Creating virtual learning communities of rural school teachers
Mario Barajas ‫٭‬, Mónica Martínez ‫٭‬, Sara Silvestre ‫٭‬, Roser Boix†
University of Barcelona, Faculty of Pedagogy‫٭‬, Faculty of Education†
ABSTRACT
This paper is based on the analysis of the experience obtained in the development of rural teacher
communities under the umbrella of the project NEtwork Multigrade Education (NEMED) in Spain. The
article briefly shows the current situation of the rural school in Spain and highlights the links that have
been created through the creation of a virtual learning community of teachers spread in several isolated
areas, the so-called Virtual Rural School. This in fact acts as a virtual community of practice (VCoP)
First, a brief analysis of the educational policies and the current situation of the rural school in Spain is
presented. Secondly, a detailed description of the settings and training process in which the school
teachers were involved: a profile of the networked schools, of the learning management platform and
resources used in the Virtual Rural School and a brief analysis of the uses of the platform. The training
took place during four months in 2007, with nine schools and 15 primary school teachers spread along
different Spanish regions. The training and communication activities were based in the use of a Learning
Management System platform (Moodle).
There is a trend to think that rural school teachers, and particularly rural school teachers, have prejudices
against ICT in general, because they have more urgent priorities, or have a low level of digital literacy.
However, although this can be certain, the need for communication and fight isolation, makes that they
learn and apply faster what they learn. It is important not to guide ourselves for preconceptions, even
when the very teachers show an initial mistrust on ICT.
Throughout the project, it was surprising the fact that the community of teachers, when following the
calendar of the training, were able to create their own communication dynamics and their own learning
initiatives, beyond what was initially planned. One example is that, whereas the learning activities were
initially planned to be made at design level, the teachers were applying immediately what they learnt in
the classroom: teachers, together with their children were preparing digital resources to exchange among
peers of the different participating schools. It was obvious that, beyond training, teachers needed to
communicate with other colleagues, even more than learning new things and tools. This dynamics
favoured also that teachers designed collaborative activities for and with the children, so the students
benefited from the teachers’ training right away.
This is a symptom of the need for exchange among teachers of rural areas alienated from the regular
professional training circuits, but also a good example of the added value of the telecommunication and
collaboration tools for facilitating the networking and the motivation of teachers.
Rural school teachers need to be active in their rural environment, and are used to solve many and
different type of problems in close collaboration with the local community. This has been an advantage
for the project more than an issue. On the other hand, the experience shows that it is necessary to keep an
eye on changing needs and conditions of the participating teachers throughout the training, circumstances
related to the socio-cultural reality of the rural environment: we cannot expect to implement a formal
training course without respecting the time limitations of teachers, the specific calendar of the school, the
local events, the attention to other needs that came up on the spot, and other situations that are different
from metropolitan primary schools.
As a way to build sustainable rural communities of practice that last and expand, we hope that this work
will contribute to the improvement of the Rural School teacher profession in Spain, since this pilot
experience could be applied to a larger number of schools and rural populations, and, to some extent, to
school teachers in metropolitan areas.
1.
Background
This paper is based on the analysis of the experience obtained in the development of
rural teacher communities under the umbrella of the project NEtwork Multigrade
Education (NEMED) in Spain. During the past three years, a groups of Spanish rural
schools spread throughout different regions and isolated areas have been participating in
the European network, together with the University of Barcelona.
Now that the experience comes to an end (although the continuation of the network
activities is assured for the following years), we make an account of the key aspects and
lessons learnt from the activities undertaken, aiming at depicting how a community of
practice (in this case rural school teachers, university researchers) has been growing and
evolving based on the initiatives and events that happened during the lifespan of the
project.
NEMED1 is a network of dozens of rural schools from nine different European
countries. It started in 2004, continuing operations until 2007. It intends to stimulate an
effort to bring multi-grade education to the policy front, and thus contribute to the
upgrading of multi-grade teaching and learning. Despite the fact that multigrade
teaching schemes represent a usual means for providing "education for all" in remote
and rural areas in Europe and the rest of the World, multigrade education remains at the
educational systems' margins. The network focuses attention on the phenomenon of
multigrade schooling. Under the umbrella of a new European project, RURAL WINGS,
it will continue working at the international level until 2009. However it is certain that
the networks of schools at national level will continue working after that date, and we
envision that the international cooperation will also continue without the support of the
EU, given the success of the experience.
