Via Celestino Arteta I was able to find out the launch, on August 21, 2013, of the opening of six schools that operate in accordance with the principles of O4NT: education for a new era. In this school concept the iPad is the real protagonist because each child uses one to have access to a virtual school.
For now they have started six schools in Holland in the cities of Sneek, Breda, Almere (2), Emmen, Heenvliet and in Amsterdam. The objective is that before the end of the school year the number of schools that will operate under the concept of O4NT be increased to twelve. It seems that O4NT organization He plans to meet with representatives of schools in the Netherlands to implement this teaching concept in more schools. In the following video you can see examples of how Steve Jobs Schools work.
The Steve Jobs Master School in Sneek and the Steve Jobs School in Breda employ all the elements of the O4NT education. The rest of the schools start with a basic structure with the challenge of adapting to the new concept in a progressive way.
He use of iPads allows to reach 58 fundamental objectives that the Ministry of Education has established and that include the development of the child's abilities and abilities. For example, work with ICT, access to problem solving, work creative thinking, work in teams and learn to be critical.
One of the keys to this scenario is the Teacher teacher, and in the O4NT model, the teacher is called a coach, and guides the students individually and in groups. The use of educational applications to acquire basic skills ensures that the educational process is fully aligned with the rhythm and learning style of each particular child.
At school physical building, the students move according to the individual calendar or schedule to the different places or work spaces: language, number workshop, creative workshop, gym, technical laboratory, etc. or scheduled activities to which they have signed up.
The O4NT model too help parents Because they can manage what your child has done during the day at school, and through a digital agenda, they keep track of their performance and progress. And the O4NT schools are very flexible in terms of schedules and vacations. Because the virtual school is on the iPad there is total availability for parents to decide the time of their vacation and also their child's class schedule.
The O4NT model includes a series of instruments and key elements and what are they:
- sCoolSpace It is the virtual school, where students work in a safe and augmented reality environment.
- TikTik sCoolTool It is a system for planning schedules, recording attendance, contact with parents and the digital agenda.
- sCoolProjects It allows students to work in groups on research projects and other tasks always under the guidance of a coach.
- iDesk Learning Tracker It allows teachers and parents to know the progress of children with educational applications.
- DigiTalentos it allows to know how the use and learning of ICTs evolves by children.
- Symbaloo It is used to share and disseminate knowledge: both within each school, as among other schools and with O4NT.
As Celestino commented on its page, the really important thing about this project is not only the technological tool to use, an iPad, but the methodological and didactic change that produces. The approach looks very good and the Ministry of Education is also committed to ensuring dedication and resources. What will have to be seen is how children, parents and especially teachers adapt because they seem to me to become organizers and dynamizers of the learning process more than knowledge transmitters.
The risk I see in this model is that it seems to me that the value of the information (what is written in the book) is lost and the focus on work organization and learning process management. In any case, we will be very attentive to the evolution of the Steve Jobs Schools that have started in Holland and we hope that soon there will be new countries that respond to these future challenges by improving and refining the proposed model.
