Can we combine outdoor learning and IT-skills in early childhood education? Yes,this out now Erasmus+ Project will tell us how. We can learn new ways to work with very important part of our daily life; outdoor learning, child participation and bring new dimension to it by using IT-skills, something new for teachers and children together to explore. We are using smartphones and tablets in outdoor activities. Background of the Project: Project idea and name „OUT NOW“ was born on the Erasmus+ contact seminary „Learning and playing child“ in Turku october 2016. Through workshop discussions the reprasentatives of Norway, Finland, Sweden and Estonia found a common interest in their kindergarten´s curriculums about outdoor learning and the wish to improve and enrich this, the idea for the Project was started. A similar understanding about the importance of outdoor learning in children´s development was a good platform to start building up the Project. Activities and methodology: the methodolgy we intend to apply in our Project is based on child centered pedagogical approach. In our Project it means that all the tasks and activities are planned, carried out and analysed with children. Teachers are the guides and supporters for children to discover and find the solutions to the tasks themselves. Most important aspects of the outdoor methods in our project are the physical movement and active learning through play. According to our partner kindergarten´s pedagogies the methodology keywords in our Project are communication, emotional and social skills, motor skills, science and seasons. The main activities in the Project are the outdoor learning TASKS that are solved by the children and their own ideas. Tasks are shared to other partners By QR-codes. Teachers role of the task solving is to support children with learning equipment needed (modern technology equipment, secure environment etc) and to gather all the children´s ideas as the new and diffenrent ways of outdoor learning. Each task in our activities plan is taking place in a different season, has a cultural and thematical aspect. As the outcome of the project we gather all the outdoor learning ideas for the „Teacher´s outdoor activities guidebook“ that will be available for all on the project´s webpage. The goals of the Project meetings are: get to know each ohter (learn about cultures, systems and pedagogies of each countries early childhood education and kindergartens); planning and discussing the next steps of the Project; exchanging ideas and experiences during the Project; analyzing the methods used in the Project. The Project meetings take place in all the partner countries Norway, Finland, Sweden, Spain and Estonia. this project´s most valuable thing is that our teaching gets stronger and our children are more aware of the nature and use of modern technology.
Can we combine outdoor learning and IT-skills in early childhood education? Yes,this out now Erasmus+ Project told us how. We learned new ways to work with very important part of our daily life; outdoor learning, child participation and brought new dimensions to it by using IT-skills. This was new for teachers and children together to explore. We used smartphones and tablets in outdoor activities. Background of the Project: Project idea and name „OUT NOW“ was born on the Erasmus+ contact seminary „Learning and playing child“ in Turku october 2016. Through workshop discussions the reprasentatives of Norway, Finland, Sweden and Estonia found a common interest in their kindergarten´s curriculums about outdoor learning and the wish to improve and enrich this, the idea for the Project was started. A similar understanding about the importance of outdoor learning in children´s development was a good platform to start building up the Project. We invited Ceip Horta major from Spain to join the project, we all wanted to look for outdoor play in a different way. Activities and methodology: the methodolgy we used in our Project was based on child centered pedagogical approach. In our Project it ment that all the tasks and activities were planned, carried out and analysed with children. Teachers were the guides and supporters for children to discover and find the solutions to the tasks themselves. Most important aspects of the outdoor methods in our project were the physical movement and active learning through play. According to our partner kindergarten´s pedagogies the methodology keywords in our Project are communication, emotional and social skills, motor skills, science and seasons. The main activities in the Project are the outdoor learning TASKS that were solved by the children and their own ideas. Tasks were shared to other partners By QR-codes. Teachers role of the task solving is to support children with learning equipment needed (modern technology equipment, secure environment etc) and to gather all the children´s ideas as the new and diffenrent ways of outdoor learning. Each task in our activities plan was taking place in a different season, and had a cultural and thematical aspect. As the outcome of the project we gather all the outdoor learning ideas on our Facebookpage OUT NOW. This webpage will continue to grow after this project has ended. The goals of the Project meetings were: get to know each ohter (learn about cultures, systems and pedagogies of each countries early childhood education and kindergartens); planning and discussing the next steps of the Project; exchanging ideas and experiences during the Project; analyzing the methods used in the Project. The Project meetings took place in all the partner countries Norway, Finland, Sweden, Spain and Estonia. This project´s most valuable aspect was that our teaching got stronger and our children are more aware of the nature and use of modern technology.