The world is going more and more in the direction of digitalisation and remote solutions, both in the educational and professional fields. This is even more crucial for schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, because virtual dimension is the necessary and unique suitable condition to carry out educational activities both to face schools’ closure and avoid health risks. According to the “European data portal”, at the peak of the crisis, almost 1.6 billion children in 195 countries worldwide could not use their classrooms and schools had to reduce their classes or close entirely. However, even though the closing of schools did not stop education and alternative solutions arised to face the sudden shift to an online environment, teachers and schools are still unprepared to use the distance learning and digital tools as main educational channels. In fact, COVID-19 pandemic put to the test both the schools across Europe which have not a proper and flexible digital environment in terms of technological infrastructure, and also teachers not just in terms of digital skills, but also in terms of educational methodologies and approaches to be used online and through a video screen. As reported by euobserver.com, “the commissioner Gabriel, warned that ‘not all teachers in the EU have the skills to deliver e-learning, [while] many schools in disadvantaged areas do not have the necessary infrastructure to allow children to succeed in digital education’. According to the director for education and skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Andreas Schleicher, the Coronavirus also brings an unique opportunity for new models of education, despite the many inequalities that the crisis reveals. ‘We can collaborate internationally to mutualise open online educational resources and digital learning platforms and encourage technology companies to join this effort and we can use the momentum to reshape curricula and learning environments to the needs of the 21st century’, he said”. In this complex scenario, MY Smart School wants to support teachers of both primary and secondary schools to keep up with the need of reshaping traditional curricula and learning environments towards Distance Learning, providing them with e-Courses on how to approach teaching and communication through online video sessions, plus other flexible and concrete digital solutions based on the students’ age, with the final aim to solve the main issues and limits they experienced during the lockdown. In particular, the main target users and beneficiaries of the project are: -primary and secondary school teachers; -students aged 06-18, from primary and secondary schools. To reach such ambitious objective, MY Smart School project partners decided to set up a balanced and experienced consortium made of tech companies specialised in Distance Learning and schools of different grades (primary school, lower and upper secondary schools) from different countries, for the development of the following practical Intellectual Outputs: -IO1 My Smart School e-courses for teachers - how to approach teaching and communication through online video sessions. -IO2 MY Smart School e-platform for teachers and students. -IO3 Teachers’ Diaries and Recommendations. Moreover, a blended training session will be organised to provide teachers with more insights concerning educational methodologies and suggestions, as well as Multipliers Events in all the countries involved, aimed to transfer the methodology, resources and best practices to all the potential beneficiaries, including policy makers and public institutions. The MAIN RESULT of the project is undoubtedly related to the development of innovative resources and digital tools which will contribute in the medium-long run to avoid/decrease the loss of educational opportunities and to effectively face a potential extension of school closure and - as a consequence - the adoption of Distance Learning. This will be possible thanks to: → a new model of education for primary and secondary school teachers based on open online educational resources and a digital learning platform; → tailored and flexible digital tools and assessment instruments to be exploited by teachers of primary and secondary schools during their online classes in the short and long term; → a set of recommendations defined and validated by primary and secondary teachers to be practically used during online classes also after the project lifetime; → the MY Smart School e-platform and tools maintained also after the project ends.
My Smart School aimed to support primary and secondary school teachers in reshaping traditional curricula and learning environments toward distance education. Specific objectives include: 1)Train teachers on how to properly approach students through the video screen and how to reshape lesson plans (IO1 e-courses for teachers) 2)Adopt a single online and mobile friendly system with different features and graphical tools for distance learning (IO2 e-platform) 3)Strengthen teachers' digital literacy through their hands-on involvement in using online tools and creating distance learning methodologies (all IOs) 4)Give teachers the opportunity to share their experiences and best practices with a view co-creating value (IO3 Teachers' Diaries and Recommendations) also for others facing remote education. To achieve these ambitious goals, a balanced and experienced consortium of tech companies, educational institutions, and schools of different grades was created. In addition, MYSS methodology and infrastructure were designed to be valid, effective, and useful transnationally, as they can be adapted in different countries, school environments, education levels, and training curricula, regardless of school education legislation.
MYSS was conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic under the call "Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness", put in place to accelerate the transition to distance education, absolutely necessary at that time. The project was thus designed to harness the potential of digital technologies for both teaching and learning. As we know, with the arrival of the pandemic crisis, the virtual dimension became a necessary condition for conducting educational activities. However, most teachers and schools found themselves unprepared for the transition to distance education or the use of digital tools as the main educational channels. In fact, not all schools had adequate technological infrastructure, and many teachers lacked the digital skills, methodologies, and teaching approaches to use during video lessons. MYSS wanted to support teachers of all grades in the transition to Distance Learning, providing them with e-courses on how to approach teaching and communication, developing flexible digital solutions tailored to the age of the students, and equipping them with teaching methodologies tested and proven by their peers, with the final aim of facilitating remote education, improving digital skills, and reshaping traditional curricula.