The case of Andalusia : an approach strongly driven by the regional government

The Autonomous Community of Andalusia has long been committed to the integration of ICT in education, and started to take action on virtual learning platforms in 2003. These developments are part of the broader policy of Andalusia for a knowledge society, whose objectives (as defined by the decree of the Andalusian Parliament dated 18 March 2003) are :

• to guarantee every citizen access to ICT without discrimination (Internet access points in every Town Hall, digital literacy programmes for the adult population, educational institutions accessible outside working hours);

• to facilitate access to government services through the Internet portal www.andaluciajunta.es as an information channel and service provider.

In the field of education, the aims are, more specifically :

• to adapt the supply of state education (IT equipment, teacher training, integration of ICT into teaching, school management and communication within the educational community);

• to support these goals through cooperation with museums and the creation of the Virtual Library of Andalusia.

The same decree also stipulates that :

• in every purchase of computer equipment for educational use in schools, all hardware must be compatible with open-source operating systems.

The computers will be equipped with the necessary free software for their use.  The administration of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia encourages the use of educational software that is free for personal use at home and school (an Internet help desk has been set up to provide advice on installing and using this software).

And@red

The And@red plan, adopted in 2003, aims to achieve the goal of fully integrating ICT into all educational processes and within the educational community. The plan encourages institutions to develop an integrated and flexible educational ICT policy. It must be integrated, in the sense that the use of ICT must be central to teaching content and methods; and flexible, in the sense that each school should be free to take account of the specificities of its local environment. Teacher training is part of this strategy, and aims to train teachers not only in ICT but also in its application to pedagogy and didactics. The role of the ICT coordinator12 within institutions is fully recognised and considered a central element of the process. The development of integrated services to parents and the rest of the educational community is part of the plan.

A Centre for Advanced Management (Centro de Gestion avanzada – CGA) has been established to coordinate all technical aspects so that users, both teachers and students, can concentrate on teaching and learning without concerning themselves with administration, maintenance or technical configuration, and therefore without necessarily having a high level of technical competence (see below for more details on the CGA). This plan, which is based on open source software (Guadalinex/UBUNTU), also provides for schools to be equipped with computers and broadband connections (WiFi as appropriate), and for digital learning content, again based on open source software, to be made available.

This package is intended not as an end in itself but rather as a set of interventions and tools to bring about a fundamental transformation of the educational model.

The aim is to put pupils’ learning at the centre of the project, by personalising each trajectory and making each pupil active and responsible for his or her learning. In terms of the skills to be developed in pupils, critical awareness, selectiveness and discernment are among the objectives. A change in the culture of education is explicitly desired, characterised by greater emphasis placed in the curriculum on the application of theories to concrete situations, a new role for the school and the teacher, innovative management of the learning process and a new relationship to the whole educational community.

The teacher figures as the main protagonist in this change, and must be given specific support which takes account of the diversity of the teaching profession (level of experience, differences in level of qualification depending on the educational level at which they teach, etc.).

The four pillars for the integration of ICT in education in Andalusia can be summarised as follows :

• investment in equipment, based on an open source approach;

• the training of teachers themselves, often itself organised online, with a focus on the didactic properties of ICTs (distance learning, online advice, virtual platforms for professional networking, disseminating experience, etc; the centros del profesorado13 are the main agents in this ICT training of teachers;

• the provision of digital educational resources, based on free software; to promote quantity and quality, competitions are organised, and teachers as well as private publishers who create resources are awarded grants (in particular through the Internet en la escuela and Internet en el aula initiatives);

• significant technical support provided to teachers and centrally organised; all state schools are connected to the same network: the Red Corporativa de la Junta de Andalucia (RCJA) and supported by the Centro de Gestion Avanzada (CGA, Centre for Advanced Management).

Centro de Gestion Avanzada/CGA

Employing some sixty people who form a multidisciplinary technical team, the CGA has an annual budget of 3,000,000 euros. Its activities are focused on the following :

• user support : the CGA handles all messages sent in by users either by email, fax or through the online forum it manages. Available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Friday, the CGA is able to resolve 90% of support requests immediately. If not, the problem is analysed and the CGA contacts the teacher or school again as soon as the solution is found. Any problems that could affect the whole network are referred to a specialised team responsible for making the necessary changes at the central level.

• support to schools : the CGA takes delivery of materials and equipment (hardware and peripherals) and ensures their compatibility with Guadalinex (the UBUNTU-based open source operating system adopted by the Autonomous Community of Andalusia for its state schools); guides and recommendations for use are made available; a specific open-source information system called SIGILA maintains a database to log incident management and fault location.

• Development: disconnecting remote computers and other equipment in schools (before weekends, holidays, etc.), development and management of content filters, etc.

Components

A set of platforms, developed gradually since 1998, serves different audiences according to their respective needs and uses.

HELVIA

This platform hosts digital teaching resources and is aimed at teachers and pupils.

Based on open source software, this platform allows the organisation of curriculum content, planning of academic tasks, and implementation of a communication system between teachers and pupils. Helvia offers schools three integrated modules :

• Sitio, a module for creating web pages for schools, which provides an easy-to-use graphical interface to use, school information management (central information store, group emails, etc.), use of wiki-style tools, etc.