1.2
NEMED as a Virtual community of practice for rural school teachers
Communities of practice and activity theory are good frameworks to explain the
characteristics of scenario set, a group of teachers participating and building a virtual
learning community. Wenger (2001) points out three dimensions of the relation
throughout which practice becomes the source of coherence of a community: a) a
mutual commitment; b) a common enterprise, and c) a shared repertoire. For this author,
practice does not exist in abstract terms. It exists because participants negotiate the
meaning of their actions. Teachers in this case share their knowledge and work together,
negotiate what they know and what they don’t with the others.
At the same time the common enterprise has been the result of a collective negotiation
which reflects the complexity of the mutual commitment. It is not to achieve a goal, but
that participants build a mutual responsibility which is an integral part of the practice.
Furthermore, the community of practice eventually creates a shared repertoire of
resources which acquire a meaning in the practice of this community. Under the
umbrella of the project NEMED, the network of teachers is in fact a virtual community
1
Socrates Programme (Comenius 3 Action) of the EU (project no. 114323 - CP -1-2004-1- GR COMENIUS – C3PP).
of practice (VCoP) in the sense of Zarb (2006)2, which very occasionally has physical
meetings; the connecting threads are their participation in NEMED, whereas the virtual
learning classroom is the virtual space in which people negotiate meanings. They learn
from each other as a result of doing tasks and solving problems, so knowledge is a
product of a situated activity (Lewis, 2002).
2.
Rural education and NEMED in Spain
The diversity of geographical and political contexts in which the rural school in Spain
required two extended models of schooling in the rural spaces:
a) Non-grouped rural school, whose operation is self-governing, although the general
tendency is sharing activities, and even masterful travelling specialists, with other
schools nearby.
b) Grouped rural school, which constitutes what it is known as groupings. These
clusters of rural schools are born in Spain with the following purposes:
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To break the professional isolation of the rural teacher.
To open cultural horizons to rural boys and girls.
To strengthen cooperation and team work.
To share human, structural, administrative and managing resources, materials
and economics to be used by all the schools of the group.
To develop unique models of participation for the education community in the
daily tasks of the rural school.
To collaborate in territorial balance and to dignify the rural population.
In the Spanish State there are groupings of schools that receive different names: CRA
(Grouping Rural Schools) in Castile Leon, Castile La Mancha, Asturias, Galicia and
Madrid; CER (Rural Educational Centres) in the Valencian Community; CER
(Collective of Rural Schools) in the Canary Islands, CPRA (Public Grouped Rural
Centres) in Andalusia, and ZER (Rural School Zone) in Catalonia.
2.1
Key issues in rural schools in Spain
During the last 20 years the quality of rural education in Spain has improved
considerably. The political and administrative decentralisation of the educational system
has brought the development of public policies closer to the needs of the rural
territories; however, it is certain that the pace of development of these policies, as well
as the legislative deployment, has been diverse. In any case each autonomous regional
government has created school structures, educational and support services for the rural
school adapted to the needs of each region. Taking into account the diversity of the rural
contexts in Spain (there are rich rural areas as well as poor and isolated ones), we can
Zarb (2006) gives this definition for VCoP: “Virtual Communities of Practice are informal networks,
existing outside of any one particular organisation, that support professional practitioners to develop a
shared meaning and engage in knowledge building among their members by providing opportunities for
relationship building and interaction through the use of internet based ICT’s as well as other methods.”
2
point to the fact that, despite the improvement of the educational structures and
resources in the rural contexts, there are still clear needs to be tackled:
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2.2
There is a lack of specific initial training of rural school teachers; this does not
mean asking only for specific training, but also training to be delivered in the
rural school, as is the case of urban schools.
There is a lack of continuous training for rural school teachers aiming to keep
pace with new didactical approaches, with dealing with diversity (growing
immigrant rural population), and with use of ICT in the classroom and for
professional development.
Although the creation of certain organisational structures for coordinating
resources and specialist teachers for clusters of rural schools based on proximity
has contributed to having more shared resources, these continue to be scarce,
especially in territories in which immigrants have populated rural areas, with the
corresponding increase of a number of children in the villages.
