Olimpius Istrate
University of Bucharest, Psychology and Education Sciences, Faculty Member
- Dr. Olimpius Istrate gives keynotes and lectures on a number of topics such as elearning, computer assisted instructi... moreDr. Olimpius Istrate gives keynotes and lectures on a number of topics such as elearning, computer assisted instruction, pedagogy, and teacher training, being appointed at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, since 2004.
His professional experience includes a research route at the Institute of Education Sciences, Bucharest, a education manager position for S-E Europe at Intel, three years as senior education officer at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Geneva), and several short-term assignments at various institutions: Ministry of Education, World Bank, SIVECO Romania, National Foundation for Community Development, Academia Online, University Politehnica of Bucharest etc. He participated in education researches and programmes developed by the Council of Europe, UNESCO IITE, the British Council, the South-East Europe Education Cooperation Network, and the World Bank in Romania. In the last years, he coordinated projects and evaluation-researches focused on teacher training and the use of ICT to increase the quality of the education process.edit
Există o pedagogie digitală, ca domeniu distinct, diferit de pedagogia generală și de oricare altă pedagogie? Dacă da, care sunt finalitățile, obiectul de studiu, metodele specifice și principiile pedagogiei digitale? Ce este pedagogia... more
Există o pedagogie digitală, ca domeniu distinct, diferit de pedagogia generală și de oricare altă pedagogie? Dacă da, care sunt finalitățile, obiectul de studiu, metodele specifice și principiile pedagogiei digitale? Ce este pedagogia digitală și cum se articulează cu științele educației? Acestea sunt întrebările etapei de debut a unei arii emergente în cadrul științelor educației, în care practica ne provoacă, ne determină, ne impulsionează la lărgirea corpului existent de cunoștințe și metode pedagogice. Articolul contribuie la contextualizarea ansamblului de informații, experiențe și cunoștințe științifice, condiții, relații, semnificații care orbitează în jurul sintagmei „pedagogie digitală”. Termenul în sine este utilizat de peste 10 ani – primele articole dedicate fiind din 2011, cu elemente de proto-pedagogie digitală în 2004: Latham, apud Fyfe – însumând însă o serie de concepte și practici mult mai vechi, câteodată într-o manieră nouă.
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Rolul IA în modelarea și remodelarea conținutului științific este notabil în mai multe domenii științifice. Ariadna (Artificial intelligence advancement to nurture social science areas) este un studiu longitudinal inițiat în 2022 cu... more
Rolul IA în modelarea și remodelarea conținutului științific este notabil în mai multe domenii științifice. Ariadna (Artificial intelligence advancement to nurture social science areas) este un studiu longitudinal inițiat în 2022 cu scopul de a estima valoarea adăugată a inteligenței artificiale în domeniul științelor sociale; o anumită parte a științelor educației a fost aleasă, pentru a beneficia de cantitatea mare de conținut-sursă nou și disponibil gratuit: pedagogia digitală, restrânsă și mai mult la o serie de 27 de teme teoretice și practice. Experimentul Ariadna încearcă să scoată în evidență contribuția inteligenței artificiale (IA) la dezvoltarea științelor sociale. (1) O aplicație de IA pentru chat a fost folosită pentru o conversație ghidată, cu scopul de a estima capacitatea IA de a produce conținut științific inovator. (2) Un număr de 27 de texte pe teme din științele educației au fost generate, în decembrie 2022, folosind cele mai avansate instrumente de IA disponibile gratuit. Aceleași solicitări vor fi folosite și în 2023 pentru a genera din nou conținutul. O comparație a rezultatelor va fi făcută în următoarele faze ale experimentului Ariadna. (3) Unele dintre articolele generate au fost comparate cu texte științifice elaborate de cercetători, pe aceeași temă, în aceeași perioadă.
