Uses

Everywhere, the uses for communication, essentially among teachers, are those most developed; in Denmark, they also involve parents. Everywhere, too, educational uses are insufficiently practised. The use of virtual platforms for management and organisation (booking rooms, ordering materials, etc..) is seen everywhere, with varying intensity. In the United Kingdom, and to a lesser extent in Andalusia and Denmark, the virtual platforms are also used as systems for managing large volumes of administrative information on schools and pupils.

• Pedagogic Uses

Educational uses, i.e. those related to processes that transform information into knowledge through the interaction between teachers and pupils, are limited everywhere. Also, pupils play little part in the exchanges that are organised on virtual platforms; their participation is limited to the work to be done, uploaded by teachers. This finding may be explained by the absence of a pedagogical model that would exploit the specific characteristics of virtual platforms to develop innovative teaching practices, based on active learning by pupils rather than on perpetuating a traditional pedagogy of transmission from teacher to pupil.

Positive synergy is, however, observed in Denmark, between certain characteristics of the education system, such as the autonomy of teachers and pupils’ teamwork on projects, and the educational use of virtual platforms. These platforms are also found to be increasingly used by pupils when it comes to continuing their schoolwork after class time (which in Denmark ends around 1.30 pm, also meaning that teachers are more available to monitor and help their pupils online).

The use of virtual platforms helps to develop cooperation among teachers. Their teamwork is unevenly developed in different countries, but everywhere platforms offering digital learning resources have received particular attention. Teachers create resources there or comment on and evaluate them.

Apart from the absence of a new pedagogical model that has already been mentioned, the obstacles identified to the development of pedagogical uses are linked to the absence of a clear vision of the specific contribution of a platform at school level, the constraints stemming from the organisation of the school (in particular limited access to computers at certain times and places), and lack of time for teachers to practise the use of platforms. The solutions recommended to remedy this situation include specific training for teachers and the use of platforms to provide solutions to pedagogical problems commonly encountered by teachers (teamwork, regaining the interest of unmotivated pupils, administrative overload, etc.).

• Communication uses

Blogs, forums, conferences, messaging, etc. hosted on virtual platforms are meeting with undeniable success among teachers in Denmark, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Only in Denmark, however, does this communication also involve parents; their enthusiasm springs from interest in what is happening in the school and the wish to take part, rather than from an urge to control. Elsewhere, communication with parents is very little developed, whether systems have been put in place (Andalusia) or not (Catalonia). In general, and not only on virtual platforms, contacts between schools and parents are limited, and this distance increases as the pupils grow older.

The success of communication uses among teachers suggests that these systems meet a need of the profession: the failure of the same uses in the case of parents tends to confirm that when the interest does not exist, such systems will not manage to create demand, as is confirmed a contrario by the situation in Denmark.

• Administrative uses

These uses can be observed at two levels: that of the institution, around a set of functions that regulate school life, and that of the body responsible at higher level (local, regional or national depending on the case), where advanced systems are installed to manage large volumes of information relating to schools and pupils, and for which interoperability is an essential criterion. This type of use is particularly developed in the United Kingdom, with a view to the rationalisation of administrative tasks, an objective actively pursued by policymakers. It can also be seen in Denmark and is gaining ground in Andalusia where, through the SENECA platform, the goal is eventually to access in real time all information about all schools (pupils and teachers) in the Andalusia region (especially for planning purposes).

The motor for development of such uses is the need to centralise data across a territory and to reduce administrative burdens.