Education and Training
Innovative practices in education for the training of future distance node tutors in the applied use of the videoconferencing technology for education focused mostly on the identification of difficulties and their possible solution in the emergence of a new methodology to be applied to the Cultural Heritage Field.
To this end, a course entitled "An Introductory Course to Mediterranean Cultural Heritage" was implemented by the contracting authority the Malta Centre for Restoration and was adapted to be transmitted online via videoconferencing to all networked partners in IKONOS. Procedures, methodologies and guidelines have been designed around the basic idea of the course.
The course delivery itself comprised of a theoretical and a practical component. Whilst the theoretical component provided the grounds for research about the methodologies adopted for the design of a course, the practical component provided an insight into the benefits and difficulties faced when implementing cross-cultural sharing of expertise over video. The educational value was integrated across the curriculum framework based on sound pedagogic principles.
The training of trainers applied research was involved in the capacity building of human resources making use of the technology for the applied pedagogy to distance education via videoconferencing.
The emergence of documents such as guidelines, procedures and checklists for the merging of the technology with the educational value are direct results from continuous student and trainer monitoring surveys as well as through the collaborative effort of all trainers involved in the program to establish specifications for best practices in education. These held a distinctive importance as part of the needs analysis providing grounds for future improvements and recommendations in distance education training.
All lessons held over the video, both theoretical and practical as well as expert meetings were recorded and a documentation of all the recordings was kept in a virtual library useful for review purposes throughout the duration of the project but also as tangible proof of what was actually done during the lessons.
One common denominator of the value of the integration of technology in education is that it has proven to be a useful and interesting experience for whoever attended the courses.
IT MUST ALSO BE SAID THAT SUCH A TECHNOLOGY IS BUILT AROUND THE USE OF INTERACTION AND INTERACTIVITY THROUGHOUT THE SESSION EVENTS.
Therefore it has been found that a lesson without activities and resultant interactivity proves to be less effective than the same lesson with increased student-teacher feedback.
The system does provide synchronous feedback and that seems to be the strong point of videoconferencing worldwide. With videoconferencing not only can two or more people see each other but they can also communicate in real time as has been seen throughout the course. The idea of using advanced and high quality video equipment has made it possible that communication not only occurs in terms of discourse but one expert can visually display very small details of samples of artefacts within the cultural heritage field without losing any of the quality which would make it impossible to diagnose otherwise.
For the educational part, there are valid studies and findings which show that like any other course which has shifted from the traditional to distance settings (for example online courses), each course using videoconferencing, needs to be planned and designed carefully with a team of educational and technical experts. The collaborative teamwork is crucial in order to achieve the success in education which pertains to long established educational institutions. However ICT has been shown to play a very valid and important role in the dissemination of educational values and knowledge when integrated holistically within the curriculum. Applied to general pedagogical principles, it is capable of offering individuals a gateway into a wider perspective of the formation of the individual through knowledge.