There is a lack of ICT infrastructures; although the situation has improved
dramatically during the last three years given some State programmes for
deploying Internet access, it is certain, that there is still much to do in this
respect. As a consequence, there is a smaller number of Internet users in rural
areas compared to urban areas.
The infrastructures and school buildings, either new or renovated, need
continuous maintenance.
There is a lack of basic services for maintaining the rural schools: transportation,
soup kitchens for children, and kindergartens.
Very few regions in Spain have developed adequate legislation for supporting
and promoting rural education.
The current telecommunications situation in the Spanish rural areas
One of the key priorities of the Ministry of Education and of the Ministry of Industry is
to provide broadband connection to all rural areas, including the isolated ones. The plan
is implemented by the regional governments. The areas of application are 14,560 towns,
villages and isolated spots in 3,770 municipalities with about 6.5 million inhabitants.
Currently, there are several regions in Spain in which 100% of the population can
access Internet broadband connection. The objective is that by the end of 2007, 100% of
the Spanish population will have access to broadband connection. In March 2007, 5,659
towns and villages had broadband access, so 5.5 million of the 6.5 million rural
population were covered by the plan. However, access does not mean use, and we can
see that the number of users in rural areas is still low.
The Ministry has also financed the creation of 270 new “Telecenters”, which are
community public centres in towns and villages financed by both the Ministry and the
regional authorities, who provide broadband services and training. The isolated areas
and places with no broadband connection are prioritised. The program started in 2005
and will end in 2008.
With respect to the schools, only isolated rural schools do not have access to broadband
Internet connection. This is the target group of Rural Wings. ICT resources are scarce,
but the multi-grade schools do have a few computers in the classroom. The plan for
providing broadband connection covers also the schools, which means that in a couple
of years all isolated schools will have broadband ADSL-type access.
3.
The Spanish NEMED network of rural schools
The participation of Spanish schools in NEMED is distributed along 6 regions. The list
of the Rural Schools active in the NEMED Local Network in Spain includes 15 schools
and more than 30 primary school teachers.
Fig 1. NEMED Multigrade School in Teo (Galicia, North West Spain).
The network is growing constantly and recently several schools in the Canary Islands
and in Southern Spain have joined the network. The NEMED activities will continue
under the umbrella of the project RURAL WINGS (European Commission, VI
Framework Programme).
Fig. 2. Computer classroom in the NEMED Rural School of Sant Serni (Pyrenees Mountains,
Catalonia, Spain)
Within NEMED, an Educational Platform called Virtual Rural School has been
created (http://www.futurelearning.org/exchange/course/view.php?id=3 in both Spanish
and English versions. In this space we have placed the training activities designed for
the module, as well as some spaces designed for exchanging opinions and ideas among
the students (multigrade teachers), the teachers and the tutors. These spaces are
discussion forums, chats, distribution lists, spaces to share documents, etc. The method
used is e-learning, understood as distance learning based on the use of computer and
telecommunications and within a Virtual Learning Environment.
The Virtual Rural School has been designed using the free, Open Source software
package Moodle. This software is a Learning Management System designed to help
educators manage effective online learning communities. This system allows an easy
interaction between teachers and students, as well as among students. The design and
the development of Moodle are based on a "social constructionist pedagogy", which
asserts that learning occurs particularly well in a collaborative environment that
everyone builds together. This Virtual Learning Environment includes characteristics
that support role sharing, such as permission-based options that allow each participant
to be a teacher as well as a learner. Furthermore, the role of the 'teacher' can change
from being 'the source of knowledge' to being an influence, connecting with students in
a personal way that addresses their own learning needs, and moderating discussions and
activities in a way that collectively leads students towards the learning goals of the
class.
Besides this space, a project website has been created with the theoretical contents
visually organized and shown in three languages (Spanish, Catalan and English)
(http://www.ub.es/euelearning/nemed/localNEMED/). This website facilitates the
implementation and development of the activities suggested in the Virtual Rural
School.
Fig 3. The local Virtual Rural School platform in Spain (Moodle environment)
Other communication tools have been used on a daily basis; among them, Skype was
always available in the classroom, so children from different regions could
communicate at any time, especially during the recess period. Productivity software and
video, produced by the teachers and the children, were also part of the resources used.
