CONTEXT The project was initiated to respond to the needs of our students to acquire and improve their know-how in terms of developing mobile applications, a skill which they will use even after the school years, no matter what careers they may choose to follow. We want to make students break the barrier between passive consumption of mobile apps to the active usage of mobile development tools. TARGET GROUP The project addressed the age group of 15-18 year olds in our schools (400 students), who are old enough to process this type and amount of information and to use it creatively in order to develop apps. The students come from a variety of cultural backgrounds and a significant percentage of them are faced with and strive to overcome all kinds of obstacles - economic, cultural, financial etc. The participants will be chosen from this target group based on their digital skills, language skills, school results. Additional support will be given to students facing any of the above mentioned obstacles. There will be 68 students who attend the LTTAs - 14 per country, in the four meetings planned, with an additional number of 20-24 students from the host institution for whom a grant is not given but who will attend the activities. The project also addresses teachers of IT who will thus improve their material base and ensure the sustainability of the project results. The teachers who attend meetings are IT and English. Each meeting includes the participation of 8 teachers, so a number of 32 teacher mobilities are involved. OBJECTIVES The aim of the project is to provide the necessary framework for teachers and students to work together, share ideas and good practices and learn how to develop mobile applications. By providing this framework, we intend to achieve a number of topic-related objectives as well as objectives related to the intercultural dialogue that the project presupposes: O1: at least 70 percent of the students in the target group will become familiar with the requirements of mobile app development O2: at least 50 percent of students will contribute to the creation of new mobile apps actively O3: at least 90 percent of students participating in transnational meetings will improve digital skills O4: at least 80 percent of participants will improve knowledge of foreign cultures O5: at least 70 percent of participants will improve communication skills in English and other languages of the partners O6: all participants will develop tolerance, nutual respect and intercultural understanding O7: all project team members and students will improve organisational, team work and data manipulation skills. MAIN ACTIVITIES C1 - Lithuania- Feb 2018 - Basics of Android studio and Java script C2 - Hungary - May 2018 - 12 steps in creating and releasing a mobile app C3 - Italy - Oct 2018 - Mobile apps for school purposes C4 - Macedonia - Mar 2019 - Mobile apps on the topic of "Being European" M1 - Oct 2017 (Hungary) - Planning the project M2 - May 2019 (Turkey) - Evaluating the project METHODOLOGY The project involves 5 main stages: initiation (identification of needs and partners), planning (action plan, methodologies, resources), implementation (organisation of activities before, during and after the transnational events), evaluation (throughout the entire project, in steps, but also at the end of the project), finalisation (reporting, elaboration of impact study, sustainability plan). RESULTS - 1 coursebook entitled "Mobile apps for schools" - mobile apps developed by students - initial and final questionnaires based on which we will elaborate the impact study - impact study - website, Facebook page, eTwinning account, Facebook discussion group, Whatsapp group - LTTA minutes and evaluation reports - TM minutes and evaluation reports - Europass mobility documents, CVs, language portfolios - certificates of attendance - intermediary and final reports - improvement of students' and teachers' skills IMPACT On students - acquired mobile app development skills, improved professional and language skills, communication, interaction, intecultural dialogue On teachers - improved leadership skills, organisational skills and problem-solving abilities, level of English and professional skills On target group - acquired knowledge about the requirements of mobile app development, desire to start their own mobile app projects On institutions - better cohesion among members of staff, positive image at local level, improvement of human and material resources, improvement of Erasmus+ project management skills LONG-TERM BENEFITS - institutions will become connected in a network of mobile app clubs, which will extend in future years - IT teachers will use the project results in regular class work or in optional classes - partners may develop future Erasmus+ initiatives together.
This project has involved secondary school students and staff from 5 small-to-big sized towns from Hungary, Lithuania, Italy, Macedonia and Turkey which have identified common interests and issues and have resolved to address those through cooperation. As we live in a digital era students can hardly imagine their life without mobile phones and computers. Therefore, the project was elaborated to respond to the needs of our students to acquire and improve their know-how in terms of developing mobile applications, a skill which they will use even after the school years, no matter what careers they may choose to follow. We wanted to make students break the barrier between passive consumption of mobile apps to the active usage of mobile development tools. The project addressed the age group of 15-18 years old students in our schools. The students came from different cultural, economical and financial background. The participants were chosen from this target group based on their digital skills, language skills and their school results. The main aims of the project were: - to acquaint the target group with the requirements of mobile apps development -to motivate our students to contribute to the creation of new mobile apps actively -to improve the participants’ digital skill -to improve the participants’ cultural competencies -to improve communication skills in English and other languages of the partners -to help all the participants develop tolerance, mutual respect and intercultural understanding -to make all project members and students’ organisational, teamwork and data manipulation skills better There were 57 students who participated the LTTAs – 14 from Hungary, 14 from Lithuania, 15 from Italy and 14 from Turkey with an additional number of 20-24 students from the host institution for whom a grant is not given but they attended to the activities. The project also involved teachers of IT who could improve their material base and ensured the sustainability of the project results. The teachers who attended the meetings are teachers of IT and English, a number of 35 teacher mobilities were involved. We had 4 LTTAs and two transnational meetings: C1 - Lithuania- March 2018 - Basics of Android studio and Java script C2 - Hungary - September 2018 - 12 steps in creating and releasing a mobile app C3 - Italy - November 2018 - Mobile apps for school purposes C4 - Macedonia - Mar 2019 - Mobile apps on the topic of "Being European" M1 - December 2017 (Hungary) - Planning the project M2 - June2019 (Turkey) - Evaluating the project International activities both for teachers and students included seminars about the topics mentioned above were held by professionals and experts. Our main product is a coursebook entitled "Mobile apps for schools", also mobile apps developed by students furthermore initial and final questionnaires , impact studies in addition project website, Facebook page, eTwinning account, Facebook discussion group and Whatsapp group and also certificates of attendace. After mobilities the host country made the LTTA minutes and evaluation reports they were shared with all partners. Our students have acquired mobile app development skills that they can use in their future jobs as they are aware of how mobile applications are being developed in 12 steps and how to make a skeleton of a simple mobile application.They could improve their professional and language skills, as well as communication skills. Our teacher colleagues have improved leadership skills, organisational skills and problem-solving abilities also their level of English improved. Beside all of that mobilities gave unforgettable experiencies to all paticipants learning a lot about different cultures, customs and traditions and values of other societies. Working together helped the cohesion among members of our staff and we could make a lot of friends during the two years. Our colleagues Erasmus+ project management skills have improved a lot what we can use it for a better organized project in the future. As our partner institutions are connected we may develop future Erasmus+ initiatives together.