Bloomsbury Education and Childhood Studies Article Template
Section Primary Education
Article topic Digital Technologies and Online Learning
Country Finland
Author 1 Reijo Kupiainen Author 1
affiliation
Reijo Kupiainen is University Lecturer at the Tampere University, Finland and Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Author 2 Insert co-authors name, if applicable.
Author 2 affiliation
Insert co-authors affiliation, if applicable. Please follow the below format:
[Name] is [Position] at [Name of Institution], [Country]
e.g. John Smith is Lecturer at the University of Oxford, UK Date created 03/2019
Length 1061 words
Keywords
Finland, Primary education, ICT competency, digital leap, digital technology in teaching and learning, digital strategy
Glossary terms
· Define specialised terms or key concepts used in your article in the style of a glossary
Digital leap. The Minister of Education and Culture referred 2015 to the digital leap to be taken in Finnish comprehensive schools, in primary and secondary education. Digital leap means that schools should modernize their ICT infrastructures and pedagogy. Government allocated funding to the teacher in-service teacher education to encourage uses of ICT in teaching.
Camera-pen pedagogy is a pedagogical approach to use video camera in learning to challenge students to think, act and interact with a specific focus. Camera is used like a pen for producing ideas, thoughts and interactions as well as to solve problems visually.
Governing autonomy. A feature of Finnish education policies which gives teachers autonomy for pedagogical decisions and possibility to abstain from direct and centralized interventions.
Seppo gaming platform connects physical movement to digital learning environment and combines project-based learning and utilising technology in real-life environment.
Research on digital technologies and online learning
Use of digital technologies in primary education has been largely studied in Finland especially in Master’s thesis in different universities by pre-service teachers. Studies are both from the
perspective of teachers and students and focused on different pedagogical practices, devices and school subjects. One new trend in the research focus on programming that was included in the new Finnish national core curriculum for basic education (Finnish National Board of Education 2016). The core curriculum includes information and communications technology (ICT) competency for all school grades as well, and digital technology is supposed to be used extensively in schools. Finnish schools have been encouraged to take a “digital leap” and create a digital strategy. The achievement of the digital leap has been followed intensively by the research.
History
One of the main goals of the Finnish education policy over the past ten years has been school reform, especially the development of the use of ICT in teaching and learning (Hoikkala & Kiilakoski 2018). The rhetoric is that because society is changing, schools have to change. Finland follows international trends (Saari & Säntti 2017). However, the results have been weak. There has been lot of effort to change Finnish schools, but these efforts mostly focused on technology rather than pedagogy. Different programs and reforms have a common attribute, especially when it comes to change and digitality: They do not have a strong connection to traditional Finnish education, well- being or citizenship (Hoikkala & Kiilakoski 2018). Ideas for change come from the top to down and do not start from everyday schooling.
Infrastructure
Finnish schools are mainly highly digitally equipped (European Commission 2013), and large investments for new technology, especially tablets in primary education, have been done in recent years. However, schools differ considerably in terms of digital infrastructures. Nonetheless, almost every school has a wireless internet connection. Students can use their own devices at school but not as frequently in formal learning (Kaarakainen et al. 2017).
The computer ratio per student is one of the best in Europe, for example, six students per computer in Grade 4 (European Commission 2013). However, for internet-connected laptops in the
same grade, Finland is below the European average (European Commission 2013). Other Nordic countries have the best laptop per child ratio in Europe. The Finnish interactive whiteboard (IWB) ratio per child is also below the European average (167 children per IWB); the European average is 111 (European Commission 2013). Once again, other Nordic countries are far above Finland.
Challenges
The main challenge for successful integration of ICT in teaching and learning has been identified. The integration is determined vertically by the central administration mainly without teachers and students (Hoikkala & Kiilakoski 2018). The reform is not motivated by existing educational practices and students’ own media and digital culture.
Other challenges have been classified in different categories: a) inadequate software or hardware, b) learner group attributes, c) allocation of responsibility, d) lack of resources and e) teacher attributes (Törmälä, forthcoming). Digital technology at school has not been designed for primary school children and has poor usability. Young students lack necessary ICT skills, teachers and parents are not committed to the use of digital technology in school, teachers lack time and support and teachers’ attitudes and skills do not support the use of ICT in teaching (Törmälä, forthcoming).
Opportunities
Many teachers have stated that ICT use enriches teaching and students’ learning experience, although 25 percent of teachers are uncertain about the utility of the use of ICT in the classroom. 20 percent of Grade 4 teachers use ICT in more than 25 percent of lessons, the fourth lowest rate in Europe. Mean in Europe is 29 percent and highest use is in Ireland: 75 percent of teachers use ICT in more than 25 percent of lessons (European Commission 2013).
Finnish teachers are well educated and use their own judgment in their use of digital
technology in the classroom. However, teachers have not been involved with the planning of ICT use at the schools. Usually, the technology is introduced in schools from the top down and is not
selected by teachers or based on their pedagogical needs. However, the well-educated Finnish
teachers are independent and choose their pedagogy with or without digital technology. Teachers have governing autonomy (Saari, Salmela & Vilkkilä 2014), and they often resist centralized demands (Saari & Säntti 2017). Technology is not the first priority for teachers, but it can be used when the content (curriculum), pedagogy and proper technology are simultaneously disposed to find best possible solutions for teaching and learning (Kupiainen et al. 2016). This is a strength of the Finnish school system. Teachers are professionals who make their own decisions in relation to students and with them. Teachers’ strong capacity and commitment have been identified as one of the main characteristics of successful integration of ICT in schools (Niemi, Kynäslahti & Vahtivuori-Hänninen 2012).