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Research Interests: Information Systems, Transformative Learning, Training and Development, Political Science, Online Learning, and 7 moreVolunteerism, Library and Information Studies, Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Knowledge Management and E-Learning Systems, International Volunteering, Open Distance Learning, and E Learning
Driven by socio-economical dynamics and supported by several national programmes aiming to increase the access to ICT equipments and to quality eContent, Romanian education institutions began to include 15 years ago new technologies in... more
Driven by socio-economical dynamics and supported by several national programmes aiming to increase the access to ICT equipments and to quality eContent, Romanian education institutions began to include 15 years ago new technologies in their development agenda. Several ...
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Recent concerns of educational policy level exercise a certain pressure on evaluations of educational programs to provide concrete results, comparable, usable to define the most appropriate strategies for development of education. Debates... more
Recent concerns of educational policy level exercise a certain pressure on evaluations of educational programs to provide concrete results, comparable, usable to define the most appropriate strategies for development of education. Debates at this level, which need evidences extracted from existing evaluation research reports, are concerning important topics regarding the relationship with new technologies such as: the emergence of a increasingly pronounced digital divide, the need to promote and support the set of skills for 21st Century, as well as the "insufficient experience of radical change in education", computer-assisted instruction being regarded as "the vanguard of the knowledge society”. An important point in continuing this synthetic and general perspective refers to the fact that there are no solutions or "magic" ideas to operate independently of context. Therefore, the principles and suggestions in this article be taken as such and customized according to the level at which the program is implemented, the concrete needs of the target group, type of intervention chosen, the particular education system or targeted curriculum, the results of other complementary programs etc. Such an approach towards a methodological construction is useful as well for the design stage of eLearning programmes, in the actual context of multiplication of initiatives aiming at incorporating new technologies to increase performance and quality of education. The article highlights a number of useful aspects for a better evaluation of elearning programs, starting from the preparedness of the target groups and institutions, then focusing on the object of evaluation, the expected results, the indicators and instruments used in evaluations.
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ABSTRACT
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Context and resources are important dimensions for eLearning programmes. The entire educational endeavour greatly depends on the way in which content is presented, a condition for efficient perceptive-visual learning. Therefore the design... more
Context and resources are important dimensions for eLearning programmes. The entire educational endeavour greatly depends on the way in which content is presented, a condition for efficient perceptive-visual learning. Therefore the design of support materials for eLearning is an ...
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Research Interests: Psychology and Novelty
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The role of AI in shaping and re-shaping scientific content is notable in several scientific areas. Ariadna (Artificial intelligence advancement to nurture social sciences areas) is a longitudinal study initiated in 2022 with the aim to... more
The role of AI in shaping and re-shaping scientific content is notable in several scientific areas. Ariadna (Artificial intelligence advancement to nurture social sciences areas) is a longitudinal study initiated in 2022 with the aim to estimate the added value of the artificial intelligence in social sciences area; a certain part of education sciences was chosen, in order to benefit from the large amount of new and freely available source content: digital pedagogy, further narrowed down to a series of 27 theoretical and practical themes. Ariadna experiment is trying to reveal the contribution of AI to the development of social sciences. (1) An AI chat app was used for a guided conversation, in order to estimate the ability of AI to produce scientific innovative content. (2) A number of 27 texts on education sciences topics were generated using the most advanced freely available AI tools, in December 2022. The same requests will be used in 2023 to re-generate content. A side-by-side comparison of the outputs will be made in the next phases of Ariadna experiment. (3) Some of the generated articles were compared with scientific texts elaborated by researchers on the same theme, in the same period.