• Bitacora, a module to create blogs on the Internet for the exchange of opinions and publication of content on specific topics, for use by teachers, pupils and the entire school community

• Aula virtual, the working platform for students and teachers. This is the most complex module offered on the Helvia platform. It contains an educational module (educational content and resource server, tasks for pupils to complete with learning guides, enhancement and deepening of learning, assigning tasks, content generation), a communication module (email, bulletin board, chats, interactive discussion forum, instant messaging), a calendar module (space management, teacher timetables, etc.), an administration module (monitoring of activities for pupils, teachers and the school, administration of the communication module), and a tutorial help module (self-training activities, etc.).

MEDIVA

This platform, developed in 2008, again open source, hosts educational resources created in the form of video and audio files, and is a kind of YouTube specially for the Andalusian educational system.

Its resources are made available to pupils and were created by members of the educational community (teachers and pupils). Their content is therefore devoid of violence, etc.

These resources can be viewed without being downloaded. Alongside the traditional functions of hosting, embedding with code, download, access by category and advanced search, the platform offers Web 2.0 functionality such as access control by profile, interactivity through opportunities for feedback, validation of resources by users, etc.

AVERROES

Implemented in 1998, the AVERROES server hosts the web pages of over 1,500 state primary and secondary schools, i.e. about 40% of state schools. In fact, AVERROES is aimed at and is mostly used by teachers. It provides information on on-going innovations, issues of special interest to teachers (immigrant pupils, living together in school, continuing education, etc.), training opportunities, etc.

AVERROES also offers e-mail accounts, a space for creation of databases and a web tool for their maintenance. All educational resources are referenced. AVERROES currently receives 50 to 60 thousand hits per day, mostly on weekdays and especially during school hours. No login or password is required to use AVERROES. Any potential user interested in resources in Spanish can access it (many consultations originate from South America).

AVERROES currently has about 15,000 active email accounts and these receive 10,000 visits per day.

COLABOR@

COLABOR@ is the virtual platform dedicated to teachers’ group/team work and resource sharing.

COLABOR@ makes it possible to participate in discussion forums, collaborate on blogs and wiki user communities, share teaching resources, and publish announcements. Teacher training through participation in thematic working groups is at the heart of the project.

An online tool is available in the event of technical problems.

Andalusian teachers appreciate being able to develop their own resources and these are judged of very high quality by the Consejera de Educación. The best at each level of education are regularly selected, rewarded and widely exploited.

COLABOR@ receives about 1,000 visits per day.

PASEN

PASEN is the platform that aims to integrate families into the school’s development plans, with the aim of creating a large community around the school.

Via identified access, the various community members (parents, pupils, teachers, management team) can access a range of tools that facilitate communication and monitoring of pupils’ learning.

In addition to basic information on the school, PASEN offers parents information on events in the institution and on specific topics of interest. Discussion forums are also provided; surveys and polls can be organised. PASEN is also designed as an alternative for parents who are unable to visit the school.

Teachers use PASEN to indicate the work to be done by pupils, to record their absences, give the dates of examinations, to exchange various messages with parents about their children, etc. All the information about each pupil is recorded there.

The objective of PASEN is not to monitor (this is more the role of SENECA, see below), but to provide general information on pupils and the school.

PASEN receives about 1,000 visits per day.

SENECA

SENECA is the Internet platform devoted to academic management, designed to facilitate communication between each school and the rest of the school management system (other schools, provincial offices, the central services of the Consejería de educación).

Schools feed information directly into the system. Their motivation to do so stems from the fact that SENECA is designed to make good the deficiencies of earlier systems and maximise the value of information on pupils (e.g. all data relating to a pupil follows him/her when he/she enters a new school, thus reducing the administrative burden). SENECA allows direct sharing of information between schools and the Consejería de Educación as well as electronic payment of fees (school meals, etc.). The system also makes it possible to manage the forecast number of teachers for each subject for the coming school year, and loans of material to pupils (laptops, etc). It gives a very good overview of what is happening in schools, and their needs. SENECA is adapted to the specificities of each type of school (primary, secondary, special education, etc.). The system can also speed up the management of large volumes.

With SENECA, provided they have previously given their consent, parents can be informed the same day by email of their child’s absence from class.

Technically, the system is considered complex, covering the entire region of Andalusia, as it has to handle the traffic from 7,000 to 12,000 simultaneous connections. SENECA sometimes receives up to 250,000 hits per day.

Currently, 50 schools are part of a pilot project in which it is possible to have all the information about them in real time. The process is expected to be extended later to all schools.

Diagram of all services by users in Andalousia

Deployment

About 1,500 schools, i.e. half of the state schools of Andalusia, currently use these platforms.

The deployment took place as and when schools integrated ICT into their practices. From a hundred pilot schools with almost 68,500 pupils in the school year 2003-4, the number grew to 300 schools and 86,200 pupils the following year, over 500 schools with 122,000 pupils in 2005-06, and over 800 schools with 137,000 pupils in 2006-07.

