NSEJ - Programa Nacional de Ciencias Sociales, Económicas y Jurídicas (SEJ). MECI - Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia. SEJ2006-12110
Project execution: 2006-2009
Principal researcher: Manoli Pifarré Turmo.
Research team: Jaume Sanuy, Conxita Vendrell, Ramona Ribes, Teresa Mora, Anicet Cosialls, Angel Solans.

Summary

The main aim of this project is contribute to promote the digital literacy of secondary students.

The elearning Action Plan (European Commission, 2000) indicates the use of new technologies and Internet to improve the quality of students' learning as one of the main challenges of European Education. Students need to develop a set of specific abilities and procedures to allow them to exploit the potential of the new information and communication technologies and Internet as learning tools. Among these abilities, procedures and strategies, the following four groups stand out: a) strategies of information search. Strategies that allow the students to find the information they need to solve a problem – intentional use of search engines, selection of key words, regulation of the process; c)specific reading strategies. Strategies that allow information to be interpreted from the new formats information is presented in on Internet; d) strategies for analysing the most relevant information and; d) strategies for the organisation and synthesis of the information selected on Internet -summaries, schemes, conceptual maps, graphics.

The development of this set of strategies in all students, and especially those who have learning difficulties, does not occur spontaneously through the simple interaction of the student with the new technologies. It is necessary to design and to analyse specific teaching processes that develop new methods explicitly aimed at teaching these abilities.

In this way, our project wants to reach the next five objectives:

1. To evaluate which strategies and skills are necessary to develop in secondary students in order they could use, manage and integrate Web information with learning purposes.
2. To explore which curricular contents of mathematics, science, social science and technology can be studied using Internet.
3. To design and two implement during long period of time –three courses- specific instructional processes in the areas of mathematics, science, social science and technology addressed to increase the strategies that the secondary students use for searching, managing and integrating information from Internet.
4. To evaluate the incidence of Internet mediation in three variables: a) students’ leaning results; b) students’ learning processes: cognitive and metacognitive and c) social interaction among peers.
5. To design educational Web that contain the main conclusions of the research Project, learning activities using Internet and different educative Web resources to promote the use of Internet as learning tool in secondary education.