Lára Stefánsdóttir  Head of ICT department:
The Akureyri Junior College - MA, innovative ICT school
 

The development of ICT into the Akureyri Junior College started in March 1998 when I was hired to lead that work. In the school was a huge interest in ICT in education, little work had been done prior to this so a lot needed to be done order to change. It is clear that no person does anything on his or her own, the staff, the teacher, the school management, the supporting staff and the students are all the factors in order to realize the dream that the school changes into a school that uses ICT in an effective way.

The beginning
The schoolmaster Mr. Tryggvi Gíslason said  at the beginning "For a long time I was convinced that the ICT could pass The Akureyri Junior College, but now I am equally sure that ICT is very important for our school". So it was clear from the beginning that the leadership of the school was very supportive and ambitious to be successful. To reach this aim the school decided to hire a specialist in the field to lead the work. The teachers were eager but at the same time realistic that it would not happen over night and much needed to be done. 

First and foremost the school needed an ICT policy, to decide where the institute should be heading, what were the aims and then what should be done to reach those aims. Furthermore the school needed its own web to make the school visible on the Internet, teachers needed development courses, technology needed to be updated and built up, basic ICT skills with the students needed to be secure. 

The ICT policy
There are 4 aims on our ICT policy, all created at the beginning and revised every year. The main aims haven't been changed but definitions on how to reach those aims have changed each year. The main aims are:

ICT in all subjects
The first task is very important. If the aim is to use ICT in all, not some, subjects it means that every teacher can relate to it. There are many ideas on how teachers change their work, we followed the idea that each teacher is a specialist in his or her field and therefore it was important to learn to know the teachers, not only their ICT skills but also how their pedagogical ideology was used in their classroom. If you are interested in this theory you can read more on my ideology on how teachers start using ICT in their classroom you can do so here under this hyperlink. It is clear that no-one convinces a teacher who believes in lectures and essays to provide only tools for group work, one has to take into consideration what teaching methods the teacher uses. If the task is to support teachers to use ICT in their teaching one does not put all the effort on changing everything the teacher does but look at the role as supportive role to the teacher. How can an ICT person know fully what it is to teach German, Chemistry, History or whatever subject there is at hand. Furthermore it is not for an ICT specialist to tell a teacher how he teaches best, those issues are best left to the teacher but support him or her in a suitable way for their subject, teaching method and skills. It took some time to talk to all the teachers about ICT in their subject and they expressed very different ideas and interests. Some wanted support while others knew they could do things on their own if they just had the tools they needed. Now when this is written ICT has been used in every subject in the school but it varies from department to department how it is done. Every subject has had its own "department" meaning that there is a German department, Icelandic department, Math department etc. 

There were not any protests against this statement, although teachers didn't agree exactly on how to do it they were all very positive looking into how ICT could be used in their subject.

Significant support
The school planned delivery of development courses for teachers, but most of the planning and working was done through discussion in departments, between colleagues, with the staff of the ICT department that at the beginning where me and Valdimar Gunnarsson both experienced in this field. It was obvious from the first day that the teachers in the school were very enthusiastic, well educated ambitious teachers that wanted their school to be leading in this field. That along with the management of the school made it possible for The Akureyri Junior College to change things very fast in the school. For us in the ICT department the main issue was to support, help, provide and run alongside the teachers while they needed, if they needed. It was very important not to take the lead ourselves but always consider us consultants and supporters. 

Co-operation with others
It is very important to keep the school open to influences that are supportive and help the school growing in this field. In the beginning the major focus was not on this aim but it has grown through time and we have worked with other Junior Colleges, primary schools, universities, computer companies and various specialists. These have been both within Iceland as well as abroad. It has been very important for us, both to be able to share as well as to learn from those we have been working with. To tell others what we are doing and get feedback has been very important for us. 

The Schools web
It was a lot of work planning the structure of a web that could grow enormously over time. Furthermore it needed design and most important it had to be maintained. It had to be "sticky" that is if people visited, they wanted to stay and would come back. It was soon found out that it was not work that could be done now and then. We therefore hired an editor for the web not a person specialized in technology but a person that could write and was used to publishing issues. In the school Mr. Sverrir Páll Erlendsson had experience with the web. He is an Icelandic teacher and could therefore write good text, was interested in publishing and the web. So our web http://www.ma.is was created and is still in his good hands. Now the media in Iceland, newspapers, radio and TV look at the news on our web and without us contacting them they publish our news so the school gets much more publicity than ever before. He now holds 50% of full time job focused on the web. 

Innovative school
The Akureyri Junior College was chosen to be one of 3 schools at this school stage to be national innovative ICT school by The Ministry of Education, Culture and Research. Furthermore it was chosen to be a Nordic innovative school in the IDUN project that is a project under the Nordic Council of Ministers. It was later also chosen to be one of Iceland's European innovative schools or ENIS school. All these roles have put huge demand on the school's staff which they have worked on although it has often been difficult but without the broad interest in the field and many teachers participating it could not be done. In 1999 the school started a laptop project later defined by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research in the summer 2000. 

Due to teachers' two month strike this school year (2000-2001) there has been some setback in the innovative work still many things have been done that can be reviewed on our pages. 

Changing a school is not something that happens over night, it isn't something that one or few persons do, far from it. The management is very important, not only as leaders of the institution, but also specially in taking what is developed in the ICT field or in relationship with that and put things at respective places in the school organization. For example, if students break rules on the Internet or school network it is something that the assistant schoolmaster handles not the ICT department as in some places. Behavior problems are handled by him in general and therefore also issues related to ICT. The schoolmaster has put emphasis on ICT in speech and written form and therefore it is clear to all that the leadership is behind the work. 

In the school is a special ICT innovative group of teachers and schoolmaster where issues are discussed, plans made and ideas exchanged. Every third week there is an ICT seminar where the staff shares experience and ideas, or we get someone from outside to share information or ideas. Each year 70% of the teachers attend a conference offered by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research in Reykjavík on ICT in education. 

One of the things that worried us in the beginning was that students came differently prepared for ICT from the various primary schools. We developed a special ICT course for the first year students so that every individual teacher doesn't have to teach some software skills so that their students can deliver their assignments as a web pages, slides or something else. Now after 3 years the 1st to 3rd graders are all well prepared and from next school year all the students. This means that a teacher can tell the students to deliver their task as web page, essay, slides or something else and the students actually don't care which one since they know about the tools and furthermore have learned in such a way that although they have to use a new one they are prepared that the software isn't always the same or will be the same. 

Every school year we change the ICT course based on students knowledge and ICT development. This school year focus has been on graphics and 3D design as well as previous tasks on Internet, e-mail and web, creating web pages, and more. Last spring term we focused on a cross curriculum project called eWizards where students once more amazed us with their abilities and creativity. 

In our School Portrait made for the eSchola week of the European School Network you can read more about our ICT project or write to us for further information. 

Akureyri April, 2001
©Lára Stefánsdóttir, lara@lara.is, http://www.lara.is, All rights reserved

Picture and layout
©Sverrir Páll Erlendsson, svp@ma.is, http://www.ma.is/kenn/svp, All rights reserved