Escuela Rural, presente y futuro: conclusions part 1

The course about rural schools in the Valencian Community which took place last weekend in Jérica, Castellón, Spain was a great success. About 130 teachers working in rural schools met to debate about different aspects and problemas related to the environment in which these schools are placed. Some very interesting talks were held: José Luis Murillo, who works in a small school in a village in Huesca, Aragón, Spain, told us his very interesting experiences; Artur Aparici, a scholar at Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, gave us a lot of information about the social background in Valencian rural areas. Raül Manzano, who is the head of Observatori d'Educació Rural in Catalunya, explained the way they work to improve rural schools.

On the other hand, the attendants to the course worked together in one of six different debate groups. The one I led was about Secondary rural schools, for 12-16 year-old children. There was a vibrant debate about several aspects of these schools, but we would have needed much more time in this activity as the participants were very active, and very interested in the different topics we dealt with. Some topics couldn't be talked about, unfortunately, although we spent almost two hours debating.

In the meantime between different activities, we ate a lot, attended a theatre play and a show by two brilliant story-tellers. It was a tiring but intense and exciting weekend.

TO BE CONTINUED

Jornadas de Escuela Rural: Presente y futuro

From 7th to 9th November 2008, it will take place a course titled "Escuela Rural: Presente y futuro" (Rural Schools: Present and future). The place which has been chosen for this event is Jérica (Castellón, Spain). During a whole weekend, teachers working in rural schools of all compulsory levels (3-16) will meet and debate about different aspects related to rural schools: advantages and disadvantages, how to improve teachers' work, ... Some experiences will be shown to the participants, as the one which was developed last year in small schools in Caudete de las Fuentes, Campo Arcís or Sinarcas (Valencia, Spain) to create a cooperative in which the students were active members. Also, on Saturday afternoon, some debate groups will work on different aspects: one of the groups will debate on the use of ICT in rural schools. The one I will lead will deal with Secondary rural schools. Now in Spain, only Pre- and Primary schools are considered to be rural, but Secondary schools are not listed as rural, although they have some identifying characteristics: a small group of teachers, small groups, lack of some resources, instability of the staff, that usually changes from one year to another, etc.

I will try to tell the most significant conclusions in this blog next week, especially those related with ICT.

Anex to my first post (tag included)

We usually understand teaching-learning processes as formal, in which the physical presence of both teacher and learners is needed. The introduction of new technologies and the increasing digital literacy of people, specially of young people, are pushing forward to be more confident in other less formal strategies such as online learning. Due to my job, partly consisting of planning courses for teachers, I have the experience of meeting a group of little motivated teachers, tired after working all day, who don't want to really participate actively in the course, who are little enriching. On the other hand, online activities have interesting characteristics, and allow teachers to choose the place, the time and the rhythm to learn. Although there is still a long way to walk to get a good level of digital knowledge, teachers in this kind of courses usually get a good standard of learning. They are more cooperative, and that is very important. Who wants to drive and spend three hours after working all day to meet a teacher who explains something you can find in a book or the Internet? Learning implies much more than that, and physical presence does not guarantee a real improvement.A blog is a very interesting tool to improve the learning process. I have used it with teachers attending a course on reading habits. All of them could accede to a blog specially created for the occassion, and the exchange of opinions, ideas, teaching resources was very interesting. I admit that many of them were reluctant to do it, as I suppose medieval men did with books, a revolutionary tool then.Some people in my organization have enough digital competence to use new technologies as a tool. But they (me included) still have the sensation that traditional courses are worthy for our clients, and that online activities will make us lose importance in the system. I am aware that I have had some experiences that may be considered innovative, but I also know that there is so much to do to get a real and full profit of these strategies. I am on the way, no matter how long it takes, I think I am on the right way. The other way is to maintain traditional strategies and reject the new ones. But it's time to innovate and adapt the sign of the times.

Annex to my first post

We usually understand teaching-learning processes as formal, in which the physical presence of both teacher and learners is needed. The introduction of new technologies and the increasing digital literacy of people, specially of young people, are pushing forward to be more confident in other less formal strategies such as online learning. Due to my job, partly consisting of planning courses for teachers, I have the experience of meeting a group of little motivated teachers, tired after working all day, who don't want to really participate actively in the course, who are little enriching. On the other hand, online activities have interesting characteristics, and allow teachers to choose the place, the time and the rhythm to learn. Although there is still a long way to walk to get a good level of digital knowledge, teachers in this kind of courses usually get a good standard of learning. They are more cooperative, and that is very important. Who wants to drive and spend three hours after working all day to meet a teacher who explains something you can find in a book or the Internet? Learning implies much more than that, and physical presence does not guarantee a real improvement.
A blog is a very interesting tool to improve the learning process. I have used it with teachers attending a course on reading habits. All of them could accede to a blog specially created for the occassion, and the exchange of opinions, ideas, teaching resources was very interesting. I admit that many of them were reluctant to do it, as I suppose medieval men did with books, a revolutionary tool then.
Some people in my organization have enough digital competence to use new technologies as a tool. But they (me included) still have the sensation that traditional courses are worthy for our clients, and that online activities will make us lose importance in the system. I am aware that I have had some experiences that may be considered innovative, but I also know that there is so much to do to get a real and full profit of these strategies. I am on the way, no matter how long it takes, I think I am on the right way. The other way is to maintain traditional strategies and reject the new ones. But it's time to innovate and adapt the sign of the times.

Rural teachers: a new beginning

Hello everybody

This is the first post of my new blog: Ruralteachers. It has been created specifically to be part of the MUVEnation course, which I'm starting this evening. Why Ruralteachers? Well, as I'm working as a consultant of teachers working in rural areas, one of my purposes is to get a wider knowledge of how to improve teachers formation using new technologies. The teachers I usually attend live and work far from urban areas, in some cases in small villages quite isolated from other teachers. So, new technologies may be of great help to get things go better. On the other hand, I'm also interested in reading habits, books, written comprehension, ... This is a (very brief) outline of my present interests in reference to this course.

Welcome everyone to the world of rural schools.