CONTEXT The five partner schools strongly believe in the importance of supporting students in obtaining and enhancing their “21st century” skills – technology skills, critical thinking, teamwork abilities, proactive attitude, sense of initiative, and international awareness. As teachers, we would like our students to be more involved, more aware of, and positive towards their education and we believe that using mobile devices. would definitely help us achieve this goal. Furthermore, using mobile devices is essential to enhance students’ soft skills, such as cooperative and team attitudes, highly valuable in the actual job world. All of our schools are eager to push our students towards these skills and our cooperation will be based on sharing our respective best practices in using technology devices in education: some of us may be more advanced in this regard than others and this is a good reason for our schools to cooperate and help each other along this path OBJECTIVES We agreed upon a set of objectives for our teachers and our students. Teachers: - enhance competencies on Google tools and apps - promote and implement an educational approach and use of mobile devices - become acquainted with digital tools - implement technology-aided teaching methods - increase proactive and creative teaching - empower foreign language skills (mainly English, which will be the official language of this project) - enhance communication and teamwork abilities - create a cooperative network to share proficiencies - foster knowledge and self-confidence Learners: - gain enhanced proficiencies about technology and education - get more motivated about learning - empower foreign language skills (mainly English, which will be the official language of this project) - enhance communication and teamwork abilities - create a cooperative network to share proficiencies - enhance competencies on Google tools and apps - get students in touch with their foreign peers to share common interests - improve education results - foster knowledge and self-confidence ACTIVITIES We will organize five LTTAs involving students and teachers: C1 – Dec’19 – staff meeting in TR C2 – Feb’20 – LTTA in RO C3 – May’20 – LTTA in IT C4 – Nov’20 – LTTA in MK C5 – Feb’21 – LTTA in PT Through these activities our school will get acquainted technology competencies and good practices to enhance the “21st century” skills of our students and make them more competent and aware citizens. As a result, their employability in the job market will be enhanced too PARTICIPANTS We will involve students aged 15-17, both male and female, as part of the target student group. They are going to be the real core of our activities: - students will be asked to answer an initial and a final questionnaire to evaluate the level of the engagement and improvement, and measure the impact of the activities done during the whole project - prior to each mobility, students will be involved in the preparatory activities led by their teachers - at least 24 students from each school will join the LTTAs and demonstrate the activities done in their schools - students will be involved in dissemination activities in their local community and through social media The involved teachers will mainly be from STEM and English teaching areas; in case of special activities, further specialized teachers could be attending too and their role will consist of: - preparation of the activities for LTTAs - definition of tools and lessons to be shared during LTTAs - dissemination of the project results through colleagues, local community, social media, and the Internet IMPACT Teachers and students will learn how to use mobile apps and tools in the teaching / learning process. This will impact the whole school since participants will be more committed and skilled in using digital tools. Classes will be more interactive and students more motivated and involved in their own educational processes. In the long term, we will foster students’ further educational achievements, preparing them for greater employability and more success in higher levels of education RESULTS As tangible results, we will produce presentations, collections of activities / ideas, feedback on the activities, the “DIGI-tales” magazine, evaluation documents, and certificates of attendance. However, we expect further intangible results, such as fostering intercultural understanding, reducing potential stereotypes, and reinforcing international cooperation among different cultures. Lessons and classes will be more attractive and students more familiar with “21st Century” skills
CONTEXT The five partner schools strongly engaged in supporting students so they could develop and enhance their “21st century” technological and critical thinking skills, teamwork abilities, proactive attitude, as well as a sense of initiative, and international awareness. As teachers, we intended our students to be more involved, more aware of, and positive towards their education, believing that using mobile devices would definitely help us achieve this goal, bridging school with reality. In fact, using mobile devices has become essential to enhance students’ soft skills, such as cooperative and team-building learning and teaching environments, highly valued in the current job market as well as in other social contexts. All of the partner schools have already used these devices in educational contexts, at different levels, and so this cooperation was intended to push our students’ abilities further by sharing best practices in using technology devices in education. Therefore we agreed upon a set of objectives for our teachers and our students, alike. For the teachers we hoped to: -enhance expertise on Google tools and apps by promoting and implementing an educational approach through the use of mobile devices, which would increase proactive and creative teaching; -become acquainted with digital tools, oriented to be implemented in a technology-aided teaching method perspective; -empower foreign language skills (mainly English, as the official language of this project), through intensive and enhanced communication in teamwork contexts; -create a cooperative network to share proficiencies and foster knowledge and self-confidence. As to the learners, we planned activities so as to: -boost their motivation about learning by enhancing their proficiencies in technological education, in particular enhancing competencies in Google tools and apps; -improve their foreign language skills (mainly English, as the official language of this project), promoting their ability to communicate and cooperate in team networking activities; -get students in touch with their foreign peers to share common interests; -improve education results and foster knowledge and self-confidence. ACTIVITIES The plan was to organize and implement four learning and teaching activities, involving students and teachers throughout the project lifespan and a joint staff meeting which would meet our initial purposes: get acquainted with digital tools and develop digital skills and share good practices in that area, which would contribute to enhance the “21st century” skills of both participant students and teachers making them better prepared and more included citizens. PARTICIPANTS Participant students’ age ranged between 15-17 years old. They were the target of the core activities. Initially we surveyed their digital motivations and experience by questionnaire to evaluate their level of engagement and improvement, and, through a final questionnaire, measured the impact of the activities done during the whole project. Prior to each mobility, students were involved in preparatory activities to be presented during each mobility, where a group of 24 youngsters would then present the result of their work with the European group. They would also be involved in dissemination activities in their local community and through social média with the creation and feeding of the projects’ dissemination tools. The involved teachers were mainly from STEM and English teaching areas; in case of special activities, further specialised teachers also attended; their role consisted of preparing the activities for LTTAs, helping students’ defining tools and supervising the activities to be shared during LTTAs. They were also responsible for the dissemination of the project results through colleagues, local community, social media, and on other sites. IMPACT Teachers and students were immersed into an enriching learning environment by exploring a great battery of webtools and Google apps and using mobile apps and tools in the teaching / learning process, leaving the knowledge and skill seeds planted as useful classroom or self-study resources. The project impacted schools as it added up to some digital transition plans taking place in some schools, as well as allowed to identify some network and technological fragilities in others. Still, this was an opportunity for teachers and school organisations to assess the level of development required to implement learning and teaching activities supported by technology digital tools. Globally, we can say that for participant students it had an impact in the capacity of exploring autonomously resources available and of solving problems in teams. The learning experiences with these tools and resources proved to be engaging and motivating in their own educational processes. In the long term, this experience will certainly foster students’ further educational achievements, preparing them for greater employability and more success in higher levels of education as creative, collaborative content makers. RESULTS As tangible results, there were presentations, collections of activities / ideas to make lessons and classes more attractive and students and teachers more familiar with “21st Century” skills, feedback on the activities, the project website, giving a clear objective perspective of the work done, evaluation documents, and certificates of attendance. However, we also achieved further intangible results, such as fostering intercultural understanding, reducing potential stereotypes, and reinforcing international cooperation among different cultures.