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In the context of increasing access to tools that use artificial intelligence, the outcome of debates about intellectual property is important because it allows us to set the limits in which we can appropriate or refer to a product we... more
In the context of increasing access to tools that use artificial intelligence, the outcome of debates about intellectual property is important because it allows us to set the limits in which we can appropriate or refer to a product we have created with the help of AI applications, constructed as original or derivative work, using in its turn, indiscriminately, a large amount of original works protected by copyright law as a source of inspiration. At this time, texts, images or sounds generated at your request by an artificial intelligence tool cannot be attributed to it. Content generated with artificial intelligence applications does not carry intellectual property restrictions-it can be used freely, for any legal means, including commercial use. The partial or exclusive contribution or intervention of artificial intelligence in the development of a text, image or any other product cannot be detected with certainty. To acknowledge the AI contribution, it is recommended to add a note in a visible place.
In this article:
How do we access AI tools?
Under what conditions do works made with the contribution of AI benefit from copyright protection?
Does content generated with artificial intelligence applications have intellectual property restrictions?
How to cite ChatGPT?
How to cite Bing Chat?
How to reference images generated with AI programs?
Can content generated by AI applications be detected?
In this article:
How do we access AI tools?
Under what conditions do works made with the contribution of AI benefit from copyright protection?
Does content generated with artificial intelligence applications have intellectual property restrictions?
How to cite ChatGPT?
How to cite Bing Chat?
How to reference images generated with AI programs?
Can content generated by AI applications be detected?
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The role of AI in shaping and reshaping scientific content is notable in several scientific areas. Ariadna (Artificial intelligence advancement to nurture social sciences areas) is a longitudinal study initiated in 2022 with the aim to... more
The role of AI in shaping and reshaping scientific content is notable in several scientific areas. Ariadna (Artificial intelligence advancement to nurture social sciences areas) is a longitudinal study initiated in 2022 with the aim to estimate the added value of the artificial intelligence in social sciences area; a certain part of education sciences was chosen, in order to benefit from the large amount of new and freely available source content: digital pedagogy, further narrowed down to a series of 27 theoretical and practical themes. Ariadna experiment is trying to reveal the contribution of AI to the development of social sciences. (1) An AI chat app was used for a guided conversation, in order to estimate the ability of AI to produce scientific innovative content. (2) A number of 27 texts on education sciences topics were generated using the most advanced freely available AI tools, in December 2022. The same requests will be used in 2023 to regenerate content. A side-by-side comparison of the outputs will be made in the next phases of Ariadna experiment. (3) Some of the generated articles were compared with scientific texts elaborated by researchers on the same theme, in the same period.
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Is there a digital pedagogy, as a distinct domain, different from general pedagogy and from any other pedagogy? If so, what are the aims, object of study, specific methods and principles of digital pedagogy? What is digital pedagogy and... more
Is there a digital pedagogy, as a distinct domain, different from general pedagogy and from any other pedagogy? If so, what are the aims, object of study, specific methods and principles of digital pedagogy? What is digital pedagogy and how does it articulate with education sciences? These are the questions of the beginning stage of an emerging area within the education sciences, where practice challenges us to expand the existing body of knowledge corpus and pedagogical methods. The article contributes to the contextualization of the set of information, experiences and scientific knowledge, conditions, relationships, meanings orbiting the phrase "digital pedagogy". The term itself has been used for over 10 years-the first dedicated articles being from 2011, with elements of digital proto-pedagogy in 2004: Latham, apud Fyfe-but absorbing a series of much older concepts and practices, sometimes in a new way.
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Există o pedagogie digitală, ca domeniu distinct, diferit de pedagogia generală și de oricare altă pedagogie? Dacă da, care sunt finalitățile, obiectul de studiu, metodele specifice și principiile pedagogiei digitale? Ce este pedagogia... more
Există o pedagogie digitală, ca domeniu distinct, diferit de pedagogia generală și de oricare altă pedagogie? Dacă da, care sunt finalitățile, obiectul de studiu, metodele specifice și principiile pedagogiei digitale? Ce este pedagogia digitală și cum se articulează cu științele educației? Acestea sunt întrebările etapei de debut a unei arii emergente în cadrul științelor educației, în care practica ne provoacă, ne determină, ne impulsionează la lărgirea corpului existent de cunoștințe și metode pedagogice.
