Learning Bubbles Erasmus Project

Project Title

Learning Bubbles

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Pedagogy and didactics; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

LEARNING BUBBLES is a strategic project for innovation lasting 24 months. The consortium of partner organizations includes REPLAY NETWORK (IT), PISTES SOLIDAIRES (FR) which are non-formal education organizations dealing with young people and adults, SOCIAL FARMS AND GARDENS (UK) the British network of community gardens, secondary schools ISS PIAGET -DIAZ (IT), INSTITUT JEAN ECCART (FR) and BROCKHILL PARK PERFORMING ART COLLEGE (UK) and the UC LEUVEN-LIMBURG (BE) university with its department of Psychology and Educational Sciences.
The Covid-19 crisis made it necessary for teachers from all over Europe to acquire IT tools and methodologies in the shortest possible time and according to the health emergency, which they often had to put into practice without being able to access the temple of formal education, the school. For students, on the other hand, new conditions of difficulty in accessing the educational offer have arisen, which in some cases risk even causing their exclusion from the right to education. However, this impressive step forward in the integrated use of technology in teaching has highlighted two very relevant aspects:
• the inability in many cases of families to be able to provide quality and individual technological equipment to (all) their children, as well as to be able to adapt their working time structure to support them
• the significant commitment of other civil society actors, who enter the life of young people on a daily basis, in assisting the school and its teachers in providing individualized educational support to those most in difficulty. A difficulty that is often neither visible nor certifiable, because it is determined by the changing conditions and contained at home
Learning Bubbles is an intervention project to support the secondary school and its most vulnerable students, which aims to respond in an innovative way to the needs that emerged during the pandemic, but considering it only one of the risk factors to be taken into account and to be addressed by bringing back the student at the center of an Educating Community that varies spaces, actors, approaches and timelines to guarantee access to quality education.
It is proposed to:
• develop and test a methodological system aimed at re-establishing the conditions of equity in students’ access to teaching, with a cooperative pedagogical approach between different educational actors and involving complementary and outdoor learning spaces such as urban community gardens
• develop an innovative ecosystem that facilitates the co-planning and co-creation of educational paths between schools and non-formal education organizations for more effective and efficient use of digital content, tools, and services specially adapted for personalized learning
• continue to provide a training offer generally aimed at everyone, but able, even in a blended learning mode, to support single pupils in difficulty or with special needs
The learning context from the students’ point of view is the intersection of formal and informal spaces, a dynamic hybrid learning environment in which synchronous activities meet in both virtual and face-to-face dimensions. Individual spaces to access distance learning activities offered by the school to groups of students, having an adequate educational support on-site, while being immersed in the green environment of urban community gardens. These are places of proximity, naturally dedicated to socialization, participation and growth of individuals and where students can experiment, deepen and expand the contents proposed by teachers, making creative use of the digital applications supplied through the Learning Bubbles, searching for their own way of learning and strengthening their key competences.
3 intellectual products to be made in 2 years:
• I.O.1 – an operational guide that outlines the pedagogical framework of the intervention, also making available a training format for the actors involved in its implementation, tested by teachers, educators and gardenisers during the international training (C1)
• I.O.2 – a toolkit that will develop operational and immediately usable tools for communication and synergy at multiple levels in favour of students at risk of exclusion
• I.O.3 – will feed a research-action path on 3 countries where the pilot projects will be carried out, from which to elaborate and analyse the impact that this intervention has on the inner readiness of students and teachers
An experimentation of collaboration between very different worlds: school, community urban gardens and the digital world. A proposal that seeks to combine the beauty of the natural environment, technological innovation and tradition to promote the well-being of its local communities.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 281386 Eur

Project Coordinator

REPLAY Network aps & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Brockhill Park Performing Arts College
• Social Farms & Gardens
• Institut Jean Errecart
• PISTES SOLIDAIRES
• IISS Piaget Diaz Viale Nobiliore
• UC LEUVEN
• Gloverspiece School