ENO-Environment Online
- a global virtual school for environmental awareness - presentation
Summary
ENO-Environment Online is a global virtual school for environmental awareness organised and co-ordinated by Eno School District in Eno, Finland where environmental issues are studied weekly. It is a new cross-curriculum subject (English, geography, biology, ICT, arts, global awareness, other? ). It will unite all continents. ENO Kite will link European Schools to other world, including developing countries. 73 schools in 43 different countries are studying four different environmental themes within a school year, on weekly basis with a every second week moderated chat learning sessions. Students share information on their local environment. Materials are summarised and available for everybody as .pdf files.
Key words: on-line environment, distance learning, environmental awareness, sustainable development, nature, forest, paper, water, energy, chat in real time, students' articles, quizzes, forum.
| ENO logo | 
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ENO-Environment Online is a global virtual school for environmental awareness organised and co-ordinated by ENO School District in Eno, Finland. Its vision is to be a global virtual school where environmental issues are studied weekly. It is a new cross-curriculum subject (English, geography, biology, ICT, arts, global awareness, other? ). It will unite all continents. ENO Kite will link European Schools to other world, including developing countries.
ENO-Environment Online sees environment in many aspect. ENO is organised and co-ordinated by Eno School District in Eno, Finland. Four different environmental themes are studied within a school year ( Social, Natural, Cultural Environment and Sustainable Development ). There is a special curriculum with weekly tasks. ENO schools study together, submit data from their local environments and analyse it together. There are 73 official ENO schools from 43 countries involved (Africa: 14 schools, Asia: 10 schools, Australia: 3 schools, Europe: 28 schools, North America: 12 schools, South America: 6 schools). The age of students varies from 12 - 18 years old and are arranged in clusters.
Pedagogical aspect
ENO is pedagogically based on constructivism, especially sociocognitive aspect by Piaget ( where social interaction supports and structurises learning ) and sociocultural aspect by Vygostky ( the importance of social interaction in learning and function ( thinking ). ENO supports collaborative and communal learning. Its main goals are to study to learn co-operationally in web community, to learn new skills in ICT, to deepen environmental themes in education, to add global awareness and internationality, to support sustainable development and to involve developing countries as active participants.
How the activities take place (for example this school year 2001/2002)
In ENO-Environment Online global virtual school for environmental awareness four different environmental themes are studied within a school year such as: social, natural, cultural, environmental, and sustainable development.
There is a special
curriculum with weekly tasks. ENO schools study together, submit data from
their local environments and analyse it together. Students read, discuss,
analyse, compare and contrast information found in ENO Material and the
schools the information comes from. Students are gathering information,
facts and opinions that they can share with others during ENO Chats at home,
if they are permitted by their parents to participate. If not, we can always
discuss environmental issues within the class. For additional information
and study the ENO web site address is
http://eno.joensuu.fi/
1. The first theme is 'The place we live'. includes environment where we live and learn (school, home, village, town or city ) compared with others. The goals are to learn about physical and social environments in ENO schools, to learn how to use ENO learning modules ( learning diary, chats, material , discussions, etc.), to get to know about schools in own cluster and to find e-pals from own cluster. Students do different tasks and publish their work on-line in the learning environment. They learn how to use different modules.
2. The second theme is ' This is our nature' deals with forests as a resource ( economical and recreational ) near ENO Schools, hazards of forests and forests and economy. The goals are to understand the importance of forests for living ( connections with climate, soil fertility and biodiversity of species ), to learn about forests in ENO Schools and make a summary or poster of them.
3. The third theme ' This is our culture' is meant to find examples of forest in culture in the country and send their descriptions photos and internet links to the ENO materials. Students write a personal essay or poem on one of subjects and they discus and write about holly places in forests around us ( woods, stones, caves etc.), fairy tales or figures/gods from forests in your culture ( music, sculpture, plays etc.) So students learn how and why forest has always been an inspiration for many artists, research about forests in famous publication ( books, music, plays, paintings, sculptures etc.) from the country and understand the aim of certain cultural work connected to forests.
4. The fourth theme is ' The way we live - Sustainable Development in our school'. School environment is an essential part of our working and living. Our common goal is to make same observations on ENO schools and share this information both locally and globally. It's time to see some aspects on our working and living at school. We are definitely sure that this "opens our eyes". In addition, we hope that this would encourage ENO people to find ways to support sustainable development in their schools! Students' task is to prepare ENO reports on: paper, water, energy and School Maintenance. Students report on each issue. All reports are summarised and presented in schools to teacher and students on big posters and on the web sites. All materials and forms are available on ENO site. (http://eno2000.joensuu.fi)
Awards
ENO has won several awards like: An Umbrella Project for NetD@ys 2000 by European Commiss, 3rd Prize in EcoG@llery Europe, 3rd Prize Winner in Childnet Awards, Labelled NetD@ys, Project 2001 by European Commission
Future
ENO started in August 2000. We have built an active global network of schools and environmental data have been shared. Teachers have learned from others, about their educational views and traditions. We also are looking for more teamwork with other non-profit organisations or institutions. Our challenging goal for next schoolyear is that every ENO school in developing country could really have an active role in ENO.
Prepared by
Mika Vanhanen
Viljenka Šavli
Resources:
ENO site:
http://eno.joensuu.fi/