technology) and to solve problems in working groups. The most groups were formed with different student profiles and this enriched the discussions. Everything they work in class in one week they reflect in group blogs in the week we were in technology classroom.

In short, after the theory, they simulated some school realities in class, and use the blog to discuss about them and get conclusions and orientations. In second semester they learned more about these topics, I only did an introduction about them.

Keywords:

new methodology, teaching practice, technology, classroom.