There is a noticeable difference in teaching methods in the different countries: some of the countries for example use the ICT a lot in the lessons and the students are very competent in handling modern technologies. They often work by themselves or in groups and they achieve good levels of competence in team work or become more self-confident. On the other hand, some countries are more traditional in teaching and the use of modern technologies is not the focus of the lesson. In this case, students are less good in ICT, less able to work in team and less self-confident. At the same time students who are using digital devices a lot during the lessons can concentrate less, they are easily distracted and have problems fixing knowledge and facts compared to students from more traditional schools. It is therefore necessary to identify a method that can at the same time improve the students ICT-competences, team working competence and coping skills in critical thinking. That’s why this project intends to experiment with different kinds of teaching methods, ranging from the more traditional - with a high degree of guidance from the teacher - to a more competence based learning with IT-support - with less guidance through the teacher in order to reach a perfect combination. Number and profile of participants: The 6 upper secondary schools are located in 6 different countries. Each school will have a group of more or less 30 students and 4-8 actively involved teachers. The schools are situated in different areas. Three of the schools are situated in small towns (Valdobbiadene, Fiňana, Sint Michielsgestel and Laufen), one school in a medium sized town (Poitiers) and one school on the outskirts of a capital city (Copenhagen). This means that the diversity of the students will be wide, which will support the main task of changing the mindset. Description of activities: The best way to test the different teaching methods will be to divide the students into three groups, having them learn the same topic (a transversal topic) but in three different ways: one group with a very little guidance by the teacher but with digital devices; one group with the maximum of guidance by the teacher (traditional teaching); one group equiped with selected books and selected digital sources and some guidance by the teacher. As the objective is to observe the outcomes of the three methods on the students, the lessons will be divided into three days, three different topics and each student will be part of three different groups. At the end of the lessons there will be an evaluation of all the students in the same way and a compara sense of their performance. This will enable an effective comparence. This will be done during the short term exchanges but the methodologies will be applied also in the different schools during the normal lessons. Furthermore it is important for the students to be part of the project and to express their feelings about their lives between books and bytes in a creative way. That’s why they will realize an acting performance combining classical dramatic elements with new media effects, in this way they will learn also about performing theatre (writing the plot, realizing the play, coping with different points of view, selecting the proper material for the message, respecting the roles and being in others’ shoes..). Impact: The teachers involved in the project will improve their ICT-competences, but they will improve their teaching methods, too, and they will be able to spread their newfound knowledge to colleagues through formations, and other teachers through the learning platform and guidelines. The students will learn how to manage the wide world of modern technologies, becoming more critical in choosing their sources of information. They will develop the competence of working in a team and being able to work in an independent way. Working on the performance, they will learn how to do theatre. Future students will also benefit from the project, both through the teachers involved and colleagues in and outside the schools.
There is a noticeable difference in teaching methods in the different countries: some of the countries for example use the ICT a lot in the lessons and the students are very competent in handling modern technologies. They often work by themselves or in groups and they achieve good levels of competence in team work or become more self-confident. On the other hand, some countries are more traditional in teaching and the use of modern technologies is not the focus of the lesson. In this case, students are less good in ICT, less able to work in team and less self-confident. At the same time students who are using digital devices a lot during the lessons can concentrate less, they are easily distracted and have problems fixing knowledge and facts compared to students from more traditional schools. In this project we have identified methods that can at the same time improve the students ICT-competences, team working competence and coping skills in critical thinking. That’s why this project intended experimenting with different kinds of teaching methods, ranging from the more traditional - with a high degree of guidance from the teacher - to a more competence based learning with IT-support - with less guidance through the teacher in order to reach the most adequat combination. Number and profile of participants: The 6 upper secondary schools are located in 6 different countries. Each school had a group of more or less 30 students and 4-8 actively involved teachers. The schools are situated in different areas. Three of the schools are situated in small towns (Valdobbiadene, Fiňana, Sint Michielsgestel and Laufen), one school in a medium sized town (Poitiers) and one school on the outskirts of a capital city (Copenhagen). This means that the diversity of the students was wide, which supported the main task of changing the mindset. Description of activities: The best way to test the different teaching methods consisted in deviding the participating students into three groups, giving them the same topic (a transversal topic) but in three different ways: one group with a very little guidance by the teacher but with digital devices; one group with the maximum of guidance by the teacher (traditional teaching); one group equiped with selected books and selected digital sources and some guidance by the teacher. As the objective was to observe the outcomes of the three methods on the students, the lessons have been divided into three days, three different topics and each student has been a part of three different groups. At the end of the lessons an evaluation of all the students took place in the same way in order to enable an effective, reliable and valid comparence. This was done during short term exchanges but the methodologies have also been applied in the different schools during normal lessons in mother tongue. Furthermore it was important for the students to be part of the project and to express their feelings about their lives between books and bytes in a creative way. That’s why they realized an acting performance combining classical dramatic elements with new media effects, in this way they have learnt also about performing theatre (writing the plot, realizing the play, coping with different points of view, selecting the proper material for the message, respecting the roles and being in others’ shoes..). Impact and longterm benefits Based on the empiric study with students, the teachers involved in the project have improved their ICT-competences, but they have improved their teaching methods, too, and they will be able to spread their newfound knowledge to colleagues through formations, and we disseminate our results to other teachers through the learning platform giving full access to our teaching material and guidelines showing our findings in their context of statistical data. The students have got experience in managing the wide world of modern technologies, they became more critical in choosing their sources of information. They have developped the competence of working in a team and being able to work in an independent way. The project brought an important impulse to all participating schools for reflecting an appropriate use of ICT for teaching and learning, encouraging colleagues in using ICT (e.g. team competences, digital literacy) in a new way and to see also the advantages of "classical" methods (e.g. concentration, self competence).