At Rudbeck there have been important policy decisions that have recently been made forging the groundwork that the Digital Bridges project is built upon. Three priorities have been made regarding the use of digital tools by staff in their teaching.° ICT is central in the work with summative assessment° ICT should be used in to benefit collaborative teaching and to contribute to extended collegial teamwork°ICT should be utilized to improve the availability of educational materials and to increase flexible learning The leadership at Rudbeck has motivated their new Internationalization plan in the following manner; the ability to understand others peoples' life situations and other cultures is strengthened by a secure cultural identity. It is the task for a school to help to develop such an identity. Schools, like society as a whole, are affected by immigration, arriving refugees and the international contact brought about by inclusion of cultural diversity. This means that staff and students must have knowledge and a means to conduct cultural meetings that are natural and enriching elements in everyday life. It is a school’s responsibility to emphasize the value of such cultural diversity. The instruction in most subjects allows the possibility to present international perspectives. The methods can vary, from teachers expanding the horizons of their own knowledge to students cooperating over borders. The combination of incorporating pedagogic digital devices in an international cooperation proved to bring added value to the competence development for the teachers in our recently concluded Comenius Regio project Paducation. Besides solidifying the cooperation between the Lichtenberg-Schule and Rudbeck, the project jumpstarted the Germans to take new initiatives in working towards a 1:1 concept based upon iPads for their school. The new leadership at that school has together with a majority of the teachers mapped out a strategy to bring iPads into the learning process. They see Digital Bridges as a very positive contribution to that process. Essentially we are going to organize students to do group work in a collaborative manner sharing a theme together with another group in the other country. These students will, themselves, create the manner in which they identify a question and then cooperate on gathering information, sorting through the data, make an analysis, present the results and then make an assessment on the quality of their work.The areas we intend to work with are Math, Business economics, Art, Social science and English. There are a number of themes that have been suggested by teachers in the preparation of this project that the students will have as points of reference when deciding how to go forward.The groundwork for Digital Bridges will be done in the aforementioned subjects during the first year of the project. We expect that about 330 students will be involved at the start. 60 of these students will continue in the second year to complete their examination paper in this project. It is in conjunction with this continuation that the mobility activities will occur. The students will spend 5 days in each country in an exchange that will strengthen the collaboration with direct contact as well as allow attaining on the spot information. This will allow students to do interviews, study visits and otherwise make visual documentation relevant to their subject of study We count upon at least10 teachers will be involved in supporting this work. They will utilize the visit to confer with their partner teachers regarding positive and negative outcomes of the project, observe lessons in their respective subject and accompany students, when appropriate, on their investigations.There is no mold already existing for the students to follow in this project. It is our intention to create a learning environment for the students themselves to then explore in what manner they can both cooperate and communicate with each other and their partner group in the other country. The immediate results will be that students will be more engaged and learn more about their subject of study. Their ability to present their results to a larger audience will be enhanced and they will gain a broader understanding of what is meant with an European perspective. By confronting obstacles and finding solutions these students will pave the way for many more students to follow in working in a collaborative manner on a transnational level using digital devices to accentuate the learning process.
In 2014 Rudbeck Gymnasium, a high school in Sollentuna, Sweden, launched a full scale one-to-one initiative whereupon all 1779 students received an iPad of their own. The previous fall teachers from Rudbeck and Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Schule in Kassel, Germany were engaged in a two year Comenius Regio project, Paducation, in which they collaborated on teaching methods using iPads in the curriculum. The project addressed the digital divide prevailing for many schools in Europe. The teachers continuously exchanged thoughts and experiences via a blog platform and met twice a year for workshops. The use of digital devices was at this time so integrated in the education that the collaboration could continue afterwards. The two schools had already been affected by the innovations that came forth in this work; collaborative learning, transparency, changing teacher roles, focus on time compression and efficiency as well as the necessity of a functional online based learning environment. In 2016 the two schools began a strategic partnership entitled Digital Bridges-Transnational collaborative learning. It was our intention to create a learning environment for the students themselves to explore in what manner they could both cooperate and communicate with each other and their partner group in the other country. The immediate results would enable the students to be more engaged and learn more about their subject of study. Their ability to present their results in digital form to a larger audience would be enhanced and they would gain a broader understanding of what is meant with a European perspective. The original project design was in two stages; the first year was a start-up phase with teachers and students finding partners in the other school and initiating collaborative work with common themes in conjunction with course content. The second year would be a continuation of this work culminating in student exchanges for 50-60 students who would work on their examination reports and Facharbeit. However the Swedish Council for Higher Education denied the support for the student exchanges in the assessment of the application due to the criticism of the program for accompanying teachers during the exchange. This was a major setback that affected the recruitment of participants and created difficulties for the management of the project. But we felt it was more important to try out our ideas for transnational collaboration for the students so we decided to implement the project as best we could. Collaboration did begin in Art, Chemistry, History, Technology and Math. Attempts to initiate groups in Spanish and Economics were more difficult. The second year provided an opportunity to reboot the project. Progress occurred in History, Technology, communication and behavior science courses. A much reduced student exchange did occur in the second year involving 12 students working on their required examination reports respective Facharbeit. This was funded by the partner organisations and involved families. The planned blog platform was established and provided the intended forum for documentation of the work in the project. Films and photos were posted, reflections by participants were shared and the project management could include progress reports. The five Transnational Project Meetings transpired as planned. They served the purpose to keep track on the progress of the project, deal with changes in staff and provide insight into the work for the leadership of the school. They also served as a platform to meet new teachers who were interested to come on board and participate. There was an immediate impact for the students who participated in the production of innovative videos and texts in conjunction with the curriculum in their courses. They benefited from the opportunity to approach their subject in a collaborative and creative manner that increased the understanding of the course content. The students that had the opportunity to complete the limited student exchange that occurred obviously were able to benefit even more from the increased understanding for living and learning in another European country. The work done with the comparative studies in History, Technology and Chemistry reflected the added value of cooperating over national borders. Even the work done with producing introductory videos contributed to expanding the use of English as a personal language that enhanced the learning process for those involved. There remains a strong commitment to work together in order for the idea of the project to continue. We’ve learned that the teachers need to create an environment for the students to work in, they can not structure the process on their own. They number of teachers who want to build digital bridges has increased for the coming year. Our intention later is to initiate a new strategic partnership building upon the lessons we have learned along the way.