One of the essential goals of VET education is to develop practical knowledge and skills that would lead to faster adaptation to real-time work and better competitiveness of students in the labor market. Accordingly, we believe it is crucial in schools to develop online learning as an innovative approach to teaching and learning, but it is equally important for students to develop critical thinking, teamwork and a competitive spirit. We have integrated all these important aspects of education in the project. The primary motive for the realization of this project is the increasing need to develop the knowledge and skills for the design, implementation and programming of smart devices. The concept of connecting such "smart devices" to the Internet, called the Internet of Things, is an integral part of almost every area of life, from household, through property and environmental protection, to industry and agriculture. Through project activities, teachers will expand their knowledge and competencies in the field of application of microcontrollers and implement them in teaching and extracurricular activities. This will modernize the classroom by following current trends and increase students' motivation by introducing them in an interesting way into the world of new technologies. One of the main activities of the project is an online course for teachers and students on the use of microcontrollers to create "smart devices", which has so far not been adequately represented in regular teaching content. The specificity and innovativeness of this course is that the students will gain, in addition to knowledge in the field of microcontroller programming, the ability to exchange ideas that will encourage their proactive thinking. In addition to the online course, learning materials with the same theme will be created. All teachers who will participate in the development of the course and materials will receive training in the practical implementation of "smart" devices and improve their knowledge in this field. In order to increase interest in the field of application of "smart devices", a competition will be held where students will present their innovative solutions. This will be a skills competition that will increase the interest of students of all ages in programming microcontrollers and connecting "smart devices" to the Internet of Things. In addition to working on their products, students will also learn how to present and market their innovations. This project will be implemented by four schools from three countries, Serbia, Slovenia and Macedonia, and each of the mentioned schools will make an adequate contribution to the project, by improving the implementation of the project in their school environments, the implementation of teaching and extracurricular activities. Multiplier events organized in each country will promote both project results, innovative student solutions and the development of partnerships between participating countries through Erasmus plus projects.
The main goal of the project is to increase students' competencies in the field of using microcontrollers and train them to find solutions for their practical application. We reached the goal by training teachers and students in the practical application of "smart devices", creating educational materials and an online course (which has interactive content in addition to the educational side and which allows students to share ideas with each other while attending the course) and a competition where students received the opportunity to express their creativity and innovation, from the presentation of the idea to the realization of the final product. During the project, students also developed their entrepreneurial skills: research, idea development, activity planning, time management and product presentation skills. Through project activities, teachers expanded their knowledge and competences in the field of microcontroller application and received educational materials that they can implement in teaching and extracurricular activities. In this way, we modernized teaching by following current trends and increased student motivation by introducing them to the new world of technology in an interesting way.
The primary motive for the realization of this project is the growing need for the development of knowledge for design, implementation and smart devices programming skills. In order to automate business processes, but also to improve living conditions, "smart devices" have become a part of our everyday life. They are based on a microcontroller that can respond to certain requests, making them "smart". The concept of connecting such "smart devices" to the Internet, called the Internet of Things (IoT), is an integral part of almost every area of life. One of the goals of professional education is the development of practical knowledge and skills, which leads to faster adaptation to work on real projects in companies. The intensive development of this field in the last few years has not been adequately followed by the teaching content, and this has opened up the possibility to compensate for this deficiency through teaching activities. The introduction of new content, lecture concepts and laboratory exercises with practical examples and interactive instructions with emphasis on professional practice and project teaching are part of the school's strategy for improving educational work and the school's development plan.