- Context/background:Smartphones and tablets are considered sophisticated forms of communication technology. Undoubtedly their use in an educational environment can change the landscape since these powerful portable devices can enrich the learning process and breakdown barriers in a multitude of ways. Students make ample use of technology in their daily life. The additional option of using it to increase their learning capacity and pursue their interests can be extremely beneficial. Engaging them into realizing the potentials of these means and being creative with them is a challenge which takes careful planning, organization and the use of the correct tools. There is a variety of platforms available for educational use, that can enhance classroom creativity. In a market full of means and facilities the educational organisations need to be more orientated towards the integration of innovative technology in their curriculum and promote non-formal teaching or learning approaches. - Objectives:The P@ls project is a partnership of six secondary education schools that will be involved with the creation of school apps with the use of the App Inventor tool. Motivated by the current challenges of education, our aim is to spread the need for more creativity and digital competence in the classroom through the use of innovative technology and non-formal educational approaches that will promote open-mindedness, critical thinking, personalized knowledge, participatory work, improvement of linguistic and social skills and the exchange of good practice. - Number and profile of participants:Groups of 30 students including 3 teachers in each of the six partner organisations, that is a total of approximately 200 people, will be the direct participants with active involvement. Both the teaching staff and their students come from secondary education bodies. The students will be in their mid or late teens and in some cases older than this range due to the variable structure of the partner schools. The teaching staff will consist of people with expertise in the field of IT and people who are experimenting with the use of new technologies and their integration into their teaching methods. Indirect external participants with their professional identity will offer technical support and guidance. These collaborators will be people or institutions and bodies with experience in the use of ICT in education. - Description of activities: The partnership will develop outcomes relevant to the creation of educational content applications for use on the Android platform. The project outputs will be products of a series of learning activities organised by each school in relation to specific educational topics. Every learning activity will take a period of two months for its preparation by each of the partner schools followed by a short term instruction of approximately one week to the rest of the partners and a final two-month-period for implementation, trial and evaluation in the classrooms of the partner organisations before it is finally integrated in their curriculum. The collection of these activities will produce a resource teaching material both in paper and software form. - Methodology :Teachers and learners will follow an organized structure of developing, instructing, implementing and testing, evaluating, reporting and disseminating the project outcomes. The learning activities will be in the form of elaborate teaching/learning scenarios with step by step descriptions and lesson plans. They will be used and tested by all the participants in turn. Evaluation and feedback will come from all sides and there will be ground for improvements. The external partners with their professional expertise will contribute to further developing them. The results will be uploaded on the project website and an open network source platform for availability in educational context. Multiplier activities and events will disseminate them. - Results, impact and potential long term benefits:The anticipated results are: • practical learning and teaching scenarios concerning tablet applications • teaching resource material • the final outputs in the form of Android applications• an online community and resource platform for schools and educational stakeholders; The participants are expected to achieve personal development through peer work and collaborative methods. They will increase their digital literacy and experience social interaction and intercultural dialogue with the exchange of good educational practice. The schools will open up to the use of new technologies and digital means aiming at more attractive and motivated learner-centered education. In the long term the integration of the results and their methodology into the school curriculum will be the motive for developing educational practices in pace with the modern needs and demands.
CONTEXT: The project engaged students in the use of modern, innovative technology. The idea was to turn them into creators and inventors by challenging them to build their own applications for smart devices with the use of open educational programming tools. They were encouraged to realize the potentials of these means and redefine their own way of learning by developing reflective thinking, problem solving, communicative and cooperative learning skills. OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to spread the need for more creativity and digital competence in the classroom with the use of non-formal approaches to promote open-mindedness, critical thinking, personalized knowledge, participatory work, improvement of linguistic and social skills and the exchange of good practice. NUMBER/PROFILE OF PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS: 6 secondary schools from 6 countries took part in the project. The Greek school is an evening Vocational Institution providing general education and vocational training in different vocational fields. The Turkish school is a Vocational and Technical High School with vocational curriculum. The Hungarian school offers training in secondary technical education. The Italian school offers scientific, social, economic and linguistic studies. The Spanish school has A-levels with different specializations, and vocational education with two different training professional courses.The Portuguese school offers general and vocational courses in different fields. ACTIVITIES: The participants developed apps of educational content for Android devices. Each school organized learning activities to create and introduce their developments. Every learning activity was presented in short term instruction of approximately one week to the partners, followed by an implementation, trial and evaluation period in the classrooms of each organization. These activities formed a resource teaching material both in paper and digital form. METHODOLOGY: During the mobility weeks teachers and learners developed, instructed, implemented and tested the outcomes. The host organization compiled a step by step instruction manual introducing the app and how to build it with the help of the App Inventor tool. During the workshops students recreated the application. After returning home the manuals were spread to least 30 students who followed the same procedure. All participants provided feedback and evaluation for improvements. Multiplier activities and events were organized to disseminate them. UNDERTAKEN MAIN ACTIVITIES: Groups of 30 people in each school worked in close cooperation in order to be taught, create and evaluate the deliverable products. The students participating in the mobility weeks were selected from the teams above to exchange their experiences and become multipliers for the rest. There were two transnational meetings in Greece, one at the beginning of the project with a tutorial workshop and demonstration of the programming tool that would develop our outcomes and a final one in the end, for the general inspection and evaluation of the project progress. During the five short-term exchange meetings 11 apps were produced, tested, presented and taught to the partners who in turn reconstructed them in their own classrooms with the rest of the working team members, evaluated them and disseminated them. Each school undertook certain responsibilities: organization of a logo competition, creation and maintenance of the official website, reports of our meetings, online newsletters, a social media page, creation and maintenance of the project eTwinning space, online evaluation questionnaires for our products, a webpage with the outcomes and short evaluation questionnaires that was promoted to a number of schools throughout Europe for dissemination and the exchange of good practice, compilation of all the teaching material in paper and digital files and finally an overall evaluation deriving from the online questionnaires. RESULTS, IMPACT AND POTENTIAL LONG TERM BENEFITS: We created 11 mobile phone applications with their detailed instruction manuals touching certain fields of study: IT, Healthy Life, Foreign languages, Art, Geography, History of Art, History, Biology, Physical Education, Math, Biochemistry. Further improvement of the apps was achieved with the help of online evaluation forms. During the mobility weeks the students developed language skills, cooperative skills, creativity, IT skills, critical and logical thinking skills and autonomy in learning. Teachers upgraded their previously acquired knowledge, linguistic and digital competence and programming skills. Working with foreign colleagues was a challenge for social interaction, intercultural knowledge and dialogue. The expected long-term impact is the promotion of the need for innovative education by empowering our schools in their effort to proceed to more attractive and motivated learner-centered educational practices in pace with the modern needs and demands.