Abstract
The introduction of ICT in secondary education set off mainly and in a regulated way with the pilot program ODYSSEUS and was completed through the 19 axes of the ODYSSEY action. Within the IASONAS project in 2008, the supply of twenty-six (26) Vocational – Educational Software (VET) for Technical and Vocational Education (TEE) was performed. Since then, the dynamics of ICT continuously and daily paves the way to the new landscape of Educational Software that will be used in the TEE, taking into account, either directly or indirectly, the current technological developments.The present study focuses on the evaluation of the use of Educational Software used by students and teachers of secondary education in TEE. In this context, the investigation of the -until recently cloudy- landscape of Educational Software becomes of special importance in the field of evaluation of Educational Software, as answers will emerge regarding the contribution of Educational Software to the new reality formed ...
The introduction of ICT in secondary education set off mainly and in a regulated way with the pilot program ODYSSEUS and was completed through the 19 axes of the ODYSSEY action. Within the IASONAS project in 2008, the supply of twenty-six (26) Vocational – Educational Software (VET) for Technical and Vocational Education (TEE) was performed. Since then, the dynamics of ICT continuously and daily paves the way to the new landscape of Educational Software that will be used in the TEE, taking into account, either directly or indirectly, the current technological developments.The present study focuses on the evaluation of the use of Educational Software used by students and teachers of secondary education in TEE. In this context, the investigation of the -until recently cloudy- landscape of Educational Software becomes of special importance in the field of evaluation of Educational Software, as answers will emerge regarding the contribution of Educational Software to the new reality formed by the integration of ICT in teaching and learning.The research problem of the study concerns the evaluation of the use of Educational Software by students and teachers in TEE in order to record their views, which are the main regulator for the development of teaching and learning strategies and for the negotiation of proposals regarding the educational process.The research was developed on two interdependent levels: a) In the first, pilot level, all TEE teachers -except for the general education teachers- were asked to report the Educational Software that they regularly use during their teaching. This action was deemed necessary given that, as it was found, a significant degree of freedom prevails in the selection and use of Educational Software. Therefore, the pilot study recorded the Educational Software used by teachers in their daily practices. b) In the second level, given the Educational Software that will be evaluated in the main research, the list of evaluators also included the students, who evaluated the same Educational Software evaluated by the teachers as a result of the pilot study. In particular, the views of both groups regarding the use of Educational Software in their field and whether there is consensus between students and teachers regarding their views on Educational Software in their field were investigated.The research tools that were used comprised: the pilot questionnaire of the teachers and two questionnaires of the main research referring to the students and the teachers respectively, providing answers to the respective research questions of these groups. The sample of the pilot study comprised 133 teachers of TEE, while that of the main research 488 students and 203 Teachers.The results highlight the views of students and teachers about the same Educational Software, which in many cases are different. Although the answers are not easy to formulate, as each sector approaches the use of Educational Software from a different perspective, they highlight the different perspectives that students and teachers have on the same Educational Software, the different ways of evaluating and prioritizing Educational Software. However, everyone agrees in the necessity of their existence icesitythe new educational reality. At the same time, both groups state the necessary approaches that need to be formed in the TEE in order to accomplish the transition from the simple use of Educational Software to its didactic use through modern methods of teaching and learning.
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