New information technologies are revolutionizing the way we access information and therefore the way we learn. In fact, education is going through a major transformation. As the number of people attending open online courses skyrockets; the number of students who would never want to set foot in class-room grows as a consequence. This is comprehensively transforming students´ learning experience, as well as their interaction with their peers and with educators. However, high quality online education content alone is not enough it needs to be supported by the right methodologies chosen by competent educators and teachers. The consortium brings together European top experts on the field of innovative learning and teaching to enhance the skills and knowledge directly of a group of Estonian teachers but from range of all European teachers. Under the leadership and guidance of the experts from Estonia, Finland, Slovenia and Croatia the group of Estonian teachers will go through 4 workshop sessions handling various approaches and methodologies that teachers can adopt in their classrooms all in the goal of raising the competence and skills in innovative ICT use in education. Based on the knowledge gained in the workshops the teachers will develop a lesson guide book with different ICT related innovative learning and teaching methodologies including best practices that all teachers from all over Europe can use in class in delivering the curricula. The main tasks of the current strategic partnership: • Gathering and interpreting evidence of readiness of the shift to innovative education from the aspect of teachers, students and schools in Estonia; • Designing and delivering up-skilling workshops for Estonian teachers with the combined knowledge from Estonia, Croatia, Slovenia and Finland.; • Developing an electronic guidebook of innovative ICT learning and teaching methodologies and tools for an open use in schools Europe wide; • Organizing school visits and a video conference to showcase and disseminate the developed guidebook. The main result of the project is the developed electronic lesson guide book in Estonian and in English. In addition, the project process provides teachers with a community to showcase and exchange ideas and experiences on innovative ICT in teaching practices which will strongly support the further development of the field. The consortium builds the project for it to be an Europe-wide boost and a groundsel for the shift for the 21st century education.
New ICT technologies are transforming the way of accessing information and therefore the way people learn. Education is going through a major transformation. The main challenge for the 21st century education is not only to provide ICT infrastructure, but to develop teacher professional development programs that will provide them with knowledge and skills on how to use ICT to support pedagogy appropriately and meaningfully in enhancing learning experiences among students. Teachers have to understand how to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, support creative and innovative thinking, engage students in exploring and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources, and promote student reflection using collaborative tools and engaging them in knowledge construction while learning with other students in face-to-face and virtual environments. The 2-year project “Creative Classroom” was launched in September 2014 with the main goal of assisting Estonian schools in their digital turn. The consortium brings together European top experts on the field of innovative learning and teaching to enhance the skills and knowledge directly of a group of Estonian teachers. Partners from Estonia, Finland, Slovenia and Croatia worked together to design and deliver innovative training for Estonian teachers in order to enable them to use tools and methods for innovative learning that 21st century education requires. Under the guidance of European educational technology experts, the group of Estonian teachers participated in four workshops on topics concerning ICT and teaching methodologies such as trialogical learning, flipped classroom, project-based learning, game-based learning, problem-based learning, and inquiry-based learning. They developed innovative lesson scenarios which were published as an electronic collection and shared with other teachers in Estonia and across Europe. The main tasks of the project: • Gathering and interpreting evidence of readiness of the shift to innovative education from the aspect of teachers, students and schools in Estonia; • Designing and delivering up-skilling workshops for Estonian teachers with the combined knowledge from Estonia, Croatia, Slovenia and Finland; • Developing a web-based tool for describing lesson scenarios; • Developing an electronic guidebook of innovative ICT learning and teaching methodologies and tools for an open use in schools Europe wide; • Organizing school visits and a video materials to showcase and disseminate the developed guidebook. The main result of the project was the developed electronic lesson scenario collection in Estonian and in English, developed in the LePlanner environment. A lesson scenario building tool LePlanner was co-developed with the teachers’ involvement during the Creative Classroom project. The tool allows constructing digital lesson scenarios and sharing them. LePlanner allows developing scenarios from sequential learning activities, connecting learning activities with particular learning outcomes, enriching scenarios with digital resources, tools and applications, and viewing both the teachers’ and students’ activities in the same timeline. The interactivity level of learning activities according to the trialogical learning principles can be added to each activity. After each workshop, the teachers prepare their visual learning scenarios. Even though the main result of the project is the development of the electronic lesson guide book, another result is important as well. The project will provide teachers with a community to exchange ideas and experiences on innovative ICT in teaching practices, which will strongly support the further development of the field. The project’s consortium is hoping that the project will be a Europe-wide encouragement for the shift to the 21st century education.