Study - INNOVATIVE WEB TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS

Final study report

Introduction
This report summarizes the main parts of research carried out within the framework of Comenius-project IPM Tools.

Questionnaire design

Two online surveys were carried out during the project, using Web-based tool eFormular (see
http://www.eformular.com/martl/ipmtools). Both surveys consisted of open- and closed-scale questionnaires and an attitude scale. In order to overcome language barriers both questionnaires were made available in English, Estonian, Galician and Lithuanian.
The goal of the first survey (carried out in 2002) was to gather background information about the schools and to find out the attitudes of teachers regarding to the use of WebMagazine. The results of this survey were published in the IPM Tools project's reporting magazine (http://cce.peda.net/magazines/ee/).
This report addresses mainly the results of the second survey.
The goal of the second survey (carried out in the end of the project, September 2004) was to monitor the development of participants and the impact of the project to the attitudes of teachers regarding the use of WebMagazine and other online tools in the study process.

The second survey questionnaire consisted of three blocks:

1. Background information: number of students and computers in the school, support from school administration, teacher's motivation and skills related with the use of ICT in teaching, etc.
2. Impact of the IPM Tools project in the school: how many participants, how the project work was integrated into curriculum, most valuable tools introduced by the project etc.
3. Attitude scale focused on the readyness of the teacher to use new online tools in the learning process
4. Evaluation of the IPM Tools project.

Attitude scale included in questionnaire was based on 4-E model by Betty Collis and a corresponding questionnaire, designed in University of Twente (available online at http://projects.edte.utwente.nl/4emodel/4equestionair.htm). The 4-E model is a theoretical framework for predicting and steering the implementation process of telematics applications in educational settings. The 4-E model hypothesizes that an individual's likelihood of using a telematics application in his or her teaching or learning can be derived from four critical factors (Collis & Pals 1998):

* Environmental aspects in the institution in which one works or studies,
* Educational effectiveness or perceived educational payoff,
* Ease of use or level of difficulty in making use of the application, and
* Engagement or subjective personal interest in the application.

4-E framework and questionnaire was used only as basis for designing a general framework for gathering descriptive data, not as an analytical instrument (as it is suggested by Collis). Thus we are not calculating vector sums out of four E-vectors in order to predict the teachers’ likelihood to use WebMagazine, we will limit ourselves only to simple descriptive statistics.


First survey was carried out at initial phase of project after a test period when teachers and students had been using WebMagazine for two months, as sixty days are long enough to receive first impressions about the e-environment.
Second survey took place two years after the initial survey in order to monitor the improvement of the participant group and the efficiency of the project.

Parts of study report:

• Study report | General background of schools participating in the project
• Study report | General profile of teachers participating in the project
• Study report | Impact of the IPM Tools project in the participating schools
• Study report | The attitudes toward simple Web publishing tools according to the 4E models
• Study report | Evaluation of the IPM Tools project
• Study report | Conclusions