Reform education.
This e-learning environment presents four examples of reform education: Freinet, Jenaplan, Montessori and Dalton. The learning environment consists of a CD-ROM connected to the internet. Students can look at examples of the four reform schools. They can make comparisons, find ideas four their own practice and learn about the backgrounds of these powerfull school models.
They can follow electronic masterclasses by attending video conferencing.
During some moments in the year students can participate in masterclasses, by joining a video conference. This enables them to talk to children, colleagues and other students. Newsgroups and mail support an ongoing contact all over the year with the four movements. The website allso provides information about the latest experiments, grounded on the ideas of the reform pedagogy.
The project was financed by the Dutch government. As a project coordinator I also learned about developing blended learning arrangements, following the reform ideas. The e-learning environment is available in Dutch.
In the footprints of Jan Amos Comenius.
Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670) was one of the most famous educationalists in Europe. His ideas about language education, the importance of preschool education and the use of media in schools are still of utmost importance for us. He created an outline for our modern school system. Respected all over Europe he was a model for Europeans and practiced the "think global, act local" principle.
A group of students from the "Edith Stein" school of education followed his path from Naarden (Netherlands) where he is buried, to Uhersky Brod (Czech Republic), where he started his famous work. On their way through Europe students studied the educational, cultural, religious and political facts, making comparisons between the time of Comenius and now.The results of their study were presented on a CD-ROM.
As one of the initiators of this study trip I learned that a real environment gives the most powerfull anchor to a learning proces. I also saw the power of ICT, supporting this proces and the necessity of blended learning arrangements.