Technology and other innovations
An interesting approach in the Finnish context is camera-pen pedagogy (Jaakkola 2017). The idea is to use a mobile phone or laptop as a camera for visual thinking in the classroom. Pre- and in-service teachers have used camera-pen pedagogy largely for everyday practice in several school subjects.
The camera is used like a pen to produce ideas, thoughts, concepts, theories and interaction by taking notes, solving problems, collecting evidence and making observations. The technology is not the priority. Collaborative learning and production of thinking are done in a very simple way.
Camera-pen pedagogy can be connected to multiliteracy which is one of the seven transversal competencies in the national core curriculum. The Finnish concept of multiliteracy emphasizes multimodality as a set of different and combined modes of meaning-making material, such as written, visual, oral, spatial and audio texts (Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2016). Camera-pen pedagogy brings multimodal practices to the everyday classroom by bridging children’s everyday media use in school.
Another interesting innovation is connecting gaming to embodied activities by the Seppo gaming platform (Seppo 2018). Seppo is used by more than six thousand teachers in more than ten countries. Seppo uses mobile technology for problem-solving, creativity and teamwork in learning
outdoors. It is principally a map-based game board that uses participants’ location information and gives tasks to students to solve. Seppo combines mobile technology and collaborative problem- based learning with active learning and moving out of the classroom.
Further reading and online resources Compulsory education in Finland.
https://www.oph.fi/download/180148_Compulsory_education_in_Finland.pdf Finnish education in a nutshell.
https://www.oph.fi/download/171176_finnish_education_in_a_nutshell.pdf Good media literacy. National policy guidelines 2013–2016.
http://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/75280/OKM13.pdf Key projects reform. Finnish education.
https://www.oph.fi/download/177618_key_projects_reform_finnish_competence_and_education.p df
National plan for educational use of information and communications technology (2010).
https://www.edu.fi/download/135308_TVT_opetuskayton_suunnitelma_Eng.pdf
Niemi, H., Multisilta, J., Lipponen, L. & Vivitsou, M. (2014), Finnish Innovations and Technologies in Schools. A Guide Towards New Ecosystems of Learning. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Ubiquitous information society. Action programme 2009–2011.
http://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/77807 References
European Commission (2013), Survey of Schools: ICT in Education. Benchmarking Access, Use and Attitudes to Technology in Europe’s Schools. Final Study Report. Available online:
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/sites/digital-agenda/files/KK-31-13-401-EN-N.pdf
(accessed 20 December 2018]).
Finnish National Board of Education (2016), National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014.
Helsinki: Finnish National Board of Education, Publications 2016: 5.
Hoikkala, T. and Kiilakoski, T. (2018), ’Digitalisaation Pedagogiikka ja Jatkuvan Oppimisen Ristiriita’
[The Pedagogy of Digitalization and the Contradiction of Continuous Learning]. In: Koulutuksen Digiloikka – Miten Onnistuimme Suomalaisten Osaamisen Päivittämisessä? [The Digital Leap of
Education. How Did We Succeed in the Updating of Finns’ Know-How], 12–53, Helsinki:
Teollisuuden palkansaajat TP. Available online:
http://www.tpry.fi/media/aineistot/ajankohtainen-materiaali/fin_01_tp_digiloikka_digital.pdf
(accessed 28 December 2018).
Jaakkola, M. 2017. ‘Let the camera be your pen. The camera-pen learning approach fosters visual thinking in the classroom’. Nordicom-Information 39:2, pp. 42–45.
http://www.nordicom.gu.se/sites/default/files/kapitel-pdf/jaakkola2.pdf (accessed 25 March
2019)
Kaarakainen, M.-T., Kaarakainen, S.-S., Tanhua-Piiroinen, E., Viteli, J., Syvänen, A. and Kivinen, A.
(2017), Digiajan Peruskoulu 2017 – Tilannearvio ja Toimenpidesuositukset [Comprehensive School Digitalization: Status Review and Recommendations fo Action for 2017]. Selvitys- ja tutkimustoiminnan Julkaisusarja, Valtioneuvoston kanslia. Available online:
https://tietokayttoon.fi/documents/10616/3866814/72-2017-
Digiajan_peruskoulu.pdf/d93c4f7e-4a82-4c47-a545-4ddc6cefa102?version=1.0 (accessed 20 December 2018).
Kupiainen, R., Leinonen, H., Mäkinen, M. and Wiseman, A. (2016), ’A Digital Book Project with Primary Education Teachers in Finland’, in M. Knobel and J. Kalman (eds), New Literacies and Teacher Learning: Professional Development and the Digital Turn, (pp.109–29), New York: Lang.
Niemi, H., Kynäslahti, H. and Vahtivuori-Hänninen, S. (2013), ’Towards ICT in Everyday Life in Finnish Schools: Seeking Conditions for Good Practices’, Learning, Media and Technology, 38(1): 57–71.
Saari, A., Salmela, S. & Vilkkilä, J. (2014), ‘Governing autonomy: Subjectivity, freedom, and truth in Finnish curriculum discourse’, W. Pinar (ed) Handbook of International Research in Curriculum (pp. 183–200), 2nd edition. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Saari, A. and Säntti, J. (2018), ‘The Rhetoric of the “Digital Leap” in Finnish Educational Policy Documents’, European Educational Research Journal, 17(3): 442–57.
‘Seppo’ (2018).https://seppo.io/en/ (accessed 25 March 2019).
Törmälä, V. (forthcoming), ‘Barriers to ICT Integration in a Finnish Primary School Context – An Autoethnographic Study’.
