Breaking Down Barriers and Walls: The Evolution of ICTbased Educational Innovation in a Belgian Primary School Alfonso Molina Management School The University of Edinburgh, Old Surgeon’s Hall, High School Yards, Edinburgh, EH1 1 LZ, UK Fax: +44-131- 650 9113 E-mail :
[email protected] Abstract: This paper examines a process of ICT-based educational innovation in a primary school in Belgium. The experience represents a revealing example of an evolutionary development of e-learning in a European context. The paper addresses questions such as: How is elearning taking shape in a concrete school environment? What are the technologies used? What are the difficulties faced? What are the benefits? and, more generally, What is the nature of the factors and processes involved in making a success of e-learning experiences? The paper deals with these questions through a combination of conceptual instruments (‘sociotechnical constituencies’ and the ‘diamond of alignment’) and empirical analysis. Keywords: educational innovation, information and communication technologies (ICTs), e-learning, international teachers' networks, sociotechnical constituencies, diamond of alignment. Biographical notes: Alfonso Molina is Professor of Technology Strategy and Director of the Technology Management and Policy Programme (TechMaPP) at the University of Edinburgh. He has written extensively on innovation and technological capabilities, particularly from the perspective of his "sociotechnical constituencies" action research programme. Alfonso has worked on strategic documents for the European Commission in areas such as microprocessors, multimedia, information society, e-commerce, technologies for major business and work challenges, e-citizenship for all, free/open source software for e-government. He is working on e-inclusion with particular focus on the convergence of ICT-based educational innovation, free software, and sustainable enterprises. He is Chairman of the international juries of the contests: Rome's Global Junior Challenge, eCitizenship for All Award and, until recently, the Stockholm Challenge Award. He also directed the creation of the www.e-inclusionsite.org aimed at raising funding for projects from poor areas of the world. Acknowledgements. I wish to express my gratitude to Lieven Van Parys, the Principal of Sint-Amandus School, Marc Lemiengre, and to all the teachers and students of Sint Amandus Primary School who shared their precious time and experience to make possible the writing of this paper. I also wish to thank Giovanni Serra for his close and valuable collaboration during the research of the Sint Amandus experience of ICT based educational innovation and to Ilaria Falcetta for her excellent comments that helped improve the argument of the paper.
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Introduction
In a small corner of the region of Flanders, Belgium, sits the town of Meulebeke1 (www.meulebeke.be) with its 11,000 inhabitants and 1250 primary school children (