This has allowed the teachers of the Virtual Rural School to exchange audiovisual
materials among the multigrade schools. The exchange of the material has been carried
out through the Moodle platform.
We designed a training module for the Virtual Rural School, with the intention that the
teachers participating in NEMED learn to design a collaborative telematic project for
subsequent creation and application among the schools. The activities that configured
the training module were created to be carried out individually; however, the teachers
were asked, specifically, to upload their exercises and resources in the educational
platform with the aim of sharing them with their colleagues.
Telematic project "Sharing Traditions"
The purpose of the project is to share the traditions that we celebrate at schools. The ways of
sharing them can be different, such as we noted in the meeting via Skype and which Miquel
commented on in the Moodle forum.
Two ways of getting in touch will be needed:
Synchronous Contacts (online) to explain to each other what we are doing to prepare
activities and to solve problems. We will do the synchronous contacts via Skype.
Asynchronous contacts (offline) to send to each other those activities to carry out and those
already carried out. We will do the asynchronous contacts via electronic mail and within the
educational platform.
Human resources: The teaching staff and the student body of the participant schools.
Material resources: The traditional resources used at schools.
Technological resources: The ways of sharing them are different, all involving the use of ICT:
Internet, Skype, e-mail (teachers’ or class’ e-mail), Office (Word and PowerPoint mainly), image
processing, digital camera, sound processor application), microphone with speakers and earphones
with micro, digital video camera, and also possible specific programs as Click, Hot Potatoes,
spreadsheets, etc.
Following our e-tutor’s instructions, we can keep comparing our listings in this forum and address
the needs in a synchronized meeting (Skype).
Fig. 4. Tasks carried out together by the teachers of Virtual Rural School during the design of the
telematic project "Sharing Traditions" (designed by the teachers)
We considered a collective work for the second part of the module, in which there were
different activities to carry out together among the teachers of the rural schools.
Fortunately, to our surprise, the teachers of the Virtual Rural School decided to overturn
the activities scheduled in the educational platform, converting them into collective
activities; by doing this they managed to jump forward to what was scheduled for the
third training phase. Therefore, the modules had to be quickly restructured in order to
answer the need expressed by the teachers active in NEMED. This shows a great
involvement and the taking over of the teachers reorganising the programme according
to their views and needs.
4.
The daily life of the virtual community of practice in the rural school
The teachers’ attitudes were very satisfactory, for they have managed to create a
relationship that is only possible if are really thrilled and committed. On different
occasions, the teachers in the Virtual Rural School have expressed their wide
satisfaction and gratitude for being offered the opportunity to be connected and to
generate a collaborative work that fills them with new ideas and stimulating experiences
(exchange of photographs, videos, opinions, experiments, beliefs, etc.).
An indication of the success of the project is the incorporation of new schools by the
initial team of teachers themselves. An informal network of collaborating schools was
continuously growing to the point that we included double the initial number of schools
and others are asking to be included. The introduction of these schools to the project
was due to the motivation, enthusiasm and satisfaction of the teachers.
As said before, teachers were able to create collaborative activities (Fig.4) using their
own initiatives, as an example of applying ICT to the rural context, and they’ve got
involved in the design through ICT of educational materials adapted to their schools’
real needs and wishes. This has been possible mostly thanks to the extraordinary
personal relationships developed at distance; only very recently have they been able to
meet personally. Within a community of practice, as important as sharing goals and
doing thing together, is the emotional aspect of sharing interests and concerns, which
are very much common in the profession and in the context of being a rural school
teacher.
Toward the end of the training period, there were some days of face-to-face training for
evaluating the project and consolidating the network already created. During these days
we were able to check some of the premises that guided us during development of the
training and creation of the network. The face-to-face days served as opportunities for
the teachers to express their concerns, needs, and critiques about the design, execution,
and development of the project. Throughout this period, comments, opinions, and
suggestions were expressed.
