CONTEXT According to reliable statistics, nearly 52% of students have admitted checking their Smartphones before even getting out of their beds. They carry them around every day, as an integral part of their existence. They cannot imagine a world without smartphones. In this case, it is not difficult to understand that a school without mobile phones is actually unattractive to them and even their teachers. With advancements in technologies, and students getting computer and mobile savvy, institutions want to transform teaching and learning in the classroom. The comfort of remote access to learning resources and doing it in one’s own space are influencing educators to effectively use online assessment tools to evaluate students and increase student success. For all these reasons we have come together under this partnership. We are five schools across Europe, both vocational and general education who want to collaborate, to learn from each other about how to introduce such online tools in the learning process of students. OBJECTIVES The project aims to attain the following objectives: - to promote the use of technology in education - to enable teachers to apply innovative practices in the assessment of students - to increase teachers’ and students’ confidence in using the mobile apps in the learning process - to create the opportunity for teachers and students to interact and work together - to gain / improve knowledge of mobile apps used for educational purposes - to produce changes in the regular practices in each of the partner schools. ACTIVITIES We wish to organize 5 transnational events – one joint staff training event and 4 student exchanges. During the training event, all partners will present 2 mobile assessment apps. They will provide instructions and allocate time for the other teachers to practise using them. Overall, there will be 10 assessment tools presented and applied during this event. They also attend a practical course on the Flipped classroom method. Next, in the student exchanges, based on the topic of the exchange, 2 partners conduct flipped lessons and provide assessment at the end of the lesson using one of the apps presented during LTTA1. PARTICIPANTS Students in the target group belong to the vocational or the general education branch of studies. Their age range is 16-17. They are both boys and girls, a heterogeneous group with high and low achievers alike. Some of them have average financial background, while others are at both ends of the cline. There are also students coming from disadvantaged groups. The second group is that of teachers. Teachers who take part in the training event LTTA1 are teachers of English, Maths / Science and IT (12 teachers from sending institutions and 3 in the receiving institution). They will play a key role in the transfer of knowledge to teachers in the school who participate in the next exchanges. Also, teachers will accompany students in exchanges (an overall number of 32 teachers is targeted). IMPACT The project offers partners the chance to observe current practices in other European schools in terms of use of mobile technology, which they can transfer into their own school both through dissemination and by applying these aspects to their own teaching. Teachers will learn from each other in formal and informal contexts, will collaborate face-to-face and online, exchange ideas, practices etc. which will improve their flexibility in terms of approaches and methods. They will create lessons and use mobile apps for assessment purposes, which will increase their digital competence and confidence. As a result, the classes become more interactive, turning into a collaborative space, while students become more engaged in them. This can only improve the relationship between teachers and students and create a positive learning environment which benefits the entire school. RESULTS We aim to obtain students’ increased motivation, increased attractiveness and dynamics of classes, increased competence of teachers to use mobile apps in assessment and increased collaboration of students and teachers at European level, improved skills and competences such as communication, intercultural, interpersonal, critical thinking, problem-solving. The outputs include the flipped lessons and assessment instruments used by the teachers in exchanges, students’ collaborative work, analysis about the current use of mobile technology in each school and a similar report produced at the end of the project, presentations of online apps by teachers in LTTA1, creative presentations of schools using online presentation tools, videos created by hosts during the exchanges, photos, feedback forms, initial and final evaluation results applied during exchanges, initial and final questionnaire applied in the partner schools on the target group.
CONTEXT According to reliable statistics, nearly 52% of students admitted they use to check their Smartphones before even getting out of their beds. They carry them around every day, as an integral part of their existence. They cannot imagine a world without smartphones. That is why the partnership understood that a school without mobile phones could be unattractive to them and even their teachers. With advancements in technologies, and students getting computer and mobile savvy, we achieved to transform teaching and learning in the classroom. The comfort of remote access to learning resources and doing it in one’s own space influenced educators to effectively use online assessment tools to evaluate students and increase student success. Those were the reasons which put us together under the partnership. Five schools across Europe, both vocational and general education who were able to collaborate, to learn from each other about how to introduce such online tools in the learning process of students. All the objectives of the project were completely fullfilled: The partnership involved in the project promoted the use of technology in education; enabled teachers to apply innovative practices in the assessment of students; increased teachers’ and students’ confidence in using the mobile apps in the learning process; created the opportunity for teachers and students to interact and work together, improved knowledge of mobile apps used for educational purposes and prooduced visible changes in the regular practices in each of the partner schools. ACTIVITIES As far as the activities, we organized 5 transnational events – one joint staff training event and 4 student exchanges. During the training event, all partners presented 2 mobile assessment apps. They provided instructions and allocated time for the other teachers to practise using them. 10 assessment tools were presented and applied during that event. They also attended a practical course on the Flipped classroom method. Moreover, the student exchanges were based on the topic of the exchange, 2 partners could conduct flipped lessons and provided assessment at the end of the lesson using one of the apps presented during LTTA1. PARTICIPANTS Students in the target group belonged mostly to the vocational or the general education branch of studies. Their age range was 16-17. They were both boys and girls, a heterogeneous group with high and low achievers alike. Some of them had average financial background, while others wereat both ends of the cline. Students coming from disadvantaged groups were included. The second group was the teachers’one. Teachers who took part in the training event LTTA1 were teachers of English, Maths / Science and IT (12 teachers from sending institutions and 3 in the receiving institution). They palyed a key role in the transfer of knowledge to teachers in the school that participated in the next exchanges. Also, teachers accompanied students in exchanges (an overall number of 32 teachers was targeted). IMPACT The project offered partners the chance to observe current practices in other European schools in terms of use of mobile technology, which they could transfer into their own school both through dissemination and by applying those aspects to their own teaching. Teachers used to learn from each other in formal and informal contexts, were able to collaborate face-to-face and online, exchanged ideas, practices etc. which improved their flexibility in terms of approaches and methods. They created lessons and used mobile apps for assessment purposes, that increased their digital competence and confidence. As a result, the classes became more interactive, turning into a collaborative space, while students became more engaged in them. All that fostered the relationship between teachers and students and created a positive learning environment which benefited the entire school. RESULTS The project aimed at obtaining students’ increased motivation, increased successfully attractiveness and dynamics of classes, increased competence of teachers to use mobile apps in assessment and enhanced collaboration of students and teachers at European level, improved skills and competences such as communication, intercultural, interpersonal, critical thinking, problem-solving. The outputs included the flipped lessons, beloved by everyone, and assessment instruments used by the teachers in exchanges, students’ collaborative work, analysis about the current use of mobile technology in each school. A report was produced at the end of the project, presentations of online apps by teachers in LTTA1, creative presentations of schools using online presentation tools, videos created by hosts during the exchanges, photos, feedback forms, initial and final evaluation results applied during exchanges, initial and final questionnaire applied in the partner schools on the target group.