An open school develops students’ competences Erasmus Project

Project Title

An open school develops students’ competences

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Open and distance learning; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

We met the partner school in previous Erasmus + K1 projects, after which our cooperation continued informally. In this project, we wanted for our students to get international experience in acquiring new skills and developing competences in open classrooms. As main object we set development of students’ digital competences. We have achieved that during the students’ exchange, when they made a presentation film, which presented both schools, both cities and both countries. Students have used digital devices to create new content, find information, store, engage and communicate in the digital world. They edited and published content during the activities, critically evaluated the information and the material. They have considered copyrights in using music for the film and have been aware of identity protection and recording permissions. They were constantly facing technical problems and searched for better solutions. The teachers involved in preparation and managing the activities, were developing their own digital skills in using digital technologies in education.
During students’ preparation for the exchange, and during the exchange and after, they learned about the both countries’ culture, the national symbols, the school systems and even daily way of life. They learned about countries and their school systems during the prepared presentations and specially prepared thematic lessons. An important finding for young people was that they are all listening the same music, they are dressed the same, they speak the same slang. From here, they realized that we are all part of the same, global entity. On the other hand, they were pleased to learn about cultural differences and their particularities. During the exchange, we organized tours of different cultural and natural sights, which made all of us cross-cultural enriched. Communication in English was well done, students had a great deal of background, and there were many opportunities for conversion and using language in real-world environment during the project. Students, teachers and leadership, had opportunities to upgrade their English skills. Some also made some life-long friendships.
We included 7 students from each school in the exchange programme. We selected them through a video contest. In home schools we included in the activities also those students, that weren’t selected in the competition. Wherever possible, we included the whole class. With accompanying activities, such as hanging the flags, arranging a corner with the representative materials of a partner country, publishing the events on the social networks of the schools, we wanted to influence the whole school and the local community. The students were posting on their blog, which replaced website we first planned. We found the blog easier to manage and publish online. We mostly used the email and video conferencing tool to communicate, and we used the Twinspace platform for shared documents and student presentations. During the mobility alone, we used social network groups for communication between parents, students and the project team.
We included external experts and institutions in the learning activities during mobility. The local television in Maribor helped us to know how to record, edit and publish video articles. Students used this knowledge later when they were broadcasted live on local TV in Stockholm. In addition, they used the knowledge to create and edit their own presentation video for the project. Fab-Lab’s experts have helped us to gain knowledge about using computers to control machines. In Fab-Lab we worked using laser cutter. Some external experts were involved in phases of planning and preparing. They helped with software tips, gave us ideas about storage and sharing, alerted us to potential issues, etc. We included them in the final evaluation and planning of permanent cooperation.
The project teams of both schools were involved in all phases of the project and mobility. They attended an introductory meeting and a closing meeting. They developed competences for project management, event organization, media involvement and other ways of promoting the project. During the visits we carried out job shadowing at the workplace and we were watching lessons of our foreign colleagues. We also had the opportunity of intercultural exchange and making friendships. At the final meeting, we organized a final evaluation for all participants in the project, we also include students at some point. We prepared a press conference and publicly promoted the project and its results. The two schools formally signed the School Partnership Act. We already use the knowledge and experience gained in this project in the form of collaboration and exchange of good practices in the next project. We are planning further promotion of the results of this project as contributions at international and national conferences in both countries.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 23622 Eur

Project Coordinator

Osnovna sola Draga Kobala Maribor & Country: SI

Project Partners

• Engelska skolan i Upplands Väsby