Abstract:

We present an experience which is part of a global study that was carried out by the Stellae Group (1) of the University of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain), based on two research projects: one project entitled “Case study of educational innovation projects involving ICTs in Primary and Secondary education centres” (SEJ2005-08656), financed by the Ministry of Education and Science in its 2005-08 call for RDi funding; and another project entitled "Educational Innovation Projects Mediated by ICT. Design, Analysis and Evaluation of Teaching and Learning Environments" (PGIDIT06PXIB214192PR), financed by the Xunta de Galicia. The study analyses the factors that hinder or accelerate the processes of change in innovation projects involving ICT in schools.

Education policies often associate innovation with school integration of ICT, to such an extent that ICT themselves are attributed innovative potential, while overlooking the fact that it is the specific contexts in which ICT are placed that confer meaning. We start out with the idea that the potential for change that can be generated by ICT incorporation has to do with the way in which it is integrated into the school’s educational project and in the time dedicated to reflecting on its educational possibilities.

Our research was based on four cases taken from a Pre-school and Primary Education School (C.E.I.P.), a Secondary Education School (I.E.S.), an Integrated Public School (C.P.I.) and a Rural Cluster Centre (C.R.A.) in Galicia, by means of a collaborative action research methodology in the usual stages: action, observation and reflection. In this paper we show the analysis of an experience in a Rural Cluster Center (C.R.A) with nine schools (second cycle pre-school and first level of primary education). Our intention is to account some of the meanings of sustainable innovation in the process of building the web portal as an educational space. In that sense, we will analyse how the dimensions of study play an interrelated manner: sociopolitical context (global and regional educational policies); school organization (culture, climate, communication, distribution of time and space, concepts of teaching and learning, micropolitics, attitudes towards ICT); professional culture and professorship professional development (beliefs and attitudes towards ICT, students' perceptions).


(1) Research group coordinated by Professor Mª Lourdes Montero Mesa and comprising the following professors: Quintín Álvarez, Adriana Gewerc Barujel, Mª Dolores Fernández Tilve, Rufino González Fernández, Esther Martínez Piñeiro, Eulogio Pernas, Jesús Rodríguez Rodríguez, Mª Dolores Sanz Lobo, Mª del Pilar Vidal Puga and Mª Helena Zapico Barbeito.

Keywords:

Educational innovation, integration of ICT in schools, sustainable innovation.