Technology in Teacher Education

I think visiting the exhibition will be useful to understand Finnish perspective on education and how and why they are successful. Also there is a seminar about this topic, I wish I could attend the seminar but I have to attend my serious games and simulation course.

I think that the most important fact in the backround of the succes in Pisa is the equality on education in Finland. Together with expertice of Finnish teachers and effective teacher education they have grounded the PISA succes. If you have interest to familiarize you to the Finnish core curriculum, you 'll find the english version of the document here: http://www.oph.fi/english/sources_of_information/core_curricula_and_qualification_requirements/basic_education We have started the process to renew our curricula: some information about this: http://www.oph.fi/english/102/0/ops2016_renewal_of_the_core_curriculum_for_pre-primary_and_basic_education

Two video about education in Finland; http://www.vitaminogretmen.com/videolar/video-detay/670/Finlandiyanin-Okul-Basarisi-Formulu/ http://www.vitaminogretmen.com/videolar/video-detay/368/Egitsel-Arastirmalari-Destekleme-Projesi---Finlandiya-Egitim-Sistemi/

I think Finnish education system, which ranks in top 5 in PISA 2009, deserves to be examined in more detail. In that sense, Matti, would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions about Finish Educational System? :) As far as I understood, the core curriculum in Finland is determined by the government (please correct if I am wrong). Are there any institutions or schools that design their own curricula, or do all educational institutions have to follow the core curriculum developed by the government? In addition, who are responsible for the books that are used in schools? Are they also provided by the government or does the government buy them from private companies? And lastly, what about technology? How technology is used in Finnish schools? Who provides resources? Do teachers go through any educational process for technology integration in classrooms? If it is more convenient to answer, I would be glad if you provided me links or resources that I can find answers, thank you in advance, PISA 2009 Scores: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/46643496.pdf

I "ll willingly answer your questions: "The national core curriculum is determined by the Finnish National Board of Education. It includes the objectives and core contents of different subjects, as well as the principles of pupil assessment, special-needs education, pupil welfare and educational guidance. The principles of a good learning environment, working approaches as well as the concept of learning are also addressed in the core curriculum. The present national core curriculum for basic education was confirmed in January 2004 and it was introduced in schools in August 2006. The education providers, usually the local education authorities and the schools themselves draw up their own curricula for pre-primary and basic education within the framework of the national core curriculum. These curricula may be prepared for individual municipalities or institutions or include both sections." That means, that every municipalities and public schools, as well as private schools have to make their own curricula. In these curricula they can more detailed to determine´the aims and contents of their own. Local characteristics and emphasis are so possible, but any contradictions with the national core curriculum are possible. Still, the level of the national core curriculum is partly quite common, and the requirements can be fullfilled in many alternative ways. You'll find this information in briefly in: http://www.oph.fi/english/sources_of_information/core_curricula_and_qualification_requirements The books used in our schools are published by the private companies, for example WSOY, OTAVA and SANOMA PRO. http://www.wsoy.fi/etusivu http://www.otava.fi/oppimateriaalit/ http://ratkaisut.sanomapro.fi/web/guest/briefly-in-english For example, SANOMA PRO "offers one of the largest Virtual Learning Environments for K-12 learning to schools and students. This service is called OPIT, and it was launched in 2002. At the moment there are over 170.000 active users. The success of

Thank you for those valuable information. In Turkey, our curricula and books have been being revised by Turkish Ministry of Education in line with constructivist perpectives. Additionally, the government has decided to produce "enriched books" which are electronic versions of traditional books including multimedia materials to introduce educational technology to the new education system. Still, who will produce the books are under discussion. That's why I decided to examine different education systems in the world to have an idea about successful decisions and implementations. As far as I understand, books are prepared by private companies in Finland. I will check the links that you provided about book companies for having more detailed insight. Still, would you please tell me what happens if the curricula prepared by local authorities contradict the principles and objectives of national core curriculum? Do local authorities still have right to implement them?

Thanks a lot Evrim for inviting me to your group. I also use social media (facebook) in education, but I think that I have much to learn about your group =),

Wecome Mr. Pirttimaa, we would be very happy for sharing information mutually. I feel that we have lots of things to learn from each other. By the way thanks to this platform that makes us worldwide students:)

Yes, thank you, I think so too... I 'll try to take part the conversation. I'm just Matti for everyone in this group =)

Welcome, Matti!!!... I'm pleased to see you who is expert and is out of our class, and I believe that you will support our learning on this issue, because some of us are novice.

Hi Matti! Welcome to our group. I hope we will learn much from you and other group members during the discussions.

Welcome Matti! I look forward to your posts! :)

I like this group very much. I think that I have learned about the possibilities of the use of technology in education more that never before just by belonging to this group. I understand that my way to productively utilizing the possibilities in my work as a teacher is long, but I think that the threshold to use them is much shallower now. I'm working as a craft and technology teacher, so I see the traditional practice and "learning by doing" method very useful in many cases. Still, educational technology has a role for example on counseling in-service trainees and on training, teaching and learning theoretical contents. What do you think about the result of this survey? Have someone of you used these LMS systems? http://www.teachthought.com/trends/elearning/the-20-most-popular-learning-management-systems/

Matti, thanks for sharing the infographic. I am currently using the first two LMSs in my courses: Moodle and Edmodo. So, means I am on the right track :) I did not hear about many others in the list, but from not on I'd be more inclined to use an LMS that integrates some sort of social tools. I hear many LMSs started integrating those tools into their systems. Here, I am sharing the presentation that I did at ECER last year. I was basicly critiquing current traditional LMS use in education. Main argument is that "they limit teacher's creativity": http://www.slideshare.net/evrimb/ecer-presentation