AN EXAMPLE: THE CONTEXT THROUGH A NARRATIVE STORY Meet Judit. She is a math teacher in a little town’s primary school. About half of her 8-grade students are economically/socially disadvantaged, who spend the afternoon at the close by daycare center (or Tanoda in HU). The rest of them are coming from families where parents have little time and/or knowledge to assist their homework. Judit is making efforts to help her students to get into the best possible high schools. To do so, she needs them to complete different homework tasks, but their homework performance does not meet her expectations. She thinks her students get little after-school assistance from their parents, and she feels like a lone fighter. In her opinion, communication and cooperation between her school and the parental community are sporadic and ineffective. Tamás is running an after school daycare center in the same town. He regularly hosts some of Judit’s students, along with many other disadvantaged kids. Tamás does his best to assist their homework, but he finds it extremely difficult to follow all the different homework assignments, and even more difficult to motivate the kids, who can barely wait to play online games on the tablets the “tanoda” acquired for educational purposes. He has little time to communicate with school teachers, and he often feels left alone with the problems. Niki is a single mother with two kids, one of them Judit’s best performing student. She would like to assist her daughter to get into a good high-school, but she has little time and limited knowledge. She cannot afford to pay for extra classes, and she feels abandoned. We think we found a solution to their problems. ABOUT THE PROJECT AND OUR SOLUTIONS The partners submitting the present proposal have been working on several projects using mobile devices and diverse applications to assist the learning processes of disadvantaged children. Solutions using edu-games, or gamified framework-stories to assist the learning process proved to be useful. In some situations – namely in after-school sessions organized specifically for disadvantaged children - promising a “free play session” to children after they finish the learning program proved to be an even more powerful motivation. However, controlling manually 12-20 devices in an after-school classroom is always a very demanding job for the staff, especially that they have to control the contents of the “free sessions” as well to prevent unwanted or harmful games/contents. The use of specific controlling applications can ease the job, but none of the applications are automatically linked to any learning performance of the students. Therefore we are working with very special OBJECTIVES and METHODS: 1. We will develop a digitally supported methodology based on cooperation between teachers and parents/caretakers in order to assist the pupils/students learning efforts. 2. Moreover, in the course of the project, we will develop an innovative methodology relying on a special ICT support system, that: • Enables parents/caretakers to use the desire for on-line playtime as a motivation tool for assisting the performance of students/pupils; • Creates the frame of cooperation between schools and parental communities, or more exactly school teachers and parents/caretakers to effectively cooperate on a weekly/daily basis in order to assist the pupils’ out-of-class learning processes; • Puts into practice the principles of differentiated instruction by using adaptive learning paths that allow every student to get through the material in her/his own pace, arriving quickly to the most difficult levels of the material, or spending more time with learning the basic. TARGET GROUPS AND NEEDS The target groups and their needs and numbers are detailed in the Participants section. Here, we would only like to mention them shortly: • Parents/caretakers with a lack of tools (and knowledge) to use the parental control of on-line activities. • Teachers who find that involvement of parents in the educational processes is often difficult, but it is essential. Also, who are willing to help students perform better. • Pupils/students who can perform better if they are offered personalized learning paths. • And institutions who are ready to cooperate. ATTRIBUTES (MOST IMPORTANT NUMBERS) To carry out such effects and innovation, the project will have and work with: - 5 outputs (from content development in LMS to pilot and documentaries), - 7 multiplier events, - 6 transnational meetings, - 3 involved countries (SK, HU, RO), - At least 90 pupils, from where 50% of them are underprivileged, - 9 teachers, 6-9 institutions. RESULTS AND IMPACTS There are a lot of systematic impacts in regards to this project. Just to name a few: an improved approach to teach with a higher achievement rate, countering ESL, pushing students towards primary graduation, etc. We believe that all of them are needed to keep our educational systems up-to-date.
1. Develop a digitally supported methodology based on collaboration between teachers and parents/guardians to support learning activities 2. Developing an innovative methodology based on a specific ICT support system that: - Enables parents/guardians to use the desire for online playtime as a motivational tool to help pupils' performance; - create a framework for schools and parent communities to work together effectively to support learning; - using gamification to increase learner motivation: frame games, reward and scoring - harnessing the motivation to use digital tools in education 3. the use of differentiated digital education based on adaptive learning pathways in catching up and preparing for exams/tests/recruitment Adaptive learning pathways based digital teaching methodology: learners follow (adaptive) individual learning pathways adapted by a software algorithm to their own individual needs, at their own pace and at their current level of knowledge 4. Developing mathematics and reading comprehension curricula to improve competences
Traditional education cannot provide a modern response to the rapidly changing and constantly evolving social and educational needs of the 21st century, and to the specificities of content consumption and learning of the younger generation. The results of PISA and other competency tests in all three countries participating in the project are a cause for concern. At the same time, the state of education raises a number of complex issues: equal opportunities; high drop-out rates; differentiation; student motivation; effective methods of competence development; the ability to apply knowledge in practice; effective support for the learning process, etc. The current project aims to contribute to the renewal of pedagogical culture through new teaching methods: the creation of an innovative digital environment and digital learning materials for adaptive teaching. The needs assessment revealed an intense demand for digital solutions such as the LTHP application, based on feedback from target groups, parents, teachers and heads of institutions. This demand has increased as a result of the COVID pandemic and digital education, with new challenges and needs for educational actors.