Creative and innovative use of ICT

In this project the following technologies are used:

Use of each of these technologies in itself for teaching and learning is not new. What is new is the use of the combination of these technologies.
At both schools the group with most students is the leading group. A teacher is physically present in this group. The smaller group is remote and can see and hear the teacher by means of videoconference. There is no teacher present in the remote group. A class assistant walks in now and then to check student presence and behaviour. The teacher uses a digital board to illustrate mathematical problems. Mathematic notations and goniometric drawings are easy to draw on a board or a tablet.

Remote desktop technology connects the teacher's digital board with the board of the remote group of students. With a minimum time lapse, whatever the teacher does on his board, immediately appears on the remote board. The remote desktop technology provides two way communicating, making it possible for a remote student to ask the teacher a question, walk up to the board, explain the problem and illustrate it on the board for the teacher and all students to see. The teacher, standing near his own board, can react immediately. See film.

A little bit to our own surprise, the remote desktop software works fine on the digital boards with different brands and operating technologies. Also, specific educational software for mathematics can be run on the board of the teacher and the remote students can see this clearly with a minimum of time delay.
At the end of each lesson the teacher places screenshots of the board, including notes, in the virtual learning environment for later reference for the students. All students, both those in the room with the teacher and the remote students, can communicate with each other about how to solve mathematical problems by using the functionalities in the virtual learning environments. In future, students will possibly use other technologies as well to enhance collaborative learning at a distance.
As an instructional basis a regular book for Maths is used. The students solve their maths problems using pen and paper. The ICT-use is mainly communicative. The students take their tests using pen and paper. During the test, remote students are supervised by a qualified teacher, not necessarily a maths teacher.
As they go along, the teachers adapt certain parts of the curriculum to the real time distance situation, i.e. flipcharts or notebook files.