Currently we are teaching students who will enter the labor market between years 2018-2029. Several strategic documents on EU and state level give vision and strategic goals and include a list of essential competencies needed for the labor market in the future. On the school level the curricula demonstrates possible ways to develop different competencies. The main objectives of the project are 1) to develop students’ such essential and general skills as program-based thinking, intercultural competence, transdisciplinarity, design-thinking and virtual cooperation through digital study materials. Lesson plans for lessons where those materials will be used and tested in class with students, will be compiled in one common database and digital handbook; 2) to increase level of digital competence, use of ICT-based technologies and cooperation with partners from other countries. There are 5 partners participating in the project. At first, Sant Roc School from Spain is the school that has been previously involved in an Erasmus+ project about the innovation at school: new environments of knowledge, drama techniques for studying languages, new methodologies at class are instaurated. Secondly, School center Srečko Kosovel Sežana from Slovenia. They have implemented a new module of Robotics where students are taught how to program small robots and apps. Thirdly, Mondial College from the Netherlands. Along with the standard curriculum, pupils at the Mondial College can choose to partake in the College of Engineering or International Business College. Fourthly, Askim Videregående Skole from Norway is a combined school with both theoretical and vocational programs. The school is well equipped with computers, every pupil has his/her own laptop.The fifth partner is Narva Kreenholm Gymnasium who is the lead partner in the project. This is an upper-secondary school that teaches pupils from 1st to 12th grade. All-in-all, five events are planned within the project during which participants will get knowledge and ideas to make their own digital study materials which will be tested with students. There are 18 teachers going to take part in the project, the approximate number of students, involved in testing study materials and giving feedback, is 200. During the project implementation methods that will be used are: work in small groups, workshops, lectures, develop of study materials and testing them with students, discussions, sharing experience and ideas, Skype-conferences, e-mail communication and communication through social media. The quality of the results is assessed by experts. We expect the following results in short-term perspective: 1) The students’ digital competence has been developed; 2) The students’ competence of program-based thinking, intercultural competence, transdisciplinarity, design-thinking and virtual cooperation has been developed; 3) Students are able to use above named skills in their further learning process; 4) Students have the above mentioned competence to be more successful in labor market; 5) Students' skills will meet the requirements for future jobs prognosed by OSKA 2025. We expect the following specific long-term impacts: a) The desired impact at the local level is the increased quality of education: project results, such as common database of digital resources with study materials, lesson plans and feedback results are disseminated within schools for teachers to be used in the classroom, b) The impact at the regional level is in better alignment to the needs of the labor market, closer links to business and community, c) Since employment is connected to the economic situation the impact on regional as well as on national level is higher employment and economic growth, d) Impact at the national and European level is in increased capacity to work at EU/international level. The measurable project results are 1) common database of digital resources with sections (for each skill/competency) including study materials; 2) transnational project meetings have been conducted in order to come into contact with project partners, to build a successful work team, to discuss goals and results of the project as well as to build common understanding of them, to develop a common form for all materials that will be included into the database and in order to check and analyze all activities and to prepare the report; 3) short-term learning sessions have been carried out in order to test the database and analyze the effectiveness of using digital resources; 4) digital handbook has been compiled based on the database, testing and analyses of lessons including 3 articles per participant school; 5) at least 8 teachers are involved in the project international activities and 6 in local activities; 6) at least 8 lessons have been carried out and analyzed. The project implementation period is from September 2018 till August 2020.
In the beginning of the project in 2018 we were talking about rapidly changing world and how to adapt in it. For that reason, the team based the project idea on so called Future Work Skills presented in “Work and skills 2025” – an OSKA general report on changes in labor requirements, labor market developments and the dominant trends. From the list of ten competencies five were chosen to work with: computational/ program-based thinking, cross cultural/ intercultural competency, transdisciplinarity, design mindset/ design-thinking and virtual cooperation/ collaboration. The main objectives (1: to develop students’ above mentioned skills through digital study materials compiling them in one common data base and digital handbook; 2: to increase level of digital competence, use of ICT-based technologies and cooperation with partners from other countries) were gained. Students’ competence of “future work skills” has been developed. Even though the project included strategic cooperation between teachers, the main target group was students for whom study materials were developed and with whom they were tested. Materials were concentrated on a set of competencies therefore students developed a complex of skills simultaneously. 256 students were involved into 39 local testing classis and 38 students into 17 international classes. 18 lesson plans were created and uploaded including 15 digital study materials developed and 27 digital sources used for the lesson. Since the project did not include scientific research the level of above mentioned competencies was not measured though. There were 5 partners in the project: Sant Roc School (Spain), School center Srečko Kosovel Sežana (Slovenia), Mondial College (Netherlands), Askim Videregående Skole (Norway) and Narva Kreenholmi Gümnaasium (Estonia). 5 transnational project meetings were conducted where altogether 26 teachers took part. Short-term perspectives were gained: 1) Students’ digital competence and 2) Students’ competence of “future skills” has been developed. In every country teachers tested materials first with their students and afterwards in international students group. In local testing groups there was 256 students and in international ones 38; 3) Students are able to use above named skills in their further learning process. It has been demonstrated during distance learning process as the feedback from teachers shows; 4) Students have the above mentioned competence to be more successful in labor market. This has been demonstrated during international classes of testing materials since students have at least basic knowledge of and an ability to cope with the situation in unknown cultural environment; to transfer a big amount of data into abstract concepts, building an algorithm; to work effectively in teams in virtual environment supporting and respecting each other; to transfer and use knowledge and skills acquired in different subjects; to see/find the problem, to solve it and present to others; 5) Students' skills will meet the requirements for future jobs prognosed by OSKA 2025. During the project realization time following activities were implemented: a) 5 transnational project meetings were conducted that led to good contact with project partners, to a successful team work, to discussions of goals and results, to development of a common form for all materials that were included into the database, analyze of all activities and preparation of the final report. All together 26 teachers were in international meetings; b) during transnational meetings short-term learning sessions were carried out in order to test the database and analyze the effectiveness of using digital resources. All-in-all 18 lesson plans were developed, and 17 of them were tested with international students (instead of 8 that was planned originally); c) common database of digital resources was created with sections for each skill/competency and is available for public access in https://twinspace.etwinning.net/84651/pages/page/1324389 and https://www.learn-it.no/; d) digital handbook has been compiled based on the database, testing and analyses of lessons including 14 articles from participating teachers. We expect the following specific long-term impacts: 1) The desired impact at the local level is the increased quality of education: project results, such as common database of digital resources with study materials, lesson plans and feedback results are disseminated within schools for teachers to be used in the classroom, 2) The impact at the regional level is in better alignment to the needs of the labor market, closer links to business and community, 3) Since employment is connected to the economic situation the impact on regional as well as on national level is higher employment and economic growth, 4) The capacity to work at EU/international level is increased. These expectations have not changed and the project has given an impact for their realization.