Articolul contribuie la contextualizarea ansamblului de informații, experiențe și cunoștințe științifice, condiții, relații, semnificații care orbitează în jurul sintagmei „pedagogie digitală”. Termenul în sine este utilizat de peste 10 ani – primele articole dedicate fiind din 2011, cu elemente de proto-pedagogie digitală în 2004: Latham, apud Fyfe – însumând însă o serie de concepte și practici mult mai vechi, câteodată într-o manieră nouă.
Articolul contribuie la contextualizarea ansamblului de informații, experiențe și cunoștințe științifice, condiții, relații, semnificații care orbitează în jurul sintagmei „pedagogie digitală”. Termenul în sine este utilizat de peste 10 ani – primele articole dedicate fiind din 2011, cu elemente de proto-pedagogie digitală în 2004: Latham, apud Fyfe – însumând însă o serie de concepte și practici mult mai vechi, câteodată într-o manieră nouă.
Research Interests:
Rolul IA în modelarea și remodelarea conținutului științific este notabil în mai multe domenii științifice. Ariadna (Artificial intelligence advancement to nurture social science areas) este un studiu longitudinal inițiat în 2022 cu... more
Rolul IA în modelarea și remodelarea conținutului științific este notabil în mai multe domenii științifice. Ariadna (Artificial intelligence advancement to nurture social science areas) este un studiu longitudinal inițiat în 2022 cu scopul de a estima valoarea adăugată a inteligenței artificiale în domeniul științelor sociale; o anumită parte a științelor educației a fost aleasă, pentru a beneficia de cantitatea mare de conținut-sursă nou și disponibil gratuit: pedagogia digitală, restrânsă și mai mult la o serie de 27 de teme teoretice și practice.
Experimentul Ariadna încearcă să scoată în evidență contribuția inteligenței artificiale (IA) la dezvoltarea științelor sociale. (1) O aplicație de IA pentru chat a fost folosită pentru o conversație ghidată, cu scopul de a estima capacitatea IA de a produce conținut științific inovator. (2) Un număr de 27 de texte pe teme din științele educației au fost generate, în decembrie 2022, folosind cele mai avansate instrumente de IA disponibile gratuit. Aceleași solicitări vor fi folosite și în 2023 pentru a genera din nou conținutul. O comparație a rezultatelor va fi făcută în următoarele faze ale experimentului Ariadna. (3) Unele dintre articolele generate au fost comparate cu texte științifice elaborate de cercetători, pe aceeași temă, în aceeași perioadă.
Experimentul Ariadna încearcă să scoată în evidență contribuția inteligenței artificiale (IA) la dezvoltarea științelor sociale. (1) O aplicație de IA pentru chat a fost folosită pentru o conversație ghidată, cu scopul de a estima capacitatea IA de a produce conținut științific inovator. (2) Un număr de 27 de texte pe teme din științele educației au fost generate, în decembrie 2022, folosind cele mai avansate instrumente de IA disponibile gratuit. Aceleași solicitări vor fi folosite și în 2023 pentru a genera din nou conținutul. O comparație a rezultatelor va fi făcută în următoarele faze ale experimentului Ariadna. (3) Unele dintre articolele generate au fost comparate cu texte științifice elaborate de cercetători, pe aceeași temă, în aceeași perioadă.
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A growing number of online courses are created and rolled-out worldwide, to cover the increasing need for skills and knowledge acquisition, to replace face-to-face training, to set up new professional development paths, migrating to a... more
A growing number of online courses are created and rolled-out worldwide, to cover the increasing need for skills and knowledge acquisition, to replace face-to-face training, to set up new professional development paths, migrating to a more efficient way to provide understanding, awareness and insight to larger categories of beneficiaries. In this respect, specific frameworks and procedures are developed within (education and training) institutions, to ensure the alignment with technical and education standards and to monitor learning, learning outcomes and usability of online courses in order to continuously improve the quality. The paper is depicting the extent to which the IFRC e-learning initiative has undergone several stages of development, surmounting challenges and succeeding to reach almost 150 courses open for around 120.000 learners. It describes the latest developments on the IFRC Learning platform, focusing on the pedagogy grounding these developments. The goal is not to...
