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Picture a classroom where every student has their own tablet PC, with wireless internet access and videoconferencing equipment to give them access to academics, industry experts and other schools around the world. The teacher begins the lesson by drawing students’ attention to a new discussion thread that’s appeared overnight on an online forum about a text they’re studying.

There’s no need for an attendance check: the smart cards that give access to the school have already recorded who’s in class. Even though the school has been open for only a few months, students and teachers already know each other well – they’ve been talking online since before the school started.

This isn’t the future; it’s already a reality at the Queensland Academy for Health Sciences (QAHS) in Southport, Australia. Since it opened in February 2008 as part of a Queensland state government initiative, it’s been a model cyber-school, where technology is embedded into the fabric of every part of school life. The cursor really has replaced the chalk here.

But it’s not what you’ve got that counts – it’s what you do with it. As Mark McCallum, head of high school at the International School of Singapore, argues:

“Access to IT resources isn’t about technology – it’s about increasing access to resources, information, and other people.”

QAHS has that covered, too. Students participate in online conferences, share experiences through podcasts and vodcasts, compile wikis, make blog posts and cast votes in online polls.

“These activities aren’t simply a means of uploading and delivering course ‘content’,” says English A1 teacher Rosalie Everest. “We use technology to connect students and enhance learning.”

Access for all

You no longer need to be fluent in HTML to benefit from the digital revolution. Web 2.0 tools are closing the divide between richer and poorer regions, and between the ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’ of the online world. Cloud computing, where resources and software are stored online, means hardware is no longer necessary, and the growth of free programmes and services lets anyone create their own wiki, blog or podcast.

Web 2.0 is all about worldwide collaboration, interaction and equal access, and it’s taking on a central role in how the IB operates. Forthcoming initiatives will connect everyone in the IB in a way that was previously impossible. The Diploma Programme Online project is extending more courses to more students. And staff can access support, through online professional development courses and training, using free e-learning software platform Moodle – now an essential tool for many education professionals.

Many of these initiatives spring from former director general George Walker’s belief that new technologies would be central to extending the reach of the IB beyond the walls of IB World Schools. This was the vision behind the Diploma Programme Online, which will allow students unable to attend IB World Schools to take its courses online. From September, the IB is piloting a framework that will enable students at non-IB schools to take Diploma Programme courses through existing IB World Schools that volunteer to be Open World Schools.

Students at IB World Schools are already benefiting from the opportunity to take courses their own schools are unable to offer, by signing up for IB courses developed in partnership with online providers. This project started with a standard level economics course, piloted in 2006, followed by higher level information technology in a global society (ITGS) and standard level psychology in 2008. The IB is hoping to announce more courses soon.

Students take the same exams, but all tuition is online. “Feedback so far has been what we expected,” says Ruth Adams, consultant for the Diploma Programme Online. “Students are excited to be in classes with peers from around the world. Many say the online course is more rigorous – in an online class, every student has to answer every question. But they have more time to look at things in greater depth.”

Teachers are enthusiastic too. Dan Auger, ITGS teacher at the International School of Lausanne, Switzerland, developed and teaches the higher level ITGS online course. Preparing two years’ content before starting the course has impacted on his classroom teaching, he says. “I cut back on the time I spend planning during term time, so I have more time to give feedback and support. I see myself less as a holder of knowledge, more a designer of collaborative learning activities.”

The internet also widens access to support for staff. The IB now has 22 online workshops for its teachers, and a further eight under development. Lee Davis, head of online professional learning, says the courses are popular in areas where people previously didn’t have access to workshops. IB examiner training and recruitment staff develop training online for examiners in a Moodle environment. During February 2009, more than 1,200 examiners engaged in 52 online courses, each one mentored by a senior examiner. Darren Hughes, head of examiner training and recruitment, says Moodle’s toolset helps develop high-quality collaborative training opportunities for examiners.

Forging new links

The extent to which technology can transform the world, and education, is illustrated by the ‘flat classroom’ project, run by Julie Lindsay, head of information technology and e-learning at Qatar Academy in Doha, Qatar, and Vicki Davis of Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia, USA. The project began in 2006 as an online collaboration between the two schools, inspired by Thomas L. Friedman’s book The World is Flat. It has now sprouted two sister projects – ‘digiteen’ and ‘horizon’, which have so far involved more than 800 students and 200 educators from across the world.

