Abstract:

The EduLab model is an innovative educational model that integrates technologies in educational contexts involving full equipped classrooms with attractive and easy-to-use technological resources, such as computer, interactive whiteboard and projector. Furthermore, both students and teachers involved in the project have a laptop/tablet with integrated textbooks (in digital format), having access to an Open Educational Resources (OER) platform, e-learning software/classroom management (Mythware) and Internet. This model tries to promote a dynamic and more effective teaching and learning process, boosting the digital inclusion of everyone involved. For this purpose, the model provides teachers training and monitoring in order to encourage advanced pedagogical and acting formats, such as collaborative work, flipped classroom and research-based learning (Pombo, Carlos, & Loureiro, 2015).

The current research is part of the doctoral project in Multimedia in Education (University of Aveiro, Portugal) of the first author, being the second author her supervisor. This project aims to evaluate the impact of the EduLab model on basic education and is integrated in the AGIRE project (Apoio à Gestão Integrada da Rede Escolar - Support for School Network Integrated Management), a partnership between the University of Aveiro (Portugal), the Consortium E-Xample (which gathers 26 companies in the areas of education and/or technology) and the Gafanha da Nazaré School Grouping (Aveiro, Portugal) (AEGN). It is a pilot project that, in the academic year 2014/2015, was implemented in ten Portuguese school groupings, among them the AEGN. In that academic year, twelve AEGN teachers and five classes of three education cycles were involved, totalizing around 100 students.

This paper aims to evaluate the impact of the EduLab model in the teaching strategies implemented by teachers of the involved school grouping. To achieve that goal, data were collected by a questionnaire applied by the teachers, lessons registration grids and reflective reports of the training workshop attended by the teachers involved.

It appears that the EduLab model implementation led to an increase of frequency in which teachers resort to use technologies, both in classroom context as in the preparation of activities. Essentially, the use of technologies in classroom is linked to the resolution of work proposals, research activities and contents exposed by the teacher. Teachers recognize potential in the use of technologies, highlighting the fact that they enable the implementation of diverse and innovative teaching strategies. However, teachers point out some obstacles to the use of technologies in educational context that can make less frequent the implementation of those strategies, in particular, the absence or failure of resources, the workload of teachers, the time needed to prepare lessons and the number of students per class.

References:
[1] Pombo, L., Carlos, V., & Loureiro, M. J. (2015). Edulabs for the integration of technologies in Basic Education – monitoring the AGIRE project. International Journal of Research in Education and Science – IJRES, 2 (1), 16-29. Retrieved from http://www.ijres.net/article/view/5000121574

Keywords:

EduLab model, teaching strategies, impact, innovation.