We are a primary school project for children aged 4 - 12 that aims to produce digital learning materials with a strong focus on immigrant and refugee children as well as pupils with various levels of ability. Our title "Learn and Play with ICT" looks to tap into the fun and joyful approach which children naturally have. Children are at an age where experimentation and exploration mean everything in their development, they are not shy or inhibited but curious and pleasurably tackle any digital adventure that is nicely illustrated or engages them in a fun way. We will publish all our digital learning aids in html5 format so that it can be easily shared and accessed across a wide range of digital devices without the need for additional software or browser plugins. This is a crucial part of our project promotion and dissemination strategy. In our range of applications the pupils will create content using PC, tablet, mobile phone, video camera and microphone. They will help create games and apps, audio recordings (podcast and school radio), digital guides and e-books. For regular communication between classes we will use Skype and Viber that lets us send free messages and photos on our mobile phones and we will use the WordPress app to post them on our own project website. Software applications and online resources such as Opus Pro, Matchware Mediator, Mouse Mischief, learningapps.org, Envision and Jumpido will be used for creating teaching aids. Some of these applications require self-programming while others can simply be adapted to one's own purposes. The online app "Aurasma" will be used to create digital video guides to local heritage sites while another, "Plickers" will act as an engaging, fun evaluation tool. QR-Codes will be applied for quizzes and treasure hunts. All our ICT products will be compatible with interactive whiteboards for which there is still a lack of age-appropriate content in many areas. With the help of pupils we will create a computer game which makes them aware of the dangers and opportunities posed by the internet in an amusing way. Some classes or groups of pupils will get involved in computer programming to create interactive stories and games. Their ICT teachers will instruct them to use "Scratch" and "Construct 2". It is our guiding principle that each partner school acts as mentor in some application where they are experienced but also learner from the other partners' skills. Our subtitle "Say hello in your new language" relates to some language computer games and apps for the tablet which will be designed for immigrant and refugee children but also for standard foreign language teaching on a basic level. With regard to the latest flow of refugees from Syria and Iraq the games will be translated into Arabic. In this challenging theme we will need the help of local refugee organisations such as Ballyhaunis Orientation Centre in Ireland for linguistic support and testing of our games and teaching-aids. In two of our main topics ("How the EU protects our heritage" and "Collect your Coins") we want to raise an awareness of Europe and its heritage. Our products will not only be put at public disposal but also designed for replication by other schools and teachers. 'How-to' videos will be posted on our YouTube channel for many of our products. There will be technical and methodological instructions and descriptions which should motivate others to copy us or create their own materials.
CONTEXT/BACKGROUND We are a primary school project for children aged 4 - 12 which aims to produce digital learning materials with a strong focus on immigrant and refugee children as well as pupils with various levels of ability. Our title "Learn and Play with ICT" looks to tap into the fun and joyful approach which children naturally have. Children are at an age where experimentation and exploration mean everything in their development, they are not shy or inhibited but curious and pleasurably tackle any digital adventure that is nicely illustrated or engages them in a fun way. OBJECTIVES The objectives of the project have been to publish digital learning aids - some in html5 format so that they can be easily shared and accessed across a wide range of digital devices without the need for additional software or browser plugins. This is a crucial part of our project promotion and dissemination strategy. In our range of applications the pupil objectives have been to create content using PC, tablet, mobile phone, video camera and microphone. They have helped create games and apps, audio recordings (podcast and school radio), digital guides and e-books. To meet the objective of regular communication between classes we have use Skype and Viber which let us send free messages and photos on our mobile phones and we used WordPress CMS to post them on our own project website. Software applications and online resources such as Tynker, Matchware Mediator, learningapps.org, Envision and Jumpido have been used to meet the objective for creating teaching aids. The online app "Aurasma" has been used to create digital video guides to local heritage sites while another, "Plickers" has acted as an engaging, fun evaluation tool. QR-Codes have been applied for quizzes and treasure hunts. All our ICT products have been compatible with interactive whiteboards, another of our objectives and, with the help of pupils, we have created a computer game which makes them aware of the dangers and opportunities posed by the internet in an amusing way. Some groups of pupils have been involved in computer programming to create interactive stories and games with the help of their teachers. It was our guiding objective that each partner school acted as mentor in some application where they are experienced but also learned from the other partners' skills. Our subtitle "Say hello in your new language" refers to the objective of language computer games and apps specifically designed for immigrant and refugee children but also for standard foreign language teaching on a basic level. With regard to the latest flow of refugees from Syria and Iraq some games were translated into Arabic. In this challenging theme we have called on the help of local refugee organisations such as Ballyhaunis Orientation Centre in Ireland for linguistic support and testing of our games and teaching-aids. In two of our main topics ("How the EU protects our heritage" and "Collect your Coins") it was our objective to raise an awareness of Europe and its heritage. Our products have not only been put at public disposal but also designed for replication by other schools and teachers. 'How-to' videos have been posted on our YouTube channel for many of our products. NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS 7 participating organisations, all public schools operating in General Education (primary level). A summary of participating organisations can be found in section 2.1. DESCRIPTION OF MAIN ACTIVITIES See section 5 (Implementation) for a description with activity reports, including photos/videos, available on Our project website (http://www.learn-play-ict.com/). All schools have published text, images and videos of various project activities over the past number of months. Website content was automatically posted to Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/learnplayict/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/learn_play_ict) and Google+ (https://plus.google.com/+learnplayict). Unfortunately, Google has discontinued the Google+ service so this channel is no longer available. Our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUQuLJzI_MmZLFV-lpJi5XQ hosts project videos. Our TwinSpace page also contains a record of project activities, training and meetings: https://twinspace.etwinning.net/31623/home RESULTS AND IMPACT ATTAINED See section 6.1 (Impact)