Teachers are generally very positive about the functions developed on these platforms. School pupils do not seem really aware of the specific features that would be available to them; higher education students, by contrast, are much more interested in such systems.

Parents, for their part, make little use of these platforms, including the one specifically designed for them. The officials of the Andalusian Department of Education who were interviewed expressed concern about this and wondered whether the services offered are appropriate. Projects for cooperation with parents’ associations with a view to training parents, and the introduction of more Web 2.0 oriented services, are envisaged for the future. In general terms, independently of the question of platforms for virtual communication, the relationship between families and schools weakens as the child grows older, and mainly involves the mothers of the youngest children.

Despite success in terms of of participation by teachers, wider deployment remains very gradual, especially since the starting point for the region as a whole was very low (in terms of equipment, expertise, usage, etc.).

Uses and Users

• Pedagogic Uses

No studies have been conducted in Andalusia to evaluate the platforms implemented, comparable for example to the studies by BECTA and OFSTED in the UK or by EVA in Denmark. The impression of the officials concerned, however, is that pedagogic use is developing, albeit gradually. This usage is backed up with technical support provided by dedicated arrangements which spare teachers from such aspects, with efforts in teacher training, and with the provision of digital educational resources. Teachers are indeed proving active in this field and able to create quality teaching resources. Pedagogic cooperation among teachers is also increasing.

As observed in other countries, use by pupils takes place to the extent that the teacher puts work to be done and aids for further study on these platforms, but little else.

• Communication Uses

Communication among teachers is well developed, and to a lesser extent, communication between teachers and pupils is following the same path. Communication between teachers and parents remains modest. The virtual learning platform cannot be particularly blamed for this, since such communication in any medium is underdeveloped and tends to decline as children grow older. 54 Spain – Andalusia and Catalonia: different regional approaches but based on open-source software 

• Administrative Uses

The development of the SENECA platform demonstrates that it is now an important tool for the Autonomous Community of Andalusia and its education system. The availability of online, real-time information about schools, their pupils and their teachers is a goal currently being trialled with a group of schools, and its application to a large number of schools is a medium-term objective. Access to this information in real time is expected to lead to more effective regulation of the education system (projections of the need for teachers, reduced administrative workload through automatic record transfer, etc.).

Governance

Governance arrangements for virtual platforms in Andalusia are clear: relations are organised mainly – and fairly simply – top-down, between, on the one hand, the Andalusian Department of Education and, on the other, schools and teachers (and parents).

The relationship between the central level (the Ministry of Education in Madrid) and the Department of Education in Andalusia is managed by the latter in as much as the central ministry is not involved in the development of educational projects in Andalusia. This relationship between the ministry and the region is also managed through a forum that brings together the Departments of Education of all the Autonomous Communities of Spain. This coordination between the Autonomous Communities and the Ministry in Madrid mainly takes the form of exchange of information and definition of agreements in very general terms. This has led for example to the AGREGA project, a platform for digital educational content offered by all the Autonomous Communities with the support of the Ministry in Madrid (as mentioned earlier in this report).

Since the Andalusian Department of Education is directly involved in most operations concerning these school platforms, specific governance arrangements with other partners are very rare.

Technology choices and security

The operating system chosen by the Autonomous Community of Andalusia is LINUX/UBUNTU/Guadalinex. This is mandatory for educational institutions which develop virtual learning platforms. In return, the Department of Education in Andalusia provides monitoring, updates and free and apparently effective technical support.

No virus problem has been encountered to date, and the Department of Education in Andalusia states that it devotes all the necessary (i.e. substantial) resources required to limit such risks.

This set-up is integrated within a broader system developed within the government of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, including a secure intranet for health administration. The general security constraints sometimes have an impact on the network used by schools and can limit some of their activities (e.g., some forms of chat with foreign schools).

Success Factors

Elements considered in retrospect as being the success factors for virtual learning platform initiatives are :

• The choice of an open source operating system (LINUX/UBUNTU) which aimed to put all teachers on an equal footing from the start and to organise standard basic training, without giving an advantage to those with experience of proprietary systems, (“a really decisive factor”, according to one official interviewed).

• A step by step approach in which 5 to 6 years were considered necessary before results would be seen in terms of change in teaching methods.

• A strong approach from the start, putting technology at the service of pedagogy.

12 Chosen from among the teachers of a school on a voluntary basis, the ICT coordinator has the task of coordinating and stimulating the integration of ICT into the curriculum throughout the institution, advising teachers on possible uses and integration into their courses and teaching, administering the various platforms, encouraging the creation of digital educational content, disseminating experience and encouraging exchange of information with other institutions, analysing the school’s ICT needs, etc. The ICT coordinator has a reduced teaching load, depending on the size of the school.

13 The Centros del Profesorado (Teacher Centres) were created in 1985. Organised on a regional or provincial basis, they are a central element in the in-service training of teachers and in innovation for educational reform of the Andalusian system. Based on a participative approach on the part of teachers, these centres are platforms for training, study and work.