Starting in September 2015 the Technical University of Vienna together with six partners in five countries will implement a 36-months project called "Head in the Clouds: Digital Learning to Overcome School Failure". This strategic partnership in the field of school education deals with the prevention of early school leaving, the development of basic and transversal skills and the enhancement of digital education in the context of minorities, mainly Roma. Educational disadvantages and exclusion lead to lacking integration in the labour market and exclusion from society in general, which is a viscious circle in minority communities this project wishes to break. In three location in Slovakia, Romania and Kosovo the partners Sukromna zakladna skola, Fundatia Crestina Diakonia and GAIA will implement an innovative educational approach to tackle the issue with 75 participating children and youth. In their afterschool and youth programmes they will use a SOLE-box and specifically designed learning materials to engage students and youth in their own learning process. SOLE stands for Self-organized Learning Environments and respresents a widely recognized alternative educational method that supports an individual learning process according to a student's abilities, needs and interests. The SOLE-box gives this concept a new and innovative infrastructure which will be created by the partnership coordinated by Verein Offenes Lernen with strong support from the Technical University Kosice and will offer students a location for interactive learning in the digital clouds. By connecting to the sofware in the box on provided devices the students will create a positive individual learning process and possess the tools to analyse their achievements, while interacting with the other members of their groups and peers in two other European countries. The strategic partnership starts with a needsassessment to tailor the methods to the local context. The accordingly developed tools will be trained to teachers and youth workers, then implemented by the same and evaluated with the support of the partner SCIO. The team will observe changes in learning disparities, school attendance, school leaving, pursuit of careers and rise in transversal skills like digital competences. Based on the evaluation the SOLE-box and educational materials will be improved and again trained to teachers and youth workers. After the three years the partners working with the target groups directly will continue their implementation of the methods, tools and materials - learning with their children and youth in the clouds. The team of seven cross-sectoral partners (universities, NGOs, Foundation, school and SME) will create a platform for interested stakeholders and to support follow-up projects reducing learning disparities between minorities and their peers.
From 09/2015 to 08/2018 the Vienna University of Technology (TUW) together with 6 partners from 5 European countries implemented the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership “Head in the Clouds: Digital Learning to Overcome School Failure”. The cross-sectoral consortium consisted of TUW, Verein Offenes Lernen (OLE), Fundatia Crestina Diakonia Filiala Sfantu Gheorghe (FSG), GAIA Kosovo (GAIA), Sukromna Zakladna Skola (SZS), Technical University Kosice (TUKE), www.scio.cz SRO (SCIO). This educational project dealt with the prevention of early school leaving, the development of basic and transversal skills and the enhancement of digital education in the context of minorities, mainly Roma. Having in mind that the prevailing educational disadvantages and exclusion of minority group members, lead to lacking integration in the labour market and exclusion from society in general, the project aimed at providing an alternative way to education for children aged 6-17 years, struggling with the formal educational system or having no access to education at all. Objectives were: overcoming obstacles for integration providing a learning environment for target groups who have difficulties to succeed in established formal education systems increasing the learner's ability to coordinate, facilitate and analyse their own learning processes creating an innovative educational tool reducing early school leaving of children of minorities increasing transversal skills to increase chances of integration in the labour market foster creativity, innovation and modernisation in education to raise digital literacy raising digital competences of educators creating a device/approach that is easily usable to ensure wide implementation raising employability and mobility raising the recognition of non-formal education sharing new methods, identified lessons and good practices as well as knowledge networking The project started with a needs assessment to tailor materials to the local contexts. It developed 6 learning modules, supported by digital materials, tools and software. The chosen approach - MINIMAX - is an innovative educational approach aiming at minimal teacher invasion and maximum learner autonomy. It was inspired by Sugata Mitra’s Self-organized Learning Environments (SOLE), as well as Constructionist learning theory. The learning modules consist of simple and modular structured task sheets, allowing learners to playfully acquire skills, knowledge and competencies in a variety of subjects as well as interdisciplinary, transversal and social skills. Each task sheet is linked to an online hand-in application via QR-code, which allowed users to analyse their achievements, while interacting with members of their group and peers in 2 other European countries - creating a positive individual learning process. The developed educational materials focus on a broad variety of topics including programming, video making, digital literacy, English, environment, culture, history, customs, hygiene and first aid. Educators were given the opportunity to experience the developed tools and materials in trainings, and were provided with detailed manuals. The learning modules, specifically designed to engage children and youth in their own learning process, were implemented by the partners SZS, FSG and GAIA, in their afterschool and youth programmes, in 3 locations in Slovakia, Romania and Kosovo with more than 100 participating learners from Roma communities. Throughout the implementation period the approach was evaluated by SCIO with the help of other consortium members, using both quantitative and qualitative data including 3 types of questionnaires on learner autonomy, personality and task accomplishment, live observations, interviews with children and educators, written reports and data from the hand-in application. Based on constant feedback and evaluation after the trial period the learning modules were improved and trained to educators both participating in the trial run and beyond, as part of the dissemination strategy of the consortium. All developed educational modules were published as OER, available in English, Hungarian, Slovak and Serbian on the project website https://brainsintheclouds.eu/. A detailed manual focusing on the projects’ aims, teacher roles, training and evaluation approach and outcomes was developed. A 22 minutes documentary about the project was produced, offering further insights and impressions of the practical work done. The team observed changes in learning disparities, school attendance/leaving, pursuit of careers and transversal skills, especially social interaction skills and digital competences. The observed changes and developed educational modules have inspired the partners working with the target groups directly to continue working with the developed MINIMAX approach, tools and materials both within their institutions as well as beyond by offering guidance and materials to other institutions and stakeholders.