Definition, mise en forme et evaluation du concept de boite a outils pour des activites interactives d'apprentissage

This exploratory research combines the disciplines of education, computer science and ergonomics and relates to Information and Communication Technology [ICT], since it deals with open systems in the teaching field.; The concept explored in this research is a toolbox aimed at helping teachers firstly to produce and make interactive learning activities [ILA's] available to learners, and to share resources between them, and both, no matter what the discipline and the level taught by the teachers are. ILA's can be in the form of exercises, games and simulations.; The research objectives consist in defining and shaping the toolbox concept and in collecting the teachers' reactions and comments about it. This will help to increase the knowledge required to improve or develop open systems used to produce and make ILA's available to learners, and to share resources between teachers.; The literature review realized at the outset of the project showed several difficulties encoutered by the teachers when trying to integrate ICT in school, and help us to understand their requests on this issue. The difficulties are mainly due to the lack of time to appropriate ICT, lack of adequate training, and lack of financial and technical support, as well as to negative attitudes of some teachers toward ICT.; Then an empirical study was conducted to identify and examine 40 tools, aimed at producing and making ILA's available to learners. The tools were evaluated using 23 criteria (e.g. the existence of ILA's or material databases, the possibility to share resources between teachers, the number of interactive activities). Results show that none of the tools meets all the 23 criteria nor solves all the teachers' difficulties and requests. This confirms the need to develop a toolbox that is more complete and makes easier ILA's reuse and sharing between teachers.; After having completed a detailled requirements analysis, an experimental prototype is then produced to allow teachers to visualize, manipulate and test the concept of toolbox. Due to time constraints, only three ILA's and two forms of interactivity were developed for each ILA's. The user interface of the prototype went through a heuristic evaluation done by two specialists of human-computer interfaces (who weren't specialists of education), in order to insure the quality of the user interface.; Six teachers from elementary schools and seven teachers from high schools, both in the public and private Quebec education system participated in the user tests. The evaluation was conducted as follows: present the characteristics of the toolbox's concept; make a demonstration of the experimental prototype; answer teacher's questions; ask them to produce an ILA using the prototype, and observe the their reactions and collect their comments.; Results of the tests show that each user succeeded in producing an ILA on his/her own; the difficulties encountered by the teachers did not depend on the concept of the toolbox, but the need to better understand the part of the teacher's task that concerns ILA's. The teachers' comments reveal that the most appreciated aspects in the toolbox concept are the possibility to share resources with colleagues, the variety of tools, the statistics collected automatically, the private access to activities, and the flexibility of management for the resources shared and the activities made available. More than a third of the functionalities suggested by the teachers and that weren't already part of the prototype were included in the specifications, but weren't developed due to time constraint; the others functionalities mentionned will permit to complete the requirements of the toolbox. The teachers' comments helped to identify six different ways of using the toolbox concept in teaching, such as preparing homework or customizing teaching according to learners. The analysis of the teachers' reactions and comments reveal that the toolbox concept proved to be relevant and promisi...