Students collaborate online to research a subject, then present it to their peers using multimedia. This way, they learn about more than the topic they’re studying, says Julie. “It’s the ‘unintentional learning’ they pick up, such as finding out that in the Middle East our weekend is Friday-Saturday, not Saturday-Sunday, that prepares them for the world, learning to work across time zones and cultures.” The quality of their learning improves, she believes:

“People need to know there are better methods out there to engage students – you’ve got to have interaction, collaboration, opportunities for creativity. Textbooks just don’t cut it any more.”

Research backs up Julie’s view. A recent study by West Virginia University in the USA showed students with access to multimedia, including web-based collaboration tools and enhanced software programs – such as Buzzword, which makes it easy to include graphics, charts and web links alongside text – found it easier to express themselves at a higher level and also found tasks more satisfying. Partly, this is because they have more tools at their disposal. But also, for today’s students, technology isn’t an ‘add-on’; it’s part of a language they’ve grown up speaking, so it comes naturally to them in the classroom.

For some students, learning to work in new ways can mean the difference between being able to take the Diploma Programme or not. While teaching English at Vienna International School in Austria, Judy Monast found replacing written assignments with audio and video recordings transformed a candidate with Asperger’s syndrome from a student who struggled to complete a few sentences in a 90-minute exam, to one who finished recording his responses (scoring a 5) within 20 minutes.

At the Centro Integral de Educación Individualizada, Colombia, PYP and MYP students use ‘WebQuests’ – inquiry-focused projects based on internet resources – to improve their English while exploring other cultures, and exchange emails with students in the Philippines, the USA and India.

Moodle is popular at the École Internationale de Montréal, Canada, where PYP students have had their own course designed for them by Dr Walcir Cardoso of Concordia University in Montréal. Called The Butterfly Effect, it explores natural disasters using discussion forums, instant messaging, a collaborative glossary, PowerPoint presentations and videos to encourage students to practise their English while they learn and exchange ideas.

Wendy Brandse found new technologies helped motivate her PYP students at ACS Egham International School, UK. She began using podcasting to help PYP students improve their English, by recording their own stories. Soon all the students wanted to make podcasts, she says. “If students are aware they’re being recorded, it focuses their ideas. It also gives me an opportunity to revisit what they say and gain a better idea of the contributions made by each child.”

Now interactive learning coordinator at ACS Cobham International School in the UK, Wendy has been using podcasts to link up with schools around the world. Wendy’s class recorded a podcast that went to a school in Namibia asking students there about their lives. Initially the Namibian class replied by email but in 2008, two students from Namibia came to ACS Cobham for the International Youth Advisory Congress on Internet Safety, where they learned to create podcasts, and received iPods, voice recorders and laptops, so the schools can exchange podcasts.

Casting the net

Activities more normally associated with gaming can be deployed in the classroom too. At the Dubai American Academy in the United Arab Emirates, students took part in a project using virtual world Second Life. Meanwhile, at the Moraitis School in Athens, Greece, Elizabeth Ball’s Diploma Programme students discover a world of knowledge using the MoleClues website, launched by the Molecular Frontiers Foundation in 2007. The site, now explored and contributed to by around 200 schools across the globe, hosts forums where students can ask questions and talk with some of the world’s leading scientists.

Broadgreen International School (BIS) in Liverpool, UK, is forming links with local universities to give students online access to academic expertise and advice from admissions tutors. It’s also developing a project to share resources and teaching with other IB World Schools through an online platform. Head of school Ian Andain says this will increase course options for students.

Technology can provide a vital link between home and school. BIS encourages students and parents to log in to the school’s online community from home and, as part of the UK government’s Computers for Pupils scheme, has given out 350 laptops to students from lower income families.

The idea that any member of a school community should be able to access its online learning platform, from any device, is growing in popularity. Last year, students from the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore, took part in a pilot scheme investigating the use of iPod Touch devices to access the school’s Studwiz Sparks learning platform. As students embrace mobile technology for leisure, it makes sense for schools to keep pace.

Diana Debenedetti, history teacher at Colegio Santa Brigida in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has a class blog based on WebQuests, which parents and students can view and comment on outside school hours. “It makes the learning process less vertical,” says Diana. “It encourages students to think outside the limits of traditional evaluation, and understand that knowledge gets richer when it includes multiple contributions.”

She’s keen to emphasize that it’s the way you use technology that counts. Setting students free to surf the web will simply increase the speed at which they ‘cut and paste’, but directed tasks can help them assess and select information and resources:

“Technology isn’t magic. It doesn’t provide instant solutions. It challenges teachers to improve their practice by being more flexible and creative, and it challenges students to reflect on the limitations of technology as well as its capabilities. The best way to learn is by practising together.”