CONTEXT The outbreak of Covid-19 had immense consequences for education. The closure of schools forced teachers to rethink their approaches to education and how to adapt pedagogy to remote contexts. Not only did they need technology to contribute to effective student learning, teachers also needed additional knowledge and skills for digital pedagogy. In many cases, the digital skills of both students and teachers turned out to be insufficient. OBJECTIVES In this project we want to: Exchange good practices and new approaches to remote and blended learning Investigate how solutions and practices from different countries work in different (national) educational settings Investigate the blended learning approaches which work best in different contexts; for example in upper primary and lower secondary schools Investigate how positive results of distance learning can be maintained and shared Investigate how the characteristics of good teaching in the classroom are paralleled online in a remote or blended context Investigate what digital and pedagogical skills are needed for teachers Develop training for digital skills and pedagogical approaches for blended learning Connect teachers and schools to exchange ideas and work together on these ideas Practice online teaching and communication between the participating schools and organisations Use case studies and action research outcomes in the participating countries to improve our (digital and blended) education Apply learning from academic research and experiences of distance learning in Higher education PARTICIPANTS Across the 5 countries involved, over 18 teachers (including ICT coordinators), 8 headteachers and 12 educators will be directly involved in the project. Beyond that, 100+ teachers will participate in the action research case study activities that will be disseminated to more than 10,000 school teachers and ICT educators and 60,000 students. ACTIVITIES 3 transnational project meetings 5 blended learning teaching and training activities will take place in partner countries 5 action research case studies The project will culminate in a final training and dissemination event to ensure that learning from the project is integrated into local practice and outcomes from the project are embedded into each region's professional development programme for local schools. METHODOLOGY The transnational nature of our consortium is a core to our methodology. It enables us to apply methods and lessons developed in other countries’ contexts and to learn from best practice outside of our immediate environments. Project methodology will include: Action research projects Case studies Teacher professional development events RESULTS The project will result in establishing clear evaluated and documented knowledge, approaches and pedagogies for remote and blended learning. Results will include an eTwinning page with shared resources, materials and lesson plans, and a website for dissemination at a local, regional, national and international level. Also teachers competences will be increased as a result of the training activities. IMPACT This project impacts the digital pedagogy and skills of teachers and therefore the way students learn by using digital technologies in the classroom and online. This results into a new approach to education, on a global level, in which blended learning is integrated. As the teachers in the participating countries get to know each other face to face and online, they will keep in contact also after the project, using eTwinning.
Our objectives: Exchange good practices and new approaches to remote and blended learning and investigate how positive results of distance and online learning can be maintained and shared Investigate how solutions from different countries work in different (national) educational settings, connecting teachers and organisations to practise online teaching, use of tools and communication Investigate the blended learning approaches which work best in different contexts; for example in upper primary and lower secondary schools; in specific subjects; learning outside the clasroom Investigate how the characteristics of good teaching in the classroom are paralleled online in a remote or blended context Investigate what digital and pedagogical skills are needed for teachers, and develop training for digital skills and pedagogical approaches to support blended learning Apply learning from academic research and experiences of distance learning in Higher education Use case studies and action research outcomes in the participating countries to improve our (digital and blended) education
The outbreak of Covid-19 has had and continues to have immense consequences for education. The closure of schools forced teachers to rethink their approaches to education and how to adapt pedagogy to remote contexts. Not only did they need technology to contribute to effective student learning, teachers also needed additional knowledge and skills for digital pedagogy. In many cases, the digital skills of both students and teachers turned out to be insufficient; in some cases a thirst and demand for further exploration in practice of the affordances of blended learning for all learners potentially at any time has arisen. Although the immediate impact of Covid has arguably receded, the partners felt sure that the benefits of blended learning are not simply for the time of lockdowns and home learning but with the development of appropriate pedagogy and teacher skills have much wider application for beneficial student outcomes. It is this approach that this project has set out to explore at practitioner level in a structured way to support progressive development of skills and using a basic research methodology, explore and exchange through collaboration across 5 different regions in Europe what works well in practice in each context.