According to many independent and formal studies, children spend too much time spending time on computer instead of doing homework or studying for exams. Although they can understand and play very complex computer games, they can't even make a proper research on the Internet. So, children need to be encouraged to use technology effectively for their lessons and school success because using technology effectively will be an obligation for their future life. Today, every job requires a certain level of technological competences. We, all partner schools, have seen that all of our partners have the similiar problem with their students. That's why, we come together for this project. This cross-border cooperation will enable us to compare our ICT teaching methods and assess their results. Good examples of teaching methods will be exchanged among partners. We all want to make students learn and use ICT actively and properly at school and in their life.For a good start, we have thought that the project must be enjoyable. The activities must be interesting for students. They should start using ICT with interesting topics. Otherwise, they might be reluctant. Presenting national children games to cross-border friends would be a good and funny way to encourage them to join the project. For this objectives, students will get four ICT training courses. At the end of those trainings students will get a certificate and produce a work.Those products will be introduced to other partners during L/T/T activities. The main aim of the project is to raise children' technological competences and make them use ICT tool for their school success. Today, almost every job requires a certain level of technological competences. Volunteer students will join four ICT training courses during the project. At the end of the trainings, students will get a certificate. At the end of the courses we ask participants to make a product. Those products will be eliminated and introduced to other partners during L/T/T activities. In those activities, students works will be assessed internationally. The partnership is composed of seven countries; Turkey (applicant organisation), Portugal, Italy, Germany and Poland. The project has developed from many discussions among partners. In all partner schools, student's low technological competencies is a common problem. We decided to solve this problem through additional ICT training courses. We will organise activities to be made in all countries before mobilities. The activity programme is as the following; Trainings;• Microsoft Word and Excel Training in December, 2016 (in all the partner schools)• Power Point Training in April, 2017 (in all the partner schools)• Movie Maker Training in November, 2017 (in all the partner schools)• Prezi Training in March, 2018 (in all the partner schools)L / T / T Activities;• 1st L/T/T Activity in January,2017 in Italy• 2nd L/T/T Activity in May,2017 in Poland• 3rd L/T/T Activity in December,2017 in Portugal• 4th L/T/T Activity in April,2018 in GermanyTransnational Meetings• 1st Meeting in October,2016 in Turkey• 2nd Meeting in June,2017 in Germany• 3rd Meeting in October,2017 in Poland• 4th Meeting in June,2018 in ItalyAt the end of the project children will• increase their competence in using necessary technological items and programmes like Microsoft Office Pogrammes• be healthier and more active than before• hopefully be more successful at school• have more confidence in using ICT• have good skills for job market for future• have a greater motivation and satisfaction in learning at school• children' learning will be more stable because of visual aids• be more respectful to the people not just locally but internationally• increase their social competence and emotional maturity• teachers will improve their technological knowledge in theory and practice in teaching ICT• teachers will stimulate the maximum active participation of all the students to promote ICT learning better• parents will have a better awareness of the necessity of the basis and functional ICT skills and competencies development in their children' education for a better entrance in the working world, widely globalized and competitive in the next future. We will work in English and use new technologies and ICT tools in our activities. The results of the activities will be shown in corners in schools, school magazines, and e-twinning accounts. We will also have a facebook group to publish photos and videos of mobilities. The evaluation questionnaires will be applied in all schools and will be shared. The communication between partners will be provided via e-mail, skype, e-twinning and in a facebook group. We hope an improvement in the knowledge of our students about the project subjects and other relevant topics such as cultural awareness. We also expect an improvement in English and teaching methods of our teachers.
In all partner schools, according to questionaires and interviews showed us that many students spend too much time on computer instead of doing homework or studying for exams. Although they spent lots of time with computers they couldn't even make a proper research on the Internet. Because, they didn't know how to use even basic computer programmes to do a homework or a presantation. We, all the partner schools, saw that most of our students had similar problems. That's why, we came together for this project. This cross-border cooperation enabled us to compare our ICT teaching methods and assess their results. We all wanted to make students learn and use ICT actively and properly at school and in their life. Expected objectives of the project were; • children will increase their competence in using necessary technological items and programmes like Microsoft Office Pogrammes • children will have good skills for job market for future • children will be aware of the negative sides of technology on their health • children will have a greater motivation and satisfaction in learning at school • children will increase their social competence and emotional maturity • children will be healthier and more active than before • children will be more respectful to the people not just locally but internationally • children will involve learning process more actively At the beginning, the project consisted of 5 partners; Turkey (the coordinator), Poland, Germany, Italy and Portugal. Turkish school is the coordinator. Unfortunatelly Portugese School resigned from the project at the beginning. Turkish school is a medium size secondary school in Germencik / Aydın / Turkey with 450 students and 40 staff. Our students are 10-14 years old. In the school, there are 20 classrooms, a library, a canteen, a science lab, a conference hall and a I.T. lab. English is taught as a second language. The Italian comprehensive school 9° Cuoco– Schipa is situated to the center of a different districts of the city of Naples, and is organized into four complexes comprising childhood, primary and secondary; pupils attending are about 1100 by 3 to 14 years. German School is located in the Northeast of Berlin, in a small town of 41,000 inhabitants. Our school has about 650 students, 2 social workers and 66 teachers of whom are 15 teachers for special educational needs. Polish School Number 3 is situated in Slupsk, in the north of Poland. It's 20 kilometers far from the Baltic Sea. We are one of the biggest schools in our town, with more than 600 students at the age 5-12 and 55 teachers. Main Activities of the project were; 1. Preparation Activities: informative meetings for students, teachers and parents forming an erasmus plus corner setting up a project website, facebook group, E-twinning page pre questionaires before the project Establishing School Project Teams preparing an informative CD about school Forming school project team 2. ICT Training Courses: Every partner arranged 4 courses before each mobility. Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Prezi and MovieMaker trainings 3. LTT Activities: There were 4 LTT during the project. In LTTs, students presented their works and created new ones. 4. Dissemination Activities: During the project many dissemination activities were done by using social media, local press, meetings, internet. 5. Transnational Project Meetings: There were four meetings in partner countries. The aim of these activities were to check project activities, to sustain the coordination among the partners, to check and plan dissemination activities, to control project phases, to share experiences and challanges in schools and to define the exact time of meetings, activities and trainings. SOME RESULTS AND IMPACTS GAINED Students had / was ; • more confidence in using ICT for school success • a higher sense of correct and sufficient usage of technology in real life; • a higher competence in usage of technology • a greater motivation and satisfaction in learning at school • a higher level of social and sportive competence • more understanding about the responsibilities like school success; • more active participation in society through building up new friendships • an idea of balancing social life and technology usage • an improvement on their language skills, communicating in the language of the project (English) • good skills for job market for future • a chance to make friends in all partner schools • more respectful to the people not just locally but internationally • more positive behaviors towards a healthy life Other valuable impacts on participating organisations: • partners exercised their language skills both oral and written • partners had the opportunity to get to know other cultures in general • the European dimension opened to students who had no previous experience in abroad. • improved skills in terms of teamwork, social relations, time management • developed the tolerance and the collaboration