Our program was created by the need for a humanitarian and creative approach and Internet use which responds to new data that are formed in the the European Union with the spread of the Internet in all areas of life of its citizens: education, work, entertainment. So the key issues of our program expand in four axes: a) on the learning of children's rights, the pursuit and the recording of those associated with the Internet use both directly and indirectly. b) in the investigation and registration of forms of violation of these rights and risks that exist on the Internet. c) on the learning of ways to protect them (authorities, institutions, practices) and d) on the learning of applications and tools and the creation and adoption of good practices for a constructive and safe Internet use with the aim to a better Internet. It's addressed to students 13-18 years old, secondary school teachers and students ' parents. Our key objectives, therefore, are on the one hand the learning and protection of the Rights of Children on the Internet and on the other hand, the learning of tools and applications, the development and dissemination of good practices for a better Internet combining formal learning with non-formal and informal learning formats. Apart from the cognitive objectives, the objectives relating to the development of communication, social and transversal skills of the involved are of equal importance.: -critical capacity, the ability to investigate, to process information from different sources, to evaluate, to compose, to present and to disseminate their knowledge. -the ability to work in teams, the development of strategic behaviour in real and virtual communities. -the acceptance and respect of others' differences, working in a multi-cultural environment. -the development of empathy, self-esteem, emotional intelligence. - the development of the autonomy and the creation of incentives to re-engage with learning and connect with lifelong learning. -the consolidation of the European identity and the conviction of the need for a collective effort to achieve the common European objectives. There are eight schools involved in our partnership, seven of which belong to countries members of the European Union, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Romania, and one from Turkey, a country set to join the European Union. All these schools share common socio-economic background, common difficulties and problems but at the same time they share common concerns, goals and vision. The activities are designed to seek a holistic approach: investigatory, informational, interpretative, synthetic, aesthetic, technocratic. -Elaboration of a questionnaire and surveys. -Collection, synthesis, evaluation and presentation of information material, digital and printed (e-book and guide). -Educational scenarios. -Creation of logo, video, photo gallery, song-lyrics-video clips, creation and drama presentation. -Familiarisation with ICT educational applications and tools with experiential method. -Building and supporting moodle, web site, blog. -Build web/mobile applications. -Formative and final evaluation of the activities and the program. -Learning from peers. -Organizing briefings, seminars and workshops by skilled scientists and institutions to students, teachers and parents. -Dissemination of results at every stage of the program to students, teachers and parents. For their realisation, a contract with partners will be set , a common action plan will be drawn up, a specific timetable will be set, monitoring and evaluation procedures and conflict resolution methods will be implemented. Two transnational meetings among teachers only will be held at the beginning of the first and second year of the program for the coordination of actions and six meetings with students from all participating countries will be held . During these meetings there will be lessons,seminars and workshops on the activity being carried out at the time and students in groups will compose, complete and present the expected products. The participants will also come in contact and get acquainted with the culture of each partner's country. Throughout the duration of the program, in addition to the meetings there will be constant communication through digital resources. The results and impact expected in relation to the objectives set for the development and improvement of cognitive, communication, social, emotional and transversal skills of participants are: change of the attitude of those involved, adopting constructive behavior strategies and good practices, the development of learning mechanisms and effective management, creativity and self-esteem. The development of incentives for life-long learning, the realization and consolidation of the European identity and of the necessity of teamwork to achieve common goals, the establishment of a multicultural and collaborative culture consist the long term benefits of our project.
This project was implemented within the Erasmus+ programme and was on the education of pupils with learning difficulties and/ or students with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND). This sensitive group of students faces great difficulty integrating into not only the educational system but also to the community and is more likely to leave school. Five (5) countries - Greece, Cyprus, Span, Turkey and the UK - with different educational policies towards students with learning difficulties and/ or SEND were chosen to participate in this project. With this project, we have tried to find the appropriate and adequate procedures to give these students equal opportunities in education for easier integration and transition in the mainstream education. A total of 85 teachers, members of the teaching staff of the participant schools and 58 students got involved in the project. The project lasted two years and, as planned, three (3) Coordinator meetings and four (4) teaching/ learning meetings took place. Mathematics, Arts, Computer Science and Physics were the subjects we taught. We have decided to teach these subjects in order to see how students with learning difficulties and/ or SEND can cope with different level of studies. The teachers of the five countries taught the same educational topic from these four subjects. The other teachers, the accompanying persons and the pupils evaluated the different educational methods at the end of each meeting. At the end of the project, we produced a proposal with teaching methods suitably adapted to students with learning difficulties and/ or SEND in Mathematics and Physics. We have found in the Arts and Computers Science, students with learning difficulties and/ or SEND respond the same as their mainstream classmates. At the end of the project, we submitted as planned: • Videos of all the lessons (http://learningdifficulties.eu/results/, in section 5-Videos of the lessons) • A video clip to promote and disseminate the project (http://learningdifficulties.eu/results/, in section 4-videoclip) • A printed book of 172 pages (http://learningdifficulties.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/ebook21.pdf) • E-book version too (http://www.calameo.com/books/0048231979df0b85749af) • An up to date website – http://learningdifficulties.eu/ • New Mathematics curriculum proposal (http://learningdifficulties.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Math-Curriculum....pdf) • New Physics curriculum proposal (http://learningdifficulties.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Physics-curriculum.pdf) • A presentation of the five educational systems to the Greek multiplier event(http://learningdifficulties.eu/results/, in section 6-The educational systems of each country) • Evaluations and feedbacks from teachers, accompanying people and pupils for all the lessons and all the topics (http://learningdifficulties.eu/results/, in section 2- The evaluation of the project) All the results have already been uploaded into the Erasmus+ Dissemination platform, the Etwinning website https://twinspace.etwinning.net/15661/pages/page/152718, the http://learningdifficulties.eu/ website and the websites of the individual schools. There were also published in local newspapers and were presented into at the multiplier event that took place in Kilkis, Greece on 28th June 2016. Teachers, SENCOs, governors and local newspapers have attended the multiplier event where the results were evaluated and changes to the Greek educational system were extensively discussed. Easier transition points for students with learning difficulties and inclusion into mainstream education were the two main areas of discussion. The long run benefits that may result from the evaluation of the results of the plan are also the main aims of the project that is the non exclusion of students with learning difficulties from school and the inclusion of as many of the students as possible into typical classrooms.