For the teachers who are members of the NEMED network in Spain the most important
thing about the project for them, personally, has been the possibility given them to
know each other and to communicate with each other, allowing them to escape the
isolation of the rural environment through the establishment of a large community of
teachers and friends. Here we have some examples of the teachers’ views:
“For me, participating in NEMED, allows me to do things that I can’t do in my ZER (
Zone of Rural Schools). But, beyond that is a place for experiencing new virtual
acquaintances with other rural schools teachers, and this is more than a Chat or a local
meeting of the ZER.” Although the ZER try to fight school isolation by sharing
resources and teachers (for specific subjects, e.g. the English language) by having a
common educational project, the environment is still local; whereas, NEMED gives me
the opportunity to meet diverse colleagues and make friends, even without meeting
them face-to-face.
Without a doubt, the NEMED network has contributed to the linguistic and cognitive
development of the boys and girls who have had the opportunity to be part of it. The
teachers have expressed their great satisfaction in observing the efforts made by the
boys and girls to communicate in Spanish, a language they don’t use much in Catalonia
and in Galicia. They have seen the need to change languages in order to effectively
establish a link with children in other parts of their country. Equally important is the
students’ enrichment from the cultural exchange generated by the contacts established
among the schools participating in NEMED. Children also are aware of the importance
of the exchange with other teachers and peers in remote schools:
“The children, when speaking in Spanish (our language in the school is Catalan) with
the children of other Spanish regions, engage very much and have fun. They are very
enthusiastic about preparing a common activity for the next year”.
This is one of the characteristics of the virtual learning community: the fact that the
children are very aware of their participation together with the teachers. The fact of the
schools being so small facilitates this familiarity with the project life.
5.
Final observations
There is an urgent need of the teaching staff for communication and exchange of
knowledge, personally and professionally. The teachers were very pleased to have us
facilitate the creation of a community of learning and exchange of experience and
knowledge.
There was a lack of training in ICT especially adapted to their needs, since in our
country there aren’t any programmes or laws specifically for rural and multi-grade
education. We attribute the success of the project in part to this lack, since, within the
training aspect of the project, we tried to respond to the needs demonstrated by the
teachers. Furthermore, there is the social importance of ICT as a tool of exchange and
construction of knowledge, especially for those who, for reasons of place, space, or
geographic location, have fewer opportunities for work relationships and collaboration.
There are the many possibilities for creativity and creation of interpersonal links that
ICT affords, as much for the boys and girls as for the teachers. We must not forget that
learning is a social activity that includes comprehension of languages and cultures,
which ICT can greatly facilitate. Being able to share their work and experiences with
other colleagues has made teachers value their work more, at the same time enriching
and improving it, thanks to the support and suggestions they give each other. It is
similar for the children, since they value their work more when they can share and show
it. This is a way to strengthen a community of practice.
For the NEMED teachers, the computer has gained another dimension—it isn’t only for
killing martians or downloading a programme; now it serves to establish links and
exchange knowledge and experiences. ICT has converted it into a very important tool of
communication that, besides awakening curiosity and imagination, helps students
understand that they are part of a global reality that extends far beyond their own
community.
Through the computer, it has become possible to establish personal connections as
important as those created among the teachers and students in their own schools. For
this reason, the teachers have come to the conclusion that the emotional factor is
fundamental when establishing interpersonal connections, independent of the medium
through which they are generated. We then consider the emotional dimension to be the
key to all success in education.
It is important to say that the results of this project must be communicated to education
administrators, policy makers and educators in order to show them how productive it
can be to create a network of rural teachers at the national, or even the European, level.
Besides, rural teachers usually don’t want to participate in educational experiments,
because they hear about projects that haven’t been based on their needs and interests,
but on the needs of the researchers—that is to say, the theoretical vision they have of
how rural teachers should act, be, and teach. But it is a fallacy that teachers are reluctant
to incorporate ICT into their classrooms. We have shown that in fact teachers can be
very enthusiastic about projects that allow them to address their concerns and needs.
This is the way to build sustainable communities of practice that will last and expand.
References
LEWIS, R. (1997). "An Activity Theory framework to explore distributed
communities". Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (nº 13, 4, p. 210-218).
Wenger E. (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity,
Cambridge University Press.
Zarb, M.P (2006). "Modelling Participation in Virtual Communities-of-Practice". LSE
MSc ADMIS Dissertation. At
http://www.mzarb.com/Modelling_Participation_in_Virtual_Communities-ofPractice.pdf (02-03-2007)