The VIRTUAL PATHWAYS project aims to demonstrate a way for school communities to continue having access (during the current pandemic) to services and learning resources of science museums and science centres through the demonstration of a new method of interaction between the visitor and the exhibition. Digital technologies can facilitate this new form of collaboration – between schools and science centres and museums. The impact of informal learning settings in students learning and their overall contribution to formal education has been demonstrated in numerous studies and in the literature. Students field trips are part of the educational programme of all schools across Europe. Many exhibitions of the science centres are being developed with the school curriculum as a reference. This very powerful interaction has been hit by the COVID-19 crisis. The proposed project will provide the opportunity for schools and museums to work together, through small, experimental projects, to apply digital technologies to a selected area of activities (from the first scientific revolution in 1600 till the current Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, the natural history of Europe, climate change) in an innovative way. The project will demonstrate and support the development of solutions that enhance the digital presence of the museums in students learning, experiment with online field trips enriched with 3D digitization and AR/VR applications for the students, tap in the creative potential of technology to offer transformative experiences for schools. The project will also propose and test a new model for cooperation between schools and museums that could be also useful for post-crisis times. The project approach is based on the Open Schooling concept, that promotes the collaboration of schools with non-formal and informal education providers, enterprises and civil society enhanced to ensure relevant and meaningful engagement of all societal actors with science and increase the uptake of science studies and science-based careers, employability and competitiveness. Individual schools are working with science centres and museums, industries, research institutes, universities in an innovative collaboration towards the introduction of open schooling approaches through a bottom-up approach. By building on the best of current practice, such an approach aims to take us beyond the constraints of present structures of schooling toward a shared vision of excellence. Such an innovation programme holds great potential. If we want a powerful and innovative and open culture in schools that is self-sustaining, we have to empower system-aware practitioners to create it, whilst avoiding simply creating interesting but isolated pockets of experimentation. Such a partnership fosters expertise, networking, sharing and applying science and technology research findings and that bringing real-life projects to the classroom, supporting the development of 21st-century competencies (creative problem solving, learning by doing, experiential learning, critical thinking and creativity) including projects and activities that simulate the real scientific work. Bringing together expertise from innovative interventions in schools and informal (science centres and museums) learning settings and, along with a large school community across Europe the proposed consortium possesses a well-balanced set of competencies and expertise and is capable of delivering the aforementioned results in a timely and high-quality manner.
Bridging the gap between formal education and informal learning via teacher education is one of the main tools to offer schools new tools. VIRTUAL PATHWAYS wanted to achieve more "cost-effective" educational use of these exhibition and digital materials. First of all, the teachers themselves have to know the topic they are teaching. Only after this they can teach it to the students. Pre-Material >< Excursion+Visit >< Post-Material - model is the pedagogical solution to achieve best cognitive and motivational results. This approach based on earlier evidence-based results and practices gave a firm platform to be applied and implemented by Virtual Pathways -project. Further development of the usability of the existing ict-solutions combining on-line and on-location learning was a challenge to be achieved by implementing combining the EU-level cooperation and forming the network of six experienced institutes. Finding the balance between on-line and on-location activities was the main goal of VIRTUAL PATHAYS during the COVID-period to be implemented in practice. Seeing to the future - preparing the post-COVID era - was the vision of the Virtual Pathways.
The background of this VIRTUAL PATHWAYS project was exceptional. It started as a “First Aid Teaching Kit against Covid” to offer opportunities for teachers to utilize informal learning sources for formal school education by remote teaching methods. Also the funding process was exceptional: EU-Erasmus+ created an extra-call to react rapidly to the damage, which Pandemic was causing for the educational system and society. Teaching and learning experienced a rapid change in spring 2020. New digital contents and pedagogical methods were urgently needed. Thus, the main motivation of the VIRTUAL PATHWAYS was to further develop and offer pragmatic educational opportunities for teachers, students and pupils during the COVID-pandemic. Schools needed clear pedagogical solutions and materials in lock-down situation with easy open-access and clear links to curricula. Science centres, museums and other informal learning institutes could offer a huge amount of reliable contents and tested materials for educational purposes from kindergarden to academic level It seems that this VIRTUAL PATHWAYS tradition will continue and find new variants still vividly —such as the virus itself—and has changed the educational processes permanently.