Behind the acronym Tris there is a pedagogical model that allows students unable to participate in the lessons to “stay” in class
Distance learning does not only concern students and pupils who attend classrooms every day. Several solutions and platforms, in fact, are designed and implemented for students who, for health reasons or other reasons, can not follow the lessons in the classroom with their classmates.
This is the case of Tris, an Italian e-learning platform that bases its operation on the principles of the inclusive hybrid school and the tools that the web and the Net makes available. Tris (which is actually an acronym and stands for Network Technologies and Socio-Educational Inclusion) allows the creation of a “classroom environment” halfway between real and virtual that allows students to participate in lessons “in sync” with their classmates and interact with them in real time, even if they are not in school at that moment.
Through video lectures, online exercises and fact sheets, therefore, the student will be able to carry out the school program at the same time as his classmates, exactly as if he were in class.
How Tris works
As the name itself indicates – which, it is worth remembering, stands for Network Technologies and Socio-Educational Inclusion – the Tris project involves the use of computer devices and technologies to allow homebound students to participate in lessons together with their classmates. The “pillars” on which it is based are three: technological, methodological-didactic and organizational-managerial. The first concerns the technologies used to make the hybrid classroom work (interactive whiteboard, computer, projector, webcam and adequate connection); the second concerns the educational techniques that allow the student to be actively involved in the lessons and make him feel an integral part of the class group; the third concerns the organization of the school and home spaces so that the student can be an integral part of the class “routine”.
One of the advantages that Tris assures to the classes that use it is “independence” from the various existing e-learning platforms. The method, in fact, can be applied by exploiting one of the many solutions available today: from Zoom to Google Meet, from Skype to Teams or WeSchool. It will be up to the teacher and the family to choose the most suitable software support and use it in the best possible way.
Tris, the right platforms
In order to implement a Tris project in the classroom, it is essential to choose the platform that best suits the needs of the class. Skype, for example, could be the right solution if you need a software to make group video calls in a simple and effective way. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for more complete platforms, you can opt for G Suite for Education and Office 365 Education: as the names imply, both are calibrated to the needs of schools and offer “collaborative” productivity software (text documents and presentations can be created and edited simultaneously by multiple users), platforms for group video lessons and space to store material in the cloud for exercises or further study.
Come fare videolezione con Tris
L’organizzazione di lezioni online all’interno del progetto Tris, dunque, dipende dalla piattaforma prescelta. A seconda se si opta per G Suite (e Google Classroom) o per Office 365; per Zoom o WeSchool; per Skype o Moodle si dovranno seguire procedure differenti.
- Fare videolezione con Google Classroom. Per accedere a Classroom sarà necessario che il proprio istituto abbia sottoscritto uno o più abbonamenti a G Suite for Education. Per accedere a Classroom si dovrà effettuare l’accesso con le credenziali messe a disposizione dalla scuola e scegliere, tra le Google App, quella di Classroom. Per le videolezioni, invece, la soluzione offerta da Big G è Google Hangouts Meet: anche in questo caso si dovrà utilizzare l’account scolastico e attendere l’invito del docente
- Fare videolezione con Office 365 for Education. Come per la suite Google, anche quella targata Microsoft richiede che la scuola abbia acquistato una o più licenze della sua piattaforma. Al suo interno si potranno trovare strumenti collaborativi come le web app di Office, o la piattaforma piattaforma comunicativa Microsoft Teams, grazie alla quale sarà possibile anche realizzare videolezioni a distanza
- Fare videolezione con Zoom. Zoom è tra le migliori piattaforme per organizzare videoconferenze di gruppo, in maniera immediata e senza grandi complicazioni. Merito dell’interfaccia estremamente intuitiva e della possibilità di partecipare alle videoconferenze senza dover essere iscritto
- Fare lezione con WeSchool. La piattaforma italiana per la flipped classroom consente a chiunque – e non solo agli insegnanti – di creare corsi online ai quali invitare studenti e alunni di ogni età. Tra le piattaforme di e-e-learning più complete in circolazione, consente di organizzare corsi online ai quali aggiungere contenuti multimediali di ogni genere