AGROWEB: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO THE USAGE OF THE INTERNET IN AN INTERDISCIPLINARY FRAMEWORK V. ANASTASIOU, A. BAZOU, S. SAVAS, S. SOTIRIOU Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Athens, Greece E-mail: vagelis@ellinogermaniki.gr, bazou@ellinogermaniki.gr, savas@ellinogermaniki.gr, sotiriou@ellinogermaniki.gr R. GEORGIADI American Farm School of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece E-mail: rgeorg@demetra.afs.edu.gr A. SIDIROPOULOU, G. TSAKARISSIANOS Lambrakis Research Foundation, Athens, Greece E-mail: athena@lrf.gr, gtsaka@lrf.gr ABSTRACT AgroWeb is a pilot educational project aiming at the exploitation of the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the development of an environment that promotes interdisciplinary approaches and makes full use of the capacity of informal learning. In the framework of the AgroWeb project students from five European countries collect information about the agricultural products of their region, which they present and sell through the Internet. They also endeavour the sale of products through an electronic shop that has the form of an interactive web page. The electronic shop, the Agora is a multidynamic meeting place and a place for the exchange of ideas. The AgroWeb educational project is an example of the application of ICT in agriculture, in sensitising young people to the agricultural and commercial sector. INTRODUCTION The AgroWeb project (AgroWeb, 2000) aims to exploit Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the development of an environment that promotes interdisciplinary approaches and makes full use of the capacity of informal learning. AgroWeb presents an integrated framework for activities that have the potential to provide real world results through an interdisciplinary model easily applicable in the current educational practice and adopts an interactive and collaborative form of Open and Distance Learning s (ODL) application with decentralized organizational form. In the framework of the AgroWeb project students from five European countries develop a web-enabled application platform, the e-shop (AGORA), through which they design and create webpages to promote and sell agricultural products of their areas. 573
OBJECTIVES The main objectives of the AgroWeb are: The development of an interdisciplinary model in current educational practice. The interdisciplinarity is very important, since it provides a unique way of strengthening learning processes, such as discovering analogies, similarities etc., while providing topics, which are inherently closer to real world problems. The presentation of Europe s agricultural diversity through the use of ICT. Technology is often accused of displacing the cultural aspects of education. In the contrary the AgroWeb project exploits the unique marketing and distribution capabilities Internet offers. Students through the creation of descriptive webpages get to know particular products, such as the Chios mastic or the French wines. The provision of a model for motivating and integrated activities in the classroom. It is common knowledge among educators that activities with high student participation have a unique potential for providing motivating topics in the classroom and enhancing the quality and the effectiveness of education (Todt Eberhard, 1993). The provision of a model for the usage of ICT in schools. Students and teachers should be trained in discovering the "real world" implications of the Internet and planning the design of their webpages accordingly. The AgroWeb project is an example of the application of ICT in agricultural education, in sensitising young people to the agricultural and commercial sector. The familiarization of teachers with ICT and ODL. The project aims to provide teachers with effective training that accustoms them to the use of modern ICT and allows for the incorporation of ODL elements in their teaching practice. The provision of arguments in favour of ODL s spread in secondary education. Students participating in the project benefit from the enhanced participation and interactivity that the introduction of ODL offers to the conventional teaching. METHODOLOGY Pedagogical framework The AgroWeb project is being developed across three main pedagogical principles: Learning should be a collaborative experience. The project is based on the creation of a virtual classroom (Jonassen, 1995). All groups from each school form a single classroom whose members collaborate in every stage of the project s implementation through the e-shop (AGORA). The collaboration between students is a prerequisite for the success of the project. (Apostolakis et al., 1999). Participation enhances learning. It is widely held that increased students participation stimulates interest (Gangoli et al. 1995). AgroWeb provides students with experience in a collaborative, interdepartmental, and international project that emphasizes agricultural products, marketing and ICT. Educational context of AgroWeb is not transmitted in a theoretical way but rather in a biomatic way in the form of a real life experience. Need for cross curricula approach. As mentioned, interdisciplinarity is crucial towards enhancing the effectiveness of education. During all stages of this procedure students acquire knowledge and skills on subjects such as language and culture, history, geography, mathematics and economics. At the same time they learn about European agricultural products and become familiar with e-commerce and the common currency. 574
Preparatory activities The AgroWeb project, making full use of the capabilities the web offers in order to stimulate students interaction, has created a web-based e-shop platform, in the design of which proper weight has been given on its educational concept. It is a tool for students, a distributed learning environment, facilitating the learning process. The e-shop platform includes facilities to produce graphical representations of the sales of a product to compare actual and anticipated performances and in general what is necessary to monitor the financial activities of a real shop, as it can be seen in the figures (1a, 1b). Two main objectives were targeted for performance metrics. First, to address clear educational needs such as familiarization with graphical representations and determination of which quantities depend on each other and second, to guaranty full freedom of the students in choosing the form of graphical representation. Before the introduction of the project in the classroom an on-line seminar course for the teachers was made available on the Web, in order to serve as a reference guide for the Implementation (http://www.ellinogermaniki.gr/ep/agroweb/htmls/uk/training.html). The online lessons in the framework of the project deal with ODL, e-commerce and guidelines for teachers. FIGURES 1a, 1b: Graphical representations. Students are able to compare the sales of the products versus the price of the product or the sales of the same product in different countries CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES At the introduction of the project in the classroom students from the participating schools were asked to collect information on traditional agricultural products that played a significant role in the history and in the socioeconomic development of the area. Then, they created "marketable" content on the products they were going to sell electronically, in order to present them on the web. Following the selection of the products, students negotiated with local producers for the acquisition of a limited amount of products in exchange of promoting them in the Internet in the framework of the project. Then, in the framework of the art class, they designed attractive trademarks of the products to commercialize them in the most efficient way (See Figure 2). 575
FIGURE 2: The map of the schools and products presented in one country. In parallel with the presentation and promotion of products the students tried to illustrate the characteristics of their region, like customs, traditions, geographical and climatological particularities (see Figures 3a, 3b). They developed a business plan for the product s commercialisation and determined "bundling" policies together with their virtual classmates in the other European countries in order to attract customers. During e-shopping the performance of the products in the virtual market was being monitored on a weekly basis using the additional features of the e-shop platform. At the same time students enhanced their promoting efforts by sending messages to the Bulletin Board, organising videoconferences They studied, analysed, and finally compared the performance of the products with the targeted performance according to the original business plan. The goods were transported to the schools at the end of the project s run. FIGURES 3a, 3b: The web page of a participating school presenting the products. The virtual classmates had the opportunity to easily compare and evaluate the different promotion strategies followed in different countries, and through discussions (in the bulletin board or through low cost videoconferencing through the Internet) identify the factors that affect the sales of products. They could then respond immediately and modify their strategies accordingly and finally study the impact of their decisions. 576
The implementation of the project in the classroom has been planned to take place in two phases. In the first phase seven European high schools (partner schools) have participated. This was the test run and the e-shopping took place in local currency. The students tested the user-friendliness of the e-shop platform and gave their input for its improvement. During the second phase, the final run, which will take place next year, the number of schools is planned to be increased to approximately 20, to form an expanded European network; during the particular phase all transactions will be made in Euro. The above-mentioned procedure has been facilitated through the use of the electronic shop, the Agora, which is not just a simple place for the transaction of goods, but also a means of communication for students from different European countries. Students communicate with their virtual fellow students and get to know not only the products but the cultural and social elements of other regions as well. Agora is therefore a multidynamic meeting place and a place for the exchange of ideas. EVALUATION RESULTS The evaluation of the AgroWeb project is a matter of great importance since only a few ODL projects have been systematically evaluated so far (Savas et al., 1998). The research process adopted includes all the steps of the scientific inquiry, namely the problem statement, the exploratory question (hypothesis), the description of procedure, the sample, the measurements, the tests (pre- and post-) and the data analysis. The approach selected is the quasi-experimental one (Hays, 1973). Before the classroom activities students filled in questionnaires (pre-test) evaluating their familiarization with ICT, agriculture, ODL. In the end of the test run they repeated the procedure (post-test). From this evaluation scheme many good arguments for the awareness of children towards the agricultural and cultural diversity of Europe as well as towards the usefulness of ODL practices in secondary education have emerged. Special emphasis has been given to the development of the evaluation scheme in order to overcome difficulties associated with the relatively small number of students (approx. 180) involved and the limited duration of the implementation in classroom, which is the case for such educational pilot projects. The research plan for the project s evaluation is based on the following key features: the exact determination of learning objectives, the systematic data acquisition during both phases of implementation, the introduction of a methodological reporting system and the combination of quantitative and qualitative results. One of the essential points in the European integration is understanding and respecting diversity. Through the participation to the AgroWeb project students had the chance to realize that this important parameter in the European continent, diversity exists also in the agricultural sector. Students got familiarized with the capabilities of e-commerce, which is a challenge for Europe, as the European Union is an attractive market of 370 million people with one single currency. Through the use of the e-shop platform a discussion on EURO has been stimulated; the meaning of the common European market and of the EURO have been realized in practice. Besides providing a unique thematic area for the development of a European interdisciplinary project - incorporating concepts from sciences such as history, chemistry, biology and economics - AgroWeb has demonstrated the importance of European cooperation in a more competitive world. 577
CONCLUSION The AgroWeb project targets the long-term effect on students behavior as active players on the European market. This is achieved in the project by the transmission of skills and critical knowledge to face the challenge of ICT practices in today s and even more tomorrow s daily life of European Citizens, including the motivation to constantly update their knowledge and to accept life-long learning. The specific approach makes AgroWeb an example of good practice concerning the use of ICT for the promotion of agribusiness, which can be extended to adults. REFERENCES 1 AgroWeb project: The project is being developed within the framework of the MINERVA Action of the European Commission (Cr no: 88172-CP-1-2000-1-GR-MINERVA- ODL). 2 Apostolakis et al.(1999), The e-hermes project. Open Distance Learning in secondary education, ed. EPINOIA, Chalandri, Greece. 3 Gangoli S., Gurumurthy C.(1995), A study of the effectiveness of a guided open-ended approach to physics experiments, International Journal of Science Education, Vol. 17, No.2, pps 233-241. 4 Hays W.,(1973) Statistics for the social sciences, New York : Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 5 Jonassen D., Davidson M., Coolins M., Cambell J., Bannan Haag B. (1995), Constructivism and Computer-Mediated Communication in Distance education., The American Journal of Distance education, 9 (2), p.7. 6 Savas S. et al. (1998), The e-hermes project :Interactive forms of distance learning in secondary education, EDEN conference, Bologna, Italy. 7 Todt Eberhard (1993), Schuelerinteressen im Physikunterricht in der Sekundarstufe I. Physuk in der Schule, Vol. 30, No.3, pps. 94-97. 578