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The article highlights a number of useful aspects for a better evaluation of elearning programs, starting from the preparedness of the target groups and institutions, then focusing on the object of evaluation, the expected results, the... more
The article highlights a number of useful aspects for a better evaluation of elearning programs, starting from the preparedness of the target groups and institutions, then focusing on the object of evaluation, the expected results, the indicators and instruments used in evaluations.
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A comprehensive online learning programme with more than 200 courses was built by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies between starting with 2009 and 2015, offering development opportunities to the Red... more
A comprehensive online learning programme with more than 200 courses was built by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies between starting with 2009 and 2015, offering development opportunities to the Red Cross and Red Crescent (RCRC) volunteers and staff to broaden their understanding, to strengthen their organisations, and to be better prepared in providing humanitarian aid. While it is difficult to say to what extent factors such as training, job mentoring, and induction programmes contribute to job performance and to an organisation’s efficiency, it is certain that staff and volunteers willing to undertake courses are more open to transformative and creative approaches, more prepared to tackle with new challenges, more likely to have a stock of knowledge and competencies broader than their own specialisation. Learning and “knowing to learn” are conditions for competitiveness and high performance. Over time, generally speaking, implementation of train...
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ABSTRACT
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A variety of studies have evaluated the eLearning and concluded that it can help produce positive outcomes. Which are the common elements of the various successful eLearning programmes? What should somebody take into consideration when... more
A variety of studies have evaluated the eLearning and concluded that it can help produce positive outcomes. Which are the common elements of the various successful eLearning programmes? What should somebody take into consideration when designing such a programme? Today it is well known that eLearning is effective if it is supported by holistic approaches that include appropriate policies, infrastructure, professional development, and curricula. The present paper is trying to point out some basic elements ...
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În ultimele două decade, noile tehnologii ale informaţiei şi comunicării au sprijinit instituţiile educaţionale în centrarea pe scopul esenţial al instruirii şi pe aspectele pedagogice. Istoria relativ scurtă a instruirii asistate de... more
În ultimele două decade, noile tehnologii ale informaţiei şi comunicării au sprijinit instituţiile educaţionale în centrarea pe scopul esenţial al instruirii şi pe aspectele pedagogice. Istoria relativ scurtă a instruirii asistate de calculator are deja semnificative acumulări proprii. Totuşi, o serie de probleme rămân pe agenda preocupărilor curente atât teoretice, cât şi practice, în special în zona proiectării programelor de elearning, trasând orizonturile care trebuie cucerite. Articolul încearcă să releve unele provocări cu care se ...
Recent articles have been concerned with the age at which children could be allowed to use a computer. Some experts say children should be forbidden from using computers at school by the age of 9, because the premature use of technology... more
Recent articles have been concerned with the age at which children could be allowed to use a computer. Some experts say children should be forbidden from using computers at school by the age of 9, because the premature use of technology diminishes, in the course of time, the volume and the focus of attention. Other researchers raise the issue of excessive computer and internet use by children at home, a fact that can negatively influence school achievement. Without necessarily advocating the use of ICT as early as possible in childhood, this article tries to temper the negative view being an invitation to informed reflection and to interpretation of the conclusions of research reports in this area based on utilitarian criteria, contextualised and well reasoned.
