Role of telematics in fighting school abandonment

Role of telematics in fighting school abandonmentE. BenetiLEPIDA S.p.A., Bologna, ItalyC. De CastroIEIIT-CNR, National Research Council of Italy, Bologna

Good morning or afternoon. My name is Cristina De Castro and I will present the paper Role of Telematics in fighting school abandonment, written in cooperation with Elisa Benetti.1outlineSchool abandonmentGoalProposed approachEDULEARN 20142

First, some data and considerations about school abandonment, then the goal of this work and the proposed approach. 2school abandonment: data

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From: Council conclusions of 12 May 2009 on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (ET 2020), Official Journal of the European Union, 2009/C 119/02

School abandonment is grave from many viewpoints, both social and economic, and implies serious troubles for young students, left alone and, very often, without a job. School itself is living a long and deep crisis, involving fund lacking and a strong generation gap. In particular, the gap is quite large between technologies that students will be required to master in their working life and competences that their teachers are not helped to acquire. In recent years, many countries in the EC have started specific programs for facing early school leaving. Good results have been achieved, but still a strong drop-out persists. This diagram refers to Europe in 2006, 2010 and 2012 and shows the percentage of young people (between 18 and 24) who obtained at most a secondary education and had neither further instruction nor training courses.The average percentage of school leavers in 2014 is around 12.8%, below the 14.1% threshold recorded in 2010 and the 17.6% in 2000, but still far from the desired value, especially in Portugal, Spain and Italy.

3School abandonment: considerationsSocial groundsFamily factorsPersonal factorsSchool factorsEDULEARN 20144

Several factors contribute to school abandonment, mainly divided into four groups: social grounds, family factors, personal factors and school factors.

As for social grounds, the importance of education is becoming less evident in the public realm and the current economic crisis leads to little chance of getting a satisfying job. Young people and their families perceive the risk of not being able to reuse, in a short time, knowledge resources offered by school; such resources are not currently sufficiently linked to productive transformations.

As far as family factors are concerned, family histories with school dropouts or low levels of schooling lead to lower educational expectations. In addition, one of the major problems is the lack of parents support, their limited interest in school activities and few contacts with the school.

Personal factors are mainly due to low levels of scholastic success and achievements.

School factors involve lack of motivation, uninspiring programs, difficulties in providing knowledge according to modes and channels in step with times, lack of integration of students and limited interaction with teachers.

4Goal: telematics can become a strong glue between schools and students and help to fight school abandonment

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As far as the goals of this work are concerned, a proposal is presented for training teachers to apply Computer Science in the more general context of Telematics, so as to prepare them to face this subject properly in class. In more detail, Telematics is strongly appealing for the young and is also fundamental to face the current work market, so it can become a strong glue between schools and their students and help to keep the young at school. The role of the Telematics viewpoint is essential, since at present and in future no device or application can be anymore regarded as an isolated world, but only as an integrated part of a worldwide network of interconnected devices, services and infrastructures. The kind of training could highly help teachers and schools to fight school abandonment: in addition to the natural appeal and professionalization of these subjects, in fact, laboratory activities are strongly aggregative and access to the Internet and e/m-Learning platforms can be used in most subjects.

5Proposed approachTeachersContentsactual useadaptmentEDULEARN 20146

A fundamental feature of the proposed approach is that participating teachers are interviewed during lessons, so as to adapt the course to their specific needs and equipment at disposal. In addition, a continuous adaptation process is meant to take place in the course of lessons, according to actual results, achievements and difficulties. 6Telematics and telecommunications

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Telematics joins Telecommunications and Informatics; telecommunication means remote communications. It is fundamental to describe some basic concepts about them and find such concepts in the infrastructures and devices we are accustomed to using. 7From an isolated computer to computers interconnected all around the world

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In order to achieve a professional knowledge of computers and the Internet, computers and their functionalities must be seen in their current, natural context of millions of computers interconnected all around the world through a network infrastructure. 8Proposed approachAn introduction to Telematics and Telecommunication SystemsComputer Architecture and Operating SystemsOffice Suites and Programming LanguagesInternet and Web AppicationsInternet SecurityMobile Devices and ApplicationsThe Cloud Paradigma: Architecture and Services

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In this perspective, the courses main modules, always applied to real infrastructures and applications, become the following:

an introduction to Telematics and Telecommunication systems;Computer architecture and operating systems;Office suites and programming languages;Internet and web applications;Internet security;Mobile devices and apps;The Cloud paradigma, its architecture and services.

A couple of the above issues will be better described. 9Source applicationDestination applicationTransportInternetData linkPhysical layerftp, http, TCPIPEthernetTransportInternetData linkPhysical layer

Communication layers that allow an app to runSuch layers found in a running app (e.g.: chat)EDULEARN 201410

Talking about telecommunication protocols, after a general description of TCP/IP, a complete example will be explained of the steps among two people who are using a chat service, starting from the application to all necessary translations through all levels. 10

Computer Architecture and components seen from the inside of a desktopEDULEARN 201411

After a theoretical description of computer architecture, a desktop will be opened and its components, motherboard included, will be actually shown. In this way, the theoretical part will be better understood. 11Hanoi Towers: problem, algorithm, program, process

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As for programming languages, some famous problems will be described, such as Hanoi Towers and its recursive solution, so as to explain the concepts of problem, algorithm, code in a given programming language and process. 12Cloud Computing: Architecture and use of a free Cloud Application

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The Cloud Paradigma will be described in detail and some free cloud services, such as Google Drive and Google documents, will be used in the laboratory part. 13Thank you for your kind attention

Questions WELCome at:

elisa.benetti@lepida.itcristina.decastro@ieiit.cnr.itEDULEARN 201414

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