Volume Two - Academic Conferences

Eleni Rossiou and Erasmia Papadopoulou
Passive attendance during the first half of the school year 2010-2011 in addition to the small rate of
students’ success at the tests and self-assessments, puzzled the teacher of the course of Informatics
of the Experimental School of Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece and they led her to find a new
way to solve or improve the situation of this problem. The research question was: how can traditional
teaching be supported in order to increase both students’ active participation during the educational
process and their performance, taking into consideration the limitations due to students’ time
availability and the available teaching hours? The research was implemented with 14 year old
students, second class of High School (Gymnasio), because they had the possibility of using their
netbooks given to them by their school, in the context of the European project “Digital class”
(according to 88310/Γ2/22-07-09 document/decision by the Ministry of Education).
The literature review shaped the expectation of improved student performance with the use of
eLearning as a complementary tool of teaching Informatics in Secondary Education, as well as the
choice of appropriate web-based tools and their usage in order to develop students’ performance,
interaction and active participation during the educational process (Ali et al. 2009, Murphy & Lebans
2007, Callagher 2008, Passey et al. 2003).
Google Groups (http://groups.google.com) which constitute a free, online service that allows the
formation of discussion groups, were chosen to be used in the classroom and outside it as well. With
the “web-based class”, it was expected to increase students’ interaction with each other, extend
classroom discussion to online and promote students to conduct debates and exchange ideas.
Additionally, teacher could prepare classroom materials and online resources were available to
students with Google Docs application.
This paper focuses on investigating the effectiveness of blended learning with the use of Google
Groups and other Google applications as complementary tools in teaching and learning of Informatics
in Secondary Education.
The aims of the current research are to:
Record students’ opinions, attitudes and expectations regarding the exploitation of eLearning in
Secondary Education
Record and investigate possible changes in a) students’ attitudes and convictions towards the
use of blended learning and b) students’ active attendance in the educational process with the
implementation of collaborative learning techniques from distance with Google applications usage
(groups and shared documents),
Investigate the effectiveness of blended learning in Secondary education both in students’
performance and in their active participation in face-to-face classrooms and in virtual classrooms,
as well.
The research examines (and measures where it is feasible), the impact of the use of eLearning in the
students’ activities in respect of their educational record, their active attendance and their
collaboration in the class at the teaching of the Informatics course.
With the investigation of blended learning effectiveness in high school, the hypothesis of research will
be confirmed or rejected: blended learning as an additional/complementary tool of teaching and
learning is effective as much in students’ performance as in their positive attitude to the use of new
technologies in the educational process of the Informatics course.
More specifically, the research questions are: a) what are the students’ attitudes before, during and
after the use of technology as supporting tool of educational process, and b) how their active
attendance in the educational process with the exploitation of eLearning and techniques of
collaborative learning from distance, is encouraged. The current research does not aim to compare
the effectiveness of exploitation of eLearning with the one without it, but it approaches the way of
students’ motivation and it gives an example of good practical exploitation of ICT.
2. Google application in Informatics curriculum
The curriculum of the Informatics course, in the second class of Gymnasio includes 4 units: a) know a
computer as a united system which aims to introduce students in hardware, multimedia and computer
networks, b) communicate through a computer, which familiarizes students with files and folders and
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