“Teaching and Learning Arduinos in Vocational Training” Technology is developing very rapidly day by day. It is a fact that technological developments force a human to develop himself / herself continuously in his/her profession. More than any other field, electronic and information and communication technology are developing more rapidly. These developments have led to the production of more complex control systems. Arduinos are now used to control these complex systems. Since we are educational institutions that teach technology, we have to follow the developments in the world. “Teaching and Learning Arduinos in Vocational Training” Project aims to adapt arduino applications to vocational training and to develop a more efficient training set and a guidebook for the laboratories and the workshops of vocational & technical education students. The main objective of this project is to develop a good practice guide book and a Arduino training set, to introduce arduino training models to other participants during their visits to the host country, to compare different educational systems and training methods with other participating schools and to share best practices. Participants of the projects; electrical, electronic, ICT, automation VET teachers. Participants are teaching arduino in VET schools. There are one coordinator and a total of 4 partners in the project and partners are vocational schools from Turkey, Italy, Romania, Austria, Greece. The total number of mobilities in the project is 40. A total number of 5 TPMs will be realized throughout the project and each partner will participate in each TPM with 2 participants. One TPM will be held in each country. With the project activities, it will be ensured that the best practices will be shared for arduino teaching and the partners will adapt them to their educational environments. The project partners will produce Arduino experimental kits and a best practice Guidebook. Our project activities aim to provide a successful learning and teaching environment for all VET teachers and students. As a condition of successful learning, teachers need to strengthen their role in facilitating learning. Teachers need new experimental kits and modules for innovation, teamwork, feedback and evaluation. Teachers should be given this opportunity for continuing professional development. Main outputs of the project are; an Arduino Training Set for arduino lessons in vocational education and a GuideBook for this set, a project website, a project DVD. The methodology to be used in the execution of the project is “Make-Develop-Share”. In our project, good practices will be made first, then developed, and finally shared. Everything is open and transparent in our Project. Each task and responsibility will be recorded or written in the project. The products of the project are not only written or documentary products, but also a practical Arduino training set and kits. In the long term, we aim to disseminate the project to teachers, students and vocational education schools, local educational institutions, electronic and ICT labor market. We believe that the results and products of our projects will have short and long-term impacts on vocational education and labor market by the dissemination activities. The total budget of the project with 5 partners is 59,000 Euros.
As we implemented our project, Our concrete objectives for this partnership were emphasized as below. We wanted to achieve these concrete objectives. -We produced/developed a general methodology for learning and teaching Arduinos. -We got information about the use of arduinos in Vocational education. -We learnt about the Arduinos' language and different types of equipment which were used in education, -We found out about the arduinos applications used in industry. -We visited the local companies which were very important in the field of electronics in the international meetings. -We developed teachers' and students’ professional skills and job vision, -We compared the various educational systems and training methods of the participating schools and exchanged best practices. -We introduced the arduinos and models of each partner, prepared to the other participants during the visit in each host country. -We provided the sense of qualified manpower to both teachers and students. -We increased awareness of the importance of arduinos throughout the Europe. -We improved the quality of teaching and learning on arduinos lessons. -We promoted intercultural awareness and reinforced European values, (prejudices, xenophobia, differences).
Our project was based on the improvement of electronics´ training. “Electronics'' was considered especially in regards of the design and engineering and because of the fundamental changes in the production of industrial technology and, therefore, vocational education it had. Electronics, especially arduinos, were essential for technology as digital devices and robotics are widely used in all fields. By means of our project, we intended to address the needs and issues, described below: -There was a deficiency of equipment in arduinos applications such as development kits and not enough application to the VET curriculum. -We tried to solve the complicity of the existing development kits. -We solved the problems that both students and teachers encountered during the application of arduinos in VET schools. -We set up cooperation with institutions and partners from /across Europe. -We addressed the need of further qualification in electronics to fulfill companies´ needs of staff.