Palgrave Macmillan’s Digital Education and Learning Much has been written during the first decade of the new millennium about the potential of digital technologies to produce a transformation of education. Digital technologies are portrayed as tools that will enhance learner collaboration and moti- vation and develop new multimodal literacy skills. Accompanying this has been the move from understanding literacy on the cognitive level to an appreciation of the sociocultural forces shaping learner development. Responding to these claims, the Digital Education and Learning Series explores the pedagogical potential and realities of digital technologies in a wide range of disciplinary contexts across the educational spectrum both in and outside of class. Focusing on local and global perspectives, the series responds to the shifting landscape of education, the way digital technologies are being used in different educational and cultural contexts, and examines the differences that lie behind the generalizations of the digital age. Incorporating cutting-edge volumes with theoretical perspectives and case stud- ies (single-authored and edited collections), the series provides an accessible and valuable resource for academic researchers, teacher trainers, administrators and stu- dents interested in interdisciplinary studies of education and new and emerging technologies. Series Editors: Michael Thomas is Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments. James Paul Gee is Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor at Arizona State University, USA. His most recent book is Policy Brief: Getting over the Slump: Innovation Strategies to Promote Children’s Learning (2008). John Palfrey is Head of School at Phillips Academy, Andover, USA, and Senior Research Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard. He is co- author of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (2008). Digital Education: Opportunities for Social Collaboration Edited by Michael Thomas Digital Media and Learner Identity: The New Curatorship By John Potter Rhetoric/Composition/Play through Video Games: Reshaping Theory and Practice of Writing Edited by Richard Colby, Matthew S. S. Johnson, and Rebekah Shultz Colby Computer Games and Language Learning By Mark Peterson The Politics of Education and Technology: Conflicts, Controversies, and Connections Edited by Neil Selwyn and Keri Facer Learning in Real and Virtual Worlds: Commercial Video Games as Educational Tools By Pilar Lacasa Digital Networking for School Reform: The Online Grassroots Efforts of Parent and Teacher Activists Edited by Alison Heron Hruby and Melanie Landon-Hays Augmented Education: Bringing Real and Virtual Learning Together By Kieron Sheehy, Rebecca Ferguson, and Gill Clough Digital Technologies for School Collaboration By Anastasia Gouseti Digital Technologies for School Collaboration Anastasia Gouseti digital technologies for school collaboration Copyright © Anastasia Gouseti, 2014. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-37573-5 All rights reserved. First published in 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978–1–349–47738–8 ISBN978–1–137–37285–7(eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137372857 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gouseti, Anastasia. Digital technologies for school collaboration / Anastasia Gouseti. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Web-based instruction—Cross-cultural studies. 2. Internet in education—Cross-cultural studies. 3. Educational technology— Cross-cultural studies. 4. Teaching—Computer network resources. 5. Social media. 6. Teacher-student relationships. I. Title. LB1044.87.G68 2014 371.33944678—dc23 2013047569 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: May 2014 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Nicholas This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Chapter 1 Web-Based School Collaboration: The Promises and Problems 1 Chapter 2 Digital Technologies in Education: New Tools for New Times? 27 Chapter 3 Collaborative Experiences in Practice: Case Studies from the United Kingdom 59 Chapter 4 Collaborative Experiences in Practice: Case Studies from Greece 95 Chapter 5 The Bigger Picture: Understanding Web-Based School Collaboration 127 Chapter 6 Conclusions and Suggestions for Improving School Collaboration—Where Now? 149 Appendix: List of URLs of Collaborative Programs 177 Bibliography 179 Index 197 This page intentionally left blank Preface As a high-school student on a small Greek island in the early-nineties I spent my childhood and adolescence living entirely offline. I have faint memories of being taught how to use a Word processor at my school’s sole computer lab but nothing more than that. Concepts such as instant messaging and Skyping, social networking, and smartphones were unheard if not sci-fi scenarios of a nonexistent reality. Still, some of our teachers—mainly the foreign-language ones—made honest attempts to bring a sense of multiculturalism into the classroom by adopting the use of a range of Teaching English as a Foreign Language resources and tools such as tape and video recordings, the Penguin Young Readers, foreign maga- zines and newspapers, and so on. We were able to catch a glimpse of the everyday lives of children in the United Kingdom and we were surprised when we watched videos of children going to school wearing uniforms and ties. We learned to recognize the Big Ben and the London Bridge landmarks and sang along to the lyrics of “The Wheels on the Bus” despite the poor sound quality of the recording coming out of what is now considered to be a vintage cassette player. And when our teacher of English suggested get- ting a pen pal from a foreign country some of us jumped at the opportunity and paid the fee for registering with the agency. Opportunities to link with schools abroad were the exception rather than the rule and the prospect of online collaboration and real-time communication with pupils abroad was unthinkable. Twenty years later, digital technology has become a familiar element of most aspects of modern life and digital media are now an indispensable fea- ture of most children and young people’s leisure-time activities. The use of digital technology has also become a significant component of many forms of teaching and learning. The broader changes in the nature, characteris- tics, and conditions of digital technologies have led to enthusiastic claims about the potential of the new tools to transform educational practices and