1. Revitalizing Small Remote Schools for LifeLong Distance e-Learning Delivering a REVIT course: Introductory course on using web technologies phase 1 and phase 2 Ios, September 2010 Zornitsa Staneva Zinev Art Technologies

2. Organization Phase 1 of the course took place from 31 March 2010 to 19 May 2010; phase 2 of the course took part from 16 to 26 July 2010. The main goals of the course were to provide the learners with skills to use Internet resources, search for information, publish content and freely use Web 2.0 Instruments. Phase 1 of the course had 5 trainees, 2 distance tutors and 1 local moderator. The participants were between the age of 30 and 50, of middle socio-economic status, higher degree of education. No drop outs. Phase 2 of the course had 7 trainees and 1 distance tutor. There were no local moderators because people were coming from different distant regions all over the country. The participants were between the age of 25 and 45.We had 20 pre- enlisted trainees, but most of them failed to start at all due to technical or personal reasons. Phase 1 of the course consisted of 5 synchronous sessions and asynchronous sessions covering all the 11 learning activities. Phase 2 of the course consisted of 4 synchronous sessions and asynchronous sessions covering all the 11 learning activities. The platform used for both phases of the course was Flashmeeting. It was supported by the educational material uploaded on the ReVit platform.

3. Organization Since not all the participants had good English knowledge, in the process of delivering the course resources available in Bulgarian were also provided to them. In the process of adaptation of the course for Bulgaria such resources were initially provided; however the students were interested in having more information about certain activities like blogs and facebook pages and such information was also provided. Prior to the start of each session the tutors checked how the activities from the previous stages were done. Every session started with a short welcome and check what students have done so far – if they had some problems, how did they manage to do the necessary activities – how much time it took, did they enjoy the activities, and do they find them useful.

4. Learners’ attitudes All learners were very enthusiastic about the learning activities – they performed them with joy. Some of the activities were difficult for them – for example creating a blog and a facebook page, while others were very easy – for example the activities related to entering and reading forums, listening to online radio and reading online news. The activities, which were most difficult for participants were the creation of a twitter profile and using of twitter as well as booking tickets online. The problem with twitter was mainly the fact that everything was in English or in another language different from Bulgarian. It was pretty much the same with the tickets booking activity.

5. Learners’ attitudes All learners were quite active during the course – participated in all discussions, shared experience about previous activities they have done, which included use of ICT and about how they did with their homework. Students shared that during the course they learned a lot and all activities were very helpful in their everyday personal and professional life.

6. The course from a didactic point of view The students achieved what was expected from them. They were satisfied of the course. The learners were diligent and did everything, which was required from them. The distance learning was very appropriate method for this course. On the one hand the students had their time to do the activities and on the other they had more experience with web technologies. As a tutor for me it was a real pleasure to lead this course.

7. Brief info on the E-Commerce course – in progress 2 synchronous sessions so far – 9 Sept and 16 Sept Lot’s of homework Next meeting – scheduled for 24 Sept 8 trainees One tutor One local moderator

11. Revitalizing Small Remote Schools for LifeLong Distance e-Learning Thank you for your attention! Zornitsa Staneva Zinev Art Technologies, Bulgaria zinevart@gmail.com http://revit.cti.gr