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Electronic ISBN 978-975-98590-9-1 (2. c) 978-975-98590-7-7 (tk.) Cover Design by: Atila Ozer Page Design by: Ahmet Kirez © Ugur Demiray-2010 9 789759 859091
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The responsibility for education is nowadays shared: collaborative demarches and adequate commitment from all stakeholders is very much increasing the effects of education as a whole, oriented towards preparing competitive human resources... more
The responsibility for education is nowadays shared: collaborative demarches and adequate commitment from all stakeholders is very much increasing the effects of education as a whole, oriented towards preparing competitive human resources equipped with competences for the 21st Century: cooperation, communication, critical thinking, creativity, innovation. In Romania, the emergence of a knowledge-based economy and the need to assure conditions of social inclusion to all for the 21st Century have brought into light the necessity to enhance the continuous development of the human capital according to a lifelong learning perspective. In these regards, innovative education strategies aiming to integrate ICT are effective and viable when supported by several stakeholders: companies, European institutions, NGOs, schools, teachers, education managers, parents and students themselves. The present paper focuses on the use of ICT in Romanian education system, using research data from several r...
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The concept of “totally alienated students” has evolved, in the last 40 years, focusing our attention towards what we can call ”alienated education practices”. Lately, higher education institutions are getting visible results in their... more
The concept of “totally alienated students” has evolved, in the last 40 years, focusing our attention towards what we can call ”alienated education practices”. Lately, higher education institutions are getting visible results in their efforts to raise the quality of the education process by implementing various measures to determine students to be active participants in their own learning. Celebrating 150 years since its establishment, the University of Bucharest launched a challenge for the academia, calling for innovation in the curriculum design and delivery. It aims to foster an update in the curricula, in order to improve the teaching methods and the learning process in Romanian universities. The declared objectives of the project are oriented towards promoting a continuous improvement of the teaching methods to match younger generations’ changing profile. Specific arguments are presented in the article, in an attempt to build the basis for a theoretical construction with meani...
The present paper focuses on the use of ICT in Romanian education system, using research data from several reports released in the last year. Being aware that innovation related to the use of ICT in the education system is still at the... more
The present paper focuses on the use of ICT in Romanian education system, using research data from several reports released in the last year. Being aware that innovation related to the use of ICT in the education system is still at the beginning, we tried to bring forward the landmarks of the early stages this transformation, convinced that time will settle practices and theories which would put strength on the development of students’ key-competencies.
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The responsibility for education is nowadays shared: collaborative demarches and adequate commitment from all stakeholders is very much increasing the effects of education as a whole, oriented towards preparing competitive human resources... more
The responsibility for education is nowadays shared: collaborative demarches and adequate commitment from all stakeholders is very much increasing the effects of education as a whole, oriented towards preparing competitive human resources equipped with competences for the 21 st Century: cooperation, communication, critical thinking, creativity, innovation. In Romania, the emergence of a knowledge-based economy and the need to assure conditions of social inclusion to all for the 21 st Century have brought into light the necessity to enhance the continuous development of the human capital according to a lifelong learning perspective. In these regards, innovative education strategies aiming to integrate ICT are effective and viable when supported by several stakeholders: companies, European institutions, NGOs, schools, teachers, education managers, parents and students themselves. The present paper focuses on the use of ICT in Romanian education system, using research data from several...
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Summary Context and resources are important dimensions for eLearning programmes. The entire educational endeavour greatly depends on the way in which content is presented, a condition for efficient perceptive-visual learning. Therefore... more
Summary Context and resources are important dimensions for eLearning programmes. The entire educational endeavour greatly depends on the way in which content is presented, a condition for efficient perceptive-visual learning. Therefore the design of support materials for eLearning is an important element when calibrating the formative value of the educational message. The present article tries to point out some elements regarding the visual and pedagogical design of learning materials in the digital environment, focusing on content design principles such as page layout, visual arrangements, use of illustrations and colours. In order to develop effective eLearning, the conversion of educational resources into e-content should be carried out following generally agreed rules. To assimilate and interpret the (mainly) visual content, learners in technology-based environments develop a series of psychological processes such as visual perception, attention, understanding, motivation, memor...
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Most of the world states recognise the importance of education for social and economic development. Examples offered by countries such as Japan, Finland, Ireland or United States constitute the best reason to properly appreciate the... more
Most of the world states recognise the importance of education for social and economic development. Examples offered by countries such as Japan, Finland, Ireland or United States constitute the best reason to properly appreciate the benefits of long-term, thoughtful and coherent investment in human resources development towards an authentic Knowledge Society. Responsibility for education is a share responsibility. Therefore, complementing governmental and other corporate initiatives, Intel Education programmes are set to help teachers teach, students learn and universities around the world innovate. Since recently, Intel initiative has start bringing added value for education in Romania. The pedagogical use of new technologies in education gained therefore a strong and committed supporter.
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The big challenge for the education practitioners acting in virtual environments is to surpass the novelty not only through adequately use of the technologies, but also through knowledge and use of adapted virtual education practices. The... more
The big challenge for the education practitioners acting in virtual environments is to surpass the novelty not only through adequately use of the technologies, but also through knowledge and use of adapted virtual education practices. The present paper looks towards the characteristics of an efficient elearning activity, trying to identify the set of skills and competences associated to the new staff which an institution need to adequately prepare when undertaking online or blended learning.
The responsibility for education is nowadays shared: collaborative demarches and adequate commitment from all stakeholders is very much increasing the effects of education as a whole, oriented towards preparing competitive human resources... more
The responsibility for education is nowadays shared: collaborative demarches and adequate commitment from all stakeholders is very much increasing the effects of education as a whole, oriented towards preparing competitive human resources equipped with competences for the 21 Century: cooperation, communication, critical thinking, creativity, innovation. In Romania, the emergence of a knowledgebased economy and the need to assure conditions of social inclusion to all for the 21 Century have brought into light the necessity to enhance the continuous development of the human capital according to a lifelong learning perspective. In these regards, innovative education strategies aiming to integrate ICT are effective and viable when supported by several stakeholders: companies, European institutions, NGOs, schools, teachers, education managers, parents and students themselves. The present paper focuses on the use of ICT in Romanian education system, using research data from several report...
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Abstract Most of the world states recognise the importance of education for social and economic development. Examples offered by countries such as Japan, Finland, Ireland or United States constitute the best reason to properly appreciate... more
Abstract Most of the world states recognise the importance of education for social and economic development. Examples offered by countries such as Japan, Finland, Ireland or United States constitute the best reason to properly appreciate the benefits of long-term, thoughtful and ...
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While Google is providing some customised applications for free for educational institutions and for teachers, several accompanying initiatives are aiming to boost the usage of these applications and presumably to help teachers to... more
While Google is providing some customised applications for free for educational institutions and for teachers, several accompanying initiatives are aiming to boost the usage of these applications and presumably to help teachers to meaningfully integrate them into learning. Teacher training programmes were started in several countries. In Romania, teachers were trained in 2014 and 2015 mainly through two specific courses, one face-to-face and one online. The paper presents the result of an evaluation researchon the teacher training programmes, conducted in mid-2015 by a team of researchers in education, with the purpose to provide stakeholders-teachers, trainers, education experts-withrelevant information about teachers' training needs, programmes` implementation, programmes` results and impact. Whichever the form of organization, the courses were very well received by the participants teachers, who found it helpful, complementing their pedagogical and disciplinerelated skills. With Google tools, teachers are more efficient in solving administrative tasks, they have more professional development opportunities, participate more in collaborative educational projects and succeed to create more interactive activities for their learners. Students participate more in activities including online applications, understanding better the learning content and being more creative.The evaluation reveals as well several downsides and bottlenecks in the transfer of the training acquisitions to everyday teaching and learning, related to managerial support, motivation, prerequisite skills. However, whilst not new to teachers and even less rooted in pedagogy, the training in using ICT tools to support their everyday teaching seems to have a new dimension when a big name such as Google is endorsing it, providing new incentives for education innovation